School CEO Says Teachers Should Push ‘Social Justice’ On Students: REPORT

The CEO of a nonprofit charter school organization said educators want to work for institutions that focus on “social justice” and “changing the world” during an education panel at The Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles Monday, Fox News reported.

“[Teachers] are very, and rightfully so, upset with the status quo,” said Angella Martinez of KIPP SoCal Public Schools, Fox News reported. “They want to work for institutions that are about social justice, about what is right, about changing the world, about this collective action as a group of people together, that this is about propelling humanity forward as a team, that we’re all in this together, and they want to be inspired to do that.”

The panel, titled “Closing the Learning Gap: Investing in K-12 Solutions that Work” addressed the “tragic widening of the pre-pandemic achievement gap and a loss of grade-level skills, especially among students from underserved communities,” according to the Milken Institute website.

Martinez also said companies and agencies are looking for students with skills to solve problems such as climate change and the next pandemic, not just mathematics and early literacy, Fox News reported.

“We need to get our students prepared for that in addition to what does mathematics look like and what does early literacy look like,” she said.

“I feel like education is kind of like the fossil fuels of climate change,” Martinez added. “I was like, we need renewable energy to think about education in new and imaginative ways.”