Amidst the extraordinary challenges confronting the nation today, education is the key battleground and school board members are on the frontlines in the fight for our children—all our children, Princeton University scholar, educator, and author Eddie S. Glaude Jr. said Saturday.

In a presentation during NSBA 2021 that was equal parts political science seminar, philosophy tutorial, literature review, and inspirational ministry, Glaude said the charge before board members amounts to "fighting for democracy itself.” To succeed, he urged them to "break loose from the assumptions and history that over-determine your work on the school board."

NSBA's National Black Council of School Board Members sponsored Glaude as an Equity Signature Speaker.

Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton and the former president of the American Academy of Religion, Glaude has written extensively on religion, philosophy, and race in America. He turned to the subject of his most recent book, the New York Times Best Seller Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, during portions of his NSBA presentation.

"I believe we should do exactly what Baldwin demanded," said Glaude, referencing the seminal author and civil rights activist. "We have to say 'No' to a society that is predicated on the belief that some people, because of the color of the skin, are to be valued more than others. We have to say 'No' to a society that believes if you only make a certain kind of wage, (or) live in a certain kind of neighborhood, that you can only have access to a certain kind of education. We must say 'No' to that society, and we must say 'No' to the people who defend that society with everything we have."

Public schools have been for many "places where dreams have been left to fade," where students can't escape the poverty, poor housing, and social disorder of their communities, Glaude said. In these settings, children's "judgments and dispositions" about themselves and their futures are formed.

To counter that fate, we must invest ourselves in an education system that "commits and affords each child, no matter their zip code, no matter the color of their skin, no matter their gender or ability, each child the ability to escape from the limitations of their circumstance," he said.

"The solution to the education crisis in our nation begins with the resolute commitment to the idea that every child has a right to an excellent education—every child," Glaude said. More importantly, "every child is to be viewed, is to be understood as someone not only capable of learning but someone capable of thriving. Someone capable of brilliance. Someone capable of becoming whomever they aspire to be."