Education Equity

Echo Empowerment Institute supports Southern Echo in its belief that all children should receive a free, fully funded, quality, and equitable education. This goal has always proven to be challenge in Mississippi because of its long and violent history of racism and oppression. Many Mississippi systemic structures operate with the taint of exclusionism and prejudice, with the state’s education system receiving the brunt of the disregard. Specifically, the state’s failure to prioritize education has resulted in Mississippi’s public-school system being critically underfunded by millions of dollars. To make matters worse, few schools or districts within the state have truly embraced the mandates expressed in Brown v. Board of Education requiring the integration and equalization of all public schools, requiring the Department of Justice to still issue desegregation orders some fifty years later. The issues that plague Mississippi’s public education system are not limited funding and desegregation orders, but also include efforts to privatize public funds, state-run school takeovers, and racially based student pushout.

Recently, Southern Echo, along with its partners and allies in education and with support from the Echo Empowerment Institute, has begun training for community members and educators in the Science of Learning and around Social Emotional Learning curricula. The Echo Empowerment Institute supports Southern Echo and its allies’ work to disrupt these efforts and ensure that every child has access to a quality, fully funded public education.