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Newark Mother Explains How School Choice Saved Her Kids — and Why She’s Sharing Their Story With NJ Lawmakers

by Rasheedah Dollar
The 74 Million
December 13, 2015

Monday, parents from across New Jersey will be converging on the state capitol in Trenton. Our mission: To support our state legislators, regarding the future of our education system.

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Now that I am a parent, it is so hard to watch my own children addresses the exact same educational challenges I faced years ago. Unfortunately, very little has changed when in comes to the district education system in Newark and there is very little a parent can do about it. I remain committed to my city, the City of Newark, but the desire for greater hope and opportunity seems to be going unheard.

I am one of the lucky ones in Newark. I found hope and opportunity for my family eight years ago. I did it while folding laundry.

This may sound overly dramatic — but with clothes piled high on a Laundromat dryer, my eyes caught a poster that advertised Newark’s public charter schools and I learned that the city provided families, like mine, with meaningful choices when it comes public education. That day was the beginning of a much-needed generational shift for my family.

At that time I had a 13 year-old daughter in the Newark district schools who was having the same struggles I had to contend with years ago, and four much younger children all about to enter school as well. Charter schools were still somewhat new to Newark at the time and though I had heard of them, that poster inspired me to reach out and investigate. I learned that all charters in Newark are public schools, free of charge and available to everyone.

Even to this day, it is amazing to me to think as a single mom with five kids in Newark, this is how positive change can happen — by looking at a poster in a Laundromat at the right moment. I feel truly blessed.

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