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Opinion: Building Student Voice – A Third Way Approach

Published

9 years ago

May 9, 2017

By Charles Cole III, Contributor, Huffpost

The antiquated model of “lifting student voice” is children working to serve adults and we need to completely flip that.

What does real student voice look like? Like, for real student voice. I’m not talking about forcing kids to come attend a board meeting and making them stay up past their bedtime just to read from a card that an adult wrote for them with the promise of pizza. Let that baby go to bed, B! See, this version of student

I mean seriously, when is the last time we really met young people where they were and fully engaged them? Again, not talking about where we inject our political leanings on them – I’m looking at both the anti-reformer and reformer crowd. I mean we actually sit down, ask the questions, listen and then offer the support they are asking for.

What if we built capacity in students and then we just followed them? I’m talking about spending time in their classes, learning about how they get to school, better understanding what they like to do and we document it. The things that students need become evident quite quickly and we truly elevate their voices. Doesn’t that seem more authentic? Doesn’t that feel different than when we’ve already chosen the issue WE, the adults want them to focus on?

Currently, in my view, there are a lot of folks that consider student voice the act of giving students a script and parading them in front of a school board meeting or featuring them in front of a funder. To be fair, all sides of the educational political spectrum do this. There are also times when the reasoning may be valid – I get it. There are times when that has paid off for students. Just because I don’t particularly like it, doesn’t mean I don’t understand it.

Awareness in this instance means being honest with students and answering THEIR questions straight up. Just listen, give them the facts, and then listen some more. Take what you have heard and support that student’s navigation.

The antiquated model of “lifting student voice” is children working to serve adults and we need to completely flip that. A kid being paraded at a school board meeting = a kid working for adults. A kid being displayed front and center for a funder = a kid working for adults. An adult listening attentively both to what students say and what students shows us through their actions and then WE provide the appropriate supports = adults working for kids. Fix your equation.

We, as adult education leaders should be listening to what students need and then we work for them. Our job is to build the capacity of students and then pay attention. Where does the boat have holes? Do we need to plug those holes or just build a new boat? Right now, we are pushing kids out on a raft in the middle of shark-infested waters with no spear and they can’t swim.

I say this often, so stop me if you’ve heard this but I see social justice as an act. That act is threefold: (1) awareness, (2) navigation, and (3) duty. Awareness in this instance means being honest with students and answering THEIR questions straight up. Just listen, give them the facts, and then listen some more.

Take what you have heard and support that student’s navigation. Navigation is the building the ability in our students to make this broken system work for them. It’s not fair, I totally get that but I wanted to feel prepared for every situation so I believe we must pay that forward. Finally, we come to (3) duty. Now that you know better, you do better.

One example of what duty can look like in this case is a student that has learned how to review his own transcript now teaching his friends how to do the same. I’ve seen students that learned to read their transcript compared to other similar schools and demand more classes.

Let’s look at doing things differently in service of young people and we all can do that together. Let’s actually work for kids. We are all guilty of forced student voice at times. I am not exempt either.

However, if the way we’ve committed to helping students has no trace of their actual voices, then we are missing quite a few valuable opportunities. I don’t have all the answers. I am not perfect at this. This is the start of a conversation.

Add your voice, your thoughts, and your experience. I believe that if you’re reading this, then you and I are fighting the same battle, to better serve students. Use the comments section to add value to this work. I’ll start. Let’s grow together.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 13 – 19, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 13 – 19, 2026

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May 15, 2026

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Marin City Public Housing Residents Demand a Voice in County’s Renovation Plans

Representation has been a continuous struggle for the Residents Council, she said in an interview with the Post News Group. In 2014, the tenants took the county to federal court over this issue, and prevailed, resulting in an MOU that was in effect from 2014 to 2024, said McLemore. “Now, they are not responding to our rightful requests to participate. They are not giving us a legal justification for their position.”

Published

5 days ago

May 10, 2026

Oakland Post

The largest housing complex in Marin County, Golden Gate Village residents are for predominantly Black and low-income. Courtesy image.

Tenants say the County of Marin is ignoring federal law requiring resident council participation

By Ken Epstein

Marin City public housing residents say the County is illegally depriving them of their rights to participate in renovation decisions that affect the future of their housing, raising deep concerns over whether the county ultimately will find a way to displace them.

According to regulations established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Marin City public housing residents have the right to organize, elect resident councils, and hold public housing agencies accountable for involving them in management decisions.

Without resident participation, the Board of Housing Commissioners, made up of the five Marin County Board of Supervisors and two resident comissioners, has approved a $226 million project. The plan calls for renovation of the 296 units in Golden Gate Village (GGV) and focuses on interior improvements. The project is scheduled to start in July.

Residents’ concerns have a long history, said Royce McLemore, president of the Golden Gate Village Residents Council and a 50-year resident of Marin City,

With no current MOU mandating training and participation of residents, the legal basis for all the redevelopment decisions made by the county since 2024 is questionable, said Terrie Green, executive director of Marin City Climate Resilience. “We are experiencing voicelessness. If residents had a voice, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” she said.

County decisions include a plan, in line with federal regulations, to convert GGV from public housing to a public-private enterprise that allows for private investment. The Marin Housing Authority has created a limited partnership that includes Burbank Housing – which will renovate the units and manage the property – and Wells Fargo Bank, the investor.

This change in federal policy regarding public housing, which includes a shift to a Section-8 voucher system, has resulted in gentrification across the country, particularly affecting African Americans in cities such as San Francisco.

Shifts in criteria of what is considered affordable could also end up pricing residents out of their living units. At present, low income in Marin County is officially considered $156,000. But the median household income in Marin City is significantly lower at $68,846.

Damian Morgan, a community advocate with Marin City Climate Resilience, questioned why the county is renovating apartments without fixing toxic infrastructure that is impacting the lives of people in GGV.

Morgan said tenants have filed a class action lawsuit because of unsafe conditions at Golden Gate Village.

Residents are also concerned that the County still does not have an adequate family plan for temporary displacement while their apartments are being renovated. Although the County has suggested other community apartments as alternatives, nothing concrete has developed except vacant public housing units that have the same toxic conditions, such as mold and mildew.

Green said it doesn’t make sense. “…Why are we moving people around into temporary housing that’s uninhabitable, when you should be dealing first with the infrastructure, the foundational work, replacing old and rusted water pipes and new sewers.”

Morgan questions the County’s motivation for neglecting infrastructure repairs. “They’re remodeling the units but leaving the decayed infrastructure in place. I feel like they’re just setting this up for it to fail.”

“What slowed it down a little is that GGV is a historic preservation district, but I think what they’re striving for is demolition by neglect,” he said. “The neglect has always been on their part.”

Architect Ora Hatheway said her concern is about cutting corners. “You have to deal with the land issues. You have to deal with grading and drainage, and that’s being brushed under the rug.”

In an interview with KGO TV, Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters responded to some of these concerns. She said residents are guaranteed the right to return to their homes.

“This is a concern that we take seriously,” she said. “Every resident will move back into their own unit, and we’ve given this to them in writing. Before they leave their unit, we will sign a document together that guarantees their right to return.”

In response to residents who feel left out of the planning process, she said community input has focused on those affected by the first phase of the project. “So other residents may not have heard quite as much or felt like they had as much contact. But if there are residents who have concerns, we’re happy to hear from them. You can contact my office or the housing authority directly,” she said.

While County leaders may be giving some updates to some tenants, they are not sitting at the table with the Residents Council nor giving residents a voice in decision-making, said McLemore.

Without a voice in decisions, tenants are worried that Black people may be forced out of public housing, resulting in gentrification, she said in an interview with ABC 7. It’s still paternalistic, she said. “It’s still that ‘We know what’s best for you.’’’

Several years ago, the Residents Council proposed a land trust plan that would give tenants homeownership rights. Though the plan had broad support throughout the county, it was rejected by the Board of Supervisors

In the final analysis, Green said, for Marin City tenants the fight is not just for decent housing but to maintain their community with dignity under conditions of mutual respect.

“We’re talking about people who came here to work in the shipyards during World War II to bring about peace and safety to this country,” she said. “Look at the discrimination we’ve faced down through the years. Look at the life-span issue of Marin City folks – almost 20 years less than the rest of the County.”

“We want educational equity so our children will have decent schools. We need a land trust, property ownership, so we can have wealth creation. Marin City needs the same quality of life as other communities in Marin County.”