The NAACP is deploying volunteers across the U.S. in its biggest push for a public education overhaul since the nation’s classrooms were ordered desegregated in 1954. The volunteers, who have been trained for the past two years, will lobby at the state and county levels for four educational priorities:
- Extended school hours and years in school
- Improved teacher training
- Improved preschool programs
- Better targeting of spending to the neediest of students
Such changes for all children, not just minorities, are the only way to ensure an educated American workforce and a thriving economy, said NAACP president and CEO Ben Jealous. ”Maybe when this country was founded, you could get away with only educating a portion of your population and succeed in the world, but you can’t do that anymore,” he added.