Commentary

COMMENTARY: It’s time to show Detroit teachers the respect they deserve

MICHIGAN CHRONICLE — This country, despite its rhetoric for honoring teachers, does not respect traditional public education — including teachers and their students — enough to put their money where their mouths are. It’s empty talk.

Published

7 years ago

June 1, 2019

Patreice A. Massey

By Nikolai Vitti, Ed.D., Superintendent Detroit Public Schools Community District

I am often asked what is the most important strategy that can be leveraged to improve Detroit Public Schools Community District, or public education in general.

My response is: make teaching and teachers the most important priority in educational reform. By doing so, you immediately improve the outcomes and experiences of all children, because teachers have the most consistent interaction with children outside of families.

As we know, for some children, this consistency is vital due to home life challenges. Despite this reality, we often hear leaders and elected officials honor the hard work and sacrifice of teachers without emphasizing and prioritizing budgets and policy to enhance teacher status as one of the most important professions in our society. This is why we are seeing fewer undergraduates enter the teaching profession and others leaving it.

This country, despite its rhetoric for honoring teachers, does not respect traditional public education — including teachers and their students — enough to put their money where their mouths are. It’s empty talk.

As a result, our children, community, and the future of this country continue to suffer. We allow the ideology of choice, lower taxes and weak government to dictate elections and education policy. We ignore what works — best practice and research — for silver bullets and quick fixes. There are few examples that better reflect the disrespect toward traditional public education — and toward teachers and their students — than what occurred in Michigan, and namely in Detroit, through emergency management.

One example is the current state of our facilities. We have buildings that are in dire need of repair due to years of neglect. This would have never been tolerated in any of the surrounding suburbs but yet it became the status quo in Detroit under emergency management. Another is the lack of systems and processes that “normal” organizations have in place. Something as simple as a customer service response process was missing. Basic payroll systems, accountability metrics and inferior curriculum are just some of the basics that created the corrosion I witnessed when I first came to the district almost two years ago.

Let this low point in history always serve as the extreme governance model that should never be imposed again in any state or school district.

Over the past two years, we have worked deliberately to rebuild DPSCD from the debacle of emergency management while placing our focus on improving the conditions of teachers. We have not achieved victory but we are improving.

We have raised teacher salaries and are committed to doing so through reoccurring and one-time bonus increases in the future. We must put as much money in teachers pockets as our budget will allow while being fiscally responsible as a district under state financial review. We returned TIP funding to teachers before retirement. (Under emergency management, the incentive plan took money from teachers on a bi-weekly basis and held it to pay them when they left the district. There was doubt that this funding would be returned. Last year, we made an agreement with the union to pay the teachers back and we did that last year.) We have enhanced teacher voices through the selection of curriculum, reduced testing, lowered class sizes, revised the evaluation tool, and funded additional school-based positions to address chronic absenteeism, discipline, and academic intervention.

Additionally, we expanded paid professional development opportunities and provided a new career pathway for strong teachers through our master teacher role. We provided all teachers with a laptop and the opportunity to complete a survey about their experiences at their school.

The survey results are used as feedback to coach and develop principals as instructional leaders and talent managers. We are most excited about the opportunity to develop the next generation of teachers through our Marygrove initiative with the University of Michigan, where aspiring teachers will learn to teach before becoming the teacher of record.

No different than doctors, teachers must be given the time and resources to learn from veteran teachers before entering the classroom full time.

Despite this work, the legacy of our school board and my leadership will rest on making Detroit teachers the highest paid in the state and country. Detroit teachers deserve to be the highest paid because our children deserve the best teachers in each of the classrooms they enter and leave every day.

To accomplish this goal, we must demand equitable funding in Michigan where property tax revenue, which is included in the state’s foundation allowance along with state per pupil funding, does not imbalance the scales of equal opportunity for students.

On average, school districts in Grosse Pointe, Southfield and Farmington generate $130 million dollars more in annual revenue than DPSCD. This allows these districts and countless others to offer teacher salaries and school facilities that are superior to ours.

Although DPSCD typically receives more federal funding than many other districts due to the concentration of low income families, those funds are restricted and cannot be used at scale for districtwide salary increases, but instead for additional school-level support positions, creating more vacancies that are difficult to fill.

If we are truly committed to all children and we reject the notion that the greater likelihood of success is afforded to those in higher income zip codes, then we need to provide equitable public school funding. This will allow us to retain our veteran teachers and develop a new generation of teachers who will live in the city and see teaching as a career, not an experience. This is how we will rebuild the city, communities, and even our country.

This article originally appeared in the Michigan Chronicle.

Patreice A. Massey

Posts by Patreice A. Massey

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Activism

Diabetes in Black California: Turning the Tide from Crisis to Control

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. Khadijah Lang is a family physician with a clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in several family medical practices, including prenatal care. Lang believes in family medicine. She says it is important to treat all members of a family. Thursday, June 5, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

By Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

Crystal Lambert knew something was terribly wrong with her three-year-old granddaughter as she sped down the street trying to get her to the hospital.

“I thought she got a hold of some poison,” Lambert recalled.

Doctors found Lambert’s granddaughter had a blood sugar level over 800, diagnosing her with Diabetic Ketoacidosis(DKA), a state in which the body, starved of insulin, begins to shut down.

Lambert said she was born with a pancreas that was not fully functioning — it lacked the specialized cells required to produce insulin.

Her granddaughter survived and is five years old today. Now, she gives herself insulin shots, asks endless questions about her condition, and runs like the spirited child she is. But the terror of that night transformed Lambert — and ultimately inspired her to launch the We Fight Back Organization, a mobile health and food access initiative serving underserved communities across California. Lambert is the executive director.

The Crisis by the Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 24% more likely than the overall U.S. population to have diabetes in 2024. They also died from diabetes 78% more often than the general population in 2022. Black Americans are also more than twice as likely as the overall population to develop kidney failure caused by diabetes.

According to the California Health Care Foundation’s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years — due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.

Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.

“There are a whole bunch of Black folks that don’t tell you that they have diabetes — or don’t know,” he said.

And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. “They die from the complications. That’s heart attack, that’s stroke, that’s amputations of legs, of feet. Going blind. All those complications are inherent in a system that has impacted Black folks with diabetes in California and across America.”

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of We Fight Back. She started the organization out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread the impact of her organization to the valley. Friday, June 6, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of the We Fight Back Organization, started out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread her organization to the valley, on Friday, June 6, 2026 Photo by Solomon O. Smith/ California Black Media

An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis

For Rock, part of the solution is diagnosis. He says the medical and public health systems are failing Black Californians by the absence of information designed for them.

“That is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,” said Rock.

Telling people to eat healthy or exercise, he added, falls short when culturally specific alternatives are not provided, and when many residents of urban communities do not feel safe exercising in some neighborhoods – or outside at night.

Dr. Khadijah Lang, a family medicine physician and president of the Golden State Medical Association, agrees that the roots of the crisis run deeper than individual behavior — and blaming patients misses the point.

“We are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,” Lang said. “But the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.”

What the Body Needs — What Communities Are Denied

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, according to the CDC, develops when the body can no longer use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Left unmanaged, it damages nerves, kidneys, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. The hemoglobin A1C test is a blood draw that reveals how the body has processed sugar over the previous three months — not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.

That distinction matters, Lang emphasized, because patients cannot manipulate three months of blood sugar history the way they might fast for a day before a single blood draw.

“The pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that’s being constantly stressed,” Lang said. “It’s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.” She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week — breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.

Lang stressed that education must be delivered in language people recognize and can relate to. The goal is to inform them of the choices that serve their health best, she said.

But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.

“They need access to healthy foods and medication, too” she said.

California has made some critical policy advances. The state has expanded access to the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), which has transformed diabetes care for state residents. Assembly Bill 365, introduced in 2024, proposed requiring Medi-Cal to cover the costs of CGM and other related medical equipment but it failed in the State Senate. Since then, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) reports that the core Medi-Cal CGM benefit now available to eligible patients was solidified through previous budget actions and pharmacy policy updates.

These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.

Control Through Community

Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained — not a fad, not a celebrity moment, not a single clinic visit. For example, observed Lang, lifestyle shaped by shared values and collective accountability can move the needle where individual prescriptions have not.

Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.

“We have to do for self, period,” he said. “Health is wealth. We have to eat to live.”

And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.

“Diabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,” she said.

Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California

This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

(CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.