Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I have in studio with me Brandon Pryor, who is
a DPS parent community activist and co initiator of Parents
Demand Justice Parentsdemand Justice dot org, a group of activists
sort of working alongside others like PA SAG which is
focused on school safety and other parent groups to make
(00:23):
change in the district. And he joins me. Now, good afternoon, Brandon,
It's good to be with you.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Thanks for having.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Me, Thanks for coming in here. So tell me a
little bit about sort of your background in education in
DPS and how you got so fired up to come
back in and be very involved this year with the
November off your elections for school boards heading close to us.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, definitely got involved in education as an activist, as
a football coach with the Far Northeast Warriors, and then
progressed through the years, became the founder of a DPS
innovation school, Robert F. Smith Steam Academy, and you know,
have had my own personal battles with DPS which were
(01:13):
really stressful. So I took some time away from activism
to focus on my family and the school. But I
had saw an article a couple of weeks ago where
Alex Marrero was accusing one of our DPS board members,
John Young Quest, of being racist and you know, causing
(01:35):
confusion within the district, and that drew my attention and
I reached out to John young Quest. My interactions with
him did not you know, they weren't the same as
what I was reading, you know what I mean. So
so it kind of, you know, made me upset and
(01:57):
so kind of jumped back in and started familiar myself
with what was going on, and that led me to
the data that exists inside this district around.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Proficiencies for all students.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
And once I saw how bad it was, it reminded
me of why I got into activism in the first place,
and the fire inside of.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Me was lit.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So what did it remind you? What was it that
got you into activism originally in the past?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Originally in the past, It was the inequities that were
going on for black and LATINX students, not only with
the facilities co locations of schools, but the proficiencies and
the achievement gap, the racial achievement gap between white students
and DPS and the black and brown students in DPS,
(02:48):
and it was alarming and at the time, back in
twenty seventeen, DPS had the third largest achievement gap in
the country, and so that sparked my interest at the time,
and it hasn't changed much once I see what's going
on now, after stepping away for about a year and
(03:08):
a half, I come back into it and see this
data and it's actually worse than when I started fighting
for for ourself.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Isn't that staggering, Brendan Pryor doesn't it just say so
much when you come back in and you're like, okay,
things have declined even more than before. Now I have
to do something and work with others who are willing
to do something.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Exactly, Man, the sense of urgency is there, like our
kids can't wait any longer. We don't have two, three,
four or five years for another strategic plan to try
to kick in and hope that it does what it's
supposed to do. We need to act now. We need
people to know what's going on and take an interest.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So in twenty nineteen, the school board passed something called
the Black Excellence Resolution.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
How was what that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Did and in your mind what you hoped would be
achieved by that, because as I understand it, you were
supportive of that initiative at the.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Time, Yes, definitely supportive of that initiative. And one of
the things that we noticed was the overrepresentation of Black
students in these high stakes discipline When we talk about
in school suspensions and out of school suspensions, black students
only represent thirteen percent of the district, but well over
(04:32):
twenty percent twenty five percent of in school and out
of school suspensions, So that was alarming. When we talk
about overrepresentation in special education, also the underrepresentation in AP courses,
IB courses, concurrent enrollment, and things of that nature. So
(04:55):
we wanted to see a change in all of those
things as well as outcomes with proficiencies and graduation rates.
So we wanted to see all of those things improve.
We wanted just students to feel safe. So when we
look at the safety you know, the student survey, we
wanted all those things to come back in a positive manner,
(05:18):
and we haven't seen any growth in a lot of
these areas.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Brandon Pryor joining us Parents Demand Justice dot org. When
we look at the Black Excellence Resolution and what happened
after that, that led to at least the mentality from
some school board members and how they interpreted that led
to the removal of school resource officers the next year
in twenty twenty, and then you had a change to
(05:46):
the discipline matrix that ended up being so far out
of whack that you had an uproar that led to
a revised version with just some i would say, some
modest improvements to that version, but still a lot of
problems to it. Do you believe that in those areas,
for example, that the way in which the district approached
(06:07):
it was just way off base and they should have
done something different, or how do you think they handled
what happened in twenty twenty twenty twenty one in those
policies and the SROs and things along those lines that
got a lot of parents after East High School to go,
what the heck is going on here?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Right? I think that they did not handle it the
right way.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I think a lot of times DPS holds themselves in
such a positive light that they think that they have
all of the answers, and they do things to community
instead of doing things with community. And so a lot
of these changes that you saw were done to community.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And I think that you.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Have a lot of quality thought partners that don't work
for the district that they could utilize to come up with,
you know, really good plans that would include everybody's input
so that we could see a positive outcome. Like when
you have a an echo chamber and you're talking to
(07:12):
yourself and making these decisions, it usually ends bad.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
One of the standout aspects to this when we talk
about the academic side, has been just that achievement gap.
But also when you talk across the board, whether they're
white students, black, brown, what have you, students are being
failed in demographic after demographics. So for example, when we
look at the overall totals for DPS in grades three
(07:43):
through eight, just forty point seven percent met or exceeded
English expectations in the most recent data, only thirty one
point two percent proficient in math. When you look at
those marginalized students, black and brown students are about black
and Hispanic to be specific, about twenty four twenty five
percent proficient in English and in math, just sixteen and
(08:06):
a half percent of black students are proficient. Then when
you look at high schoolers and you see the English
P SAT and SAT benchmarks, just over half of students
met or exceeded on English about thirty one percent proficient
in math, and among black students even worse forty two
(08:27):
percent in reading, twenty one percent in math. Let's talk
about the academics here, Brandon Pryor, because that is patently unacceptable.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
It's unacceptable, it's failing. It's failing by any standard. When
you when your percentage of proficiency is in the teens,
to me, that it's almost criminal, right, Like, this is
a government entity that's supposed to be providing a quality
education for all students, right, regardless of what resolution is
(08:57):
on the books or what.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Promises were made.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Like, the whole function of a school district is to
educate the children, and when they're not doing that, something
has to be done.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Seventy nine percent is the historic graduation rate for DPS,
And what stands out to me is one that in
and of itself, I mean maybe for DPS that's a
historic number, but it is hardly worth celebrating when it
is barely over three quarters of students graduating. But when
you also think about how woefully unprepared, according to the
(09:32):
data I shared and other data metrics, students are for
career or for continuing their education onto college, how is
it worth the diploma. If you are getting that diploma
but you are not prepared for the next step it is.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
It doesn't mean a thing when they're sending kids into
the world with no real education, no viable options. Right
is to me is criminal, man, what's going on? And
we're trying to stay competitive on a global market?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
How does that happen?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And this isn't the only school district in the country
that operates this way. This is inner city America, right,
This is happening all over America. DPS is just where
we're familiar. And I don't know what can be done, man.
I think that there has to be some kind of
(10:27):
way to figure out how we pay these board members
to do a job. The board has to be able
to hold the superintendent accountable. The superintendent has to be
able to work with the board and the teachers' union,
and they all have to be on the same page
to produce equality outcome.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I got to say the board needs to be willing
to hold the superintendent accountable. When you have a majority
five of the seven school board members vote to extend
Morero's contract when they aren't in value until this October,
his job performance per the criteria the metrics that they
(11:07):
allowed him to create just in this January. That shows
me they are not willing to hold him accountable, particularly too.
And you co authored with former DPS administrator Jen Holiday
and op ed in the Denver Post this week Denver
Public schools educational outcomes are still unjust for black students,
(11:28):
And to me, this implicates both the metrics that are
in place that they are ignoring for Marero's contract extension
and which you guys begin your peace with, which is
the twenty twenty two strategic roadmap for the district.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Take it away definitely man like.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Like I said, Alex Morrero set out a goal for
the district, for himself, for his team, for black students,
LATINX students, and students with disabilities, to have ten percent
proficiency increases by twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
This promise was made in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Right, we have one more school year and the proficiencies
have actually gotten worse. We got We've dropped a percentage
in proficiency. I believe it is in math for black students,
and I think we might we're like teetering around the
same percentage for English. So there's been no improvements and
(12:28):
with the current I guess focus our lack of focus
on improving these numbers. I don't see a way for
us to get to ten percent increase in one year.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You and I have talked before about the way in
which a lot of this has been approach academically, where
it's not let's elevate black and brown students so that
they can succeed more. It's let's bring down the standards
so that they can reach those standards, which, frankly to me,
seems like a racist approach to governance in general and
(13:06):
to education in specifically.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Do you agree with that?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I agree one thousand percent. So this ten percent increase
that was that DPS committed to in this strategic roadmap.
Since they have seen and since there has been, you know,
outcry that they're there that we're not going to get
to that increase, the board voted to allow the district
(13:32):
to lower that percentage to a two percent increase, and
that be acceptable. That is extremely racist to me to
lower the standard for black, brown.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And it's unacceptable.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And then we have like you look at that incident incidents,
and then you look at Scott Morero, who will post
on his social media pictures of himself at a Juneteenth
per aid Alex Murray. No no, no, no, no, no, not
Scott Mari, Scott Eserman. I mean, okay, there you go,
(14:06):
Scottsman board director Scott Essherman apologies post pictures of himself
at a Juneteenth event and claim that this somehow translate
to some some kind of support for the black community
and black students. It's it's a it's a slap in
the face. It's pandering, and it's not real. And so
(14:29):
I think people need to understand what's really going on,
Like there's a lot of window dressing going on and
uh a play action play when there's really no no
equity push happening.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
A couple of minutes left with our guest in studio,
Brandon Pryor, Parents Demand Justice dot org. When you look
at the school board and the failure to hold morero
accountable and to really consider and take series and I'm
talking broad brush. We did see a couple of school
board members, particularly in John young Quist and kimber Lycia,
(15:02):
who voted against extending his contract, and they had I
think very fair reasons for doing so. But but if
we talk broadly about the board and their unwillingness and
and maybe when you see somebody like Scott Esserman go
and pay lip service as opposed to actually doing the
work to improve the quality of education. How what what
(15:22):
message do you think that sends to the people of
Denver and what message do you think needs to be
sent to the school board this fall.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I think the message that that as being sent to
Denver is it's kind of like a a mirage, you
know what I mean. They're trying to paint this picture of,
you know, how good DPS is doing, and we see pictures,
we see posts from Morrero and and DPS their websites,
(15:54):
but it's not actually that. And I think that I
just really think that more more people need to get involved.
I think that more people need to check out our
website Parents Demand Justice dot org and sign up for
regular updates see how they can get involved. But I
just think that come November, we are going to have
(16:16):
to have a quality slate of candidates to replace these people,
like you said Kimberly Sia John Young quest. I'm proud
of them for standing up and doing what's right, but
we need more of the same, and I think we
need to be able to count to six and not
just five.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Final question, we are out of time, so as brief
as you can. I asked you this when we had
a phone conversation several weeks ago, because I don't see
enough black leadership speaking up and speaking out on what's
happening in our education system in Denver and how far
behind black students are. Why is there not a more
(16:55):
outspoken outrage from folks within the black community.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Because people, people who are in position to hear from
the black community, they know how to go into the
black community and find certain leaders and tokenize them, right,
I honestly.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Believe that, And.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I also believe that a lot of the other black leaders.
There are some black leaders who are focused in their
kind of arena, and so education might not be that,
And they're pushing the needle for equity in certain spaces
like housing, healthcare, and you know, certain areas like that.
(17:39):
So that could be it be the thing. But I
just think we need more people to step up.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Brandon Pryor Parents Demand Justice dot org is the website
really great to have you here today, Thanks for taking some.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Time, definitely thanks for having me. You can keep up
the good work.
I have in studio with me Brandon Pryor, who is
a DPS parent community activist and co initiator of Parents
Demand Justice Parentsdemand Justice dot org, a group of activists
sort of working alongside others like PA SAG which is
focused on school safety and other parent groups to make
(00:23):
change in the district. And he joins me. Now, good afternoon, Brandon,
It's good to be with you.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Thanks for having.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Me, Thanks for coming in here. So tell me a
little bit about sort of your background in education in
DPS and how you got so fired up to come
back in and be very involved this year with the
November off your elections for school boards heading close to us.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, definitely got involved in education as an activist, as
a football coach with the Far Northeast Warriors, and then
progressed through the years, became the founder of a DPS
innovation school, Robert F. Smith Steam Academy, and you know,
have had my own personal battles with DPS which were
(01:13):
really stressful. So I took some time away from activism
to focus on my family and the school. But I
had saw an article a couple of weeks ago where
Alex Marrero was accusing one of our DPS board members,
John Young Quest, of being racist and you know, causing
(01:35):
confusion within the district, and that drew my attention and
I reached out to John young Quest. My interactions with
him did not you know, they weren't the same as
what I was reading, you know what I mean. So
so it kind of, you know, made me upset and
(01:57):
so kind of jumped back in and started familiar myself
with what was going on, and that led me to
the data that exists inside this district around.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Proficiencies for all students.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
And once I saw how bad it was, it reminded
me of why I got into activism in the first place,
and the fire inside of.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Me was lit.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So what did it remind you? What was it that
got you into activism originally in the past?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Originally in the past, It was the inequities that were
going on for black and LATINX students, not only with
the facilities co locations of schools, but the proficiencies and
the achievement gap, the racial achievement gap between white students
and DPS and the black and brown students in DPS,
(02:48):
and it was alarming and at the time, back in
twenty seventeen, DPS had the third largest achievement gap in
the country, and so that sparked my interest at the time,
and it hasn't changed much once I see what's going
on now, after stepping away for about a year and
(03:08):
a half, I come back into it and see this
data and it's actually worse than when I started fighting
for for ourself.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Isn't that staggering, Brendan Pryor doesn't it just say so
much when you come back in and you're like, okay,
things have declined even more than before. Now I have
to do something and work with others who are willing
to do something.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Exactly, Man, the sense of urgency is there, like our
kids can't wait any longer. We don't have two, three,
four or five years for another strategic plan to try
to kick in and hope that it does what it's
supposed to do. We need to act now. We need
people to know what's going on and take an interest.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So in twenty nineteen, the school board passed something called
the Black Excellence Resolution.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
How was what that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Did and in your mind what you hoped would be
achieved by that, because as I understand it, you were
supportive of that initiative at the.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Time, Yes, definitely supportive of that initiative. And one of
the things that we noticed was the overrepresentation of Black
students in these high stakes discipline When we talk about
in school suspensions and out of school suspensions, black students
only represent thirteen percent of the district, but well over
(04:32):
twenty percent twenty five percent of in school and out
of school suspensions, So that was alarming. When we talk
about overrepresentation in special education, also the underrepresentation in AP courses,
IB courses, concurrent enrollment, and things of that nature. So
(04:55):
we wanted to see a change in all of those
things as well as outcomes with proficiencies and graduation rates.
So we wanted to see all of those things improve.
We wanted just students to feel safe. So when we
look at the safety you know, the student survey, we
wanted all those things to come back in a positive manner,
(05:18):
and we haven't seen any growth in a lot of
these areas.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Brandon Pryor joining us Parents Demand Justice dot org. When
we look at the Black Excellence Resolution and what happened
after that, that led to at least the mentality from
some school board members and how they interpreted that led
to the removal of school resource officers the next year
in twenty twenty, and then you had a change to
(05:46):
the discipline matrix that ended up being so far out
of whack that you had an uproar that led to
a revised version with just some i would say, some
modest improvements to that version, but still a lot of
problems to it. Do you believe that in those areas,
for example, that the way in which the district approached
(06:07):
it was just way off base and they should have
done something different, or how do you think they handled
what happened in twenty twenty twenty twenty one in those
policies and the SROs and things along those lines that
got a lot of parents after East High School to go,
what the heck is going on here?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Right? I think that they did not handle it the
right way.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I think a lot of times DPS holds themselves in
such a positive light that they think that they have
all of the answers, and they do things to community
instead of doing things with community. And so a lot
of these changes that you saw were done to community.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And I think that you.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Have a lot of quality thought partners that don't work
for the district that they could utilize to come up with,
you know, really good plans that would include everybody's input
so that we could see a positive outcome. Like when
you have a an echo chamber and you're talking to
(07:12):
yourself and making these decisions, it usually ends bad.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
One of the standout aspects to this when we talk
about the academic side, has been just that achievement gap.
But also when you talk across the board, whether they're
white students, black, brown, what have you, students are being
failed in demographic after demographics. So for example, when we
look at the overall totals for DPS in grades three
(07:43):
through eight, just forty point seven percent met or exceeded
English expectations in the most recent data, only thirty one
point two percent proficient in math. When you look at
those marginalized students, black and brown students are about black
and Hispanic to be specific, about twenty four twenty five
percent proficient in English and in math, just sixteen and
(08:06):
a half percent of black students are proficient. Then when
you look at high schoolers and you see the English
P SAT and SAT benchmarks, just over half of students
met or exceeded on English about thirty one percent proficient
in math, and among black students even worse forty two
(08:27):
percent in reading, twenty one percent in math. Let's talk
about the academics here, Brandon Pryor, because that is patently unacceptable.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
It's unacceptable, it's failing. It's failing by any standard. When
you when your percentage of proficiency is in the teens,
to me, that it's almost criminal, right, Like, this is
a government entity that's supposed to be providing a quality
education for all students, right, regardless of what resolution is
(08:57):
on the books or what.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Promises were made.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Like, the whole function of a school district is to
educate the children, and when they're not doing that, something
has to be done.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Seventy nine percent is the historic graduation rate for DPS,
And what stands out to me is one that in
and of itself, I mean maybe for DPS that's a
historic number, but it is hardly worth celebrating when it
is barely over three quarters of students graduating. But when
you also think about how woefully unprepared, according to the
(09:32):
data I shared and other data metrics, students are for
career or for continuing their education onto college, how is
it worth the diploma. If you are getting that diploma
but you are not prepared for the next step it is.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
It doesn't mean a thing when they're sending kids into
the world with no real education, no viable options. Right
is to me is criminal, man, what's going on? And
we're trying to stay competitive on a global market?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
How does that happen?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And this isn't the only school district in the country
that operates this way. This is inner city America, right,
This is happening all over America. DPS is just where
we're familiar. And I don't know what can be done, man.
I think that there has to be some kind of
(10:27):
way to figure out how we pay these board members
to do a job. The board has to be able
to hold the superintendent accountable. The superintendent has to be
able to work with the board and the teachers' union,
and they all have to be on the same page
to produce equality outcome.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I got to say the board needs to be willing
to hold the superintendent accountable. When you have a majority
five of the seven school board members vote to extend
Morero's contract when they aren't in value until this October,
his job performance per the criteria the metrics that they
(11:07):
allowed him to create just in this January. That shows
me they are not willing to hold him accountable, particularly too.
And you co authored with former DPS administrator Jen Holiday
and op ed in the Denver Post this week Denver
Public schools educational outcomes are still unjust for black students,
(11:28):
And to me, this implicates both the metrics that are
in place that they are ignoring for Marero's contract extension
and which you guys begin your peace with, which is
the twenty twenty two strategic roadmap for the district.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Take it away definitely man like.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Like I said, Alex Morrero set out a goal for
the district, for himself, for his team, for black students,
LATINX students, and students with disabilities, to have ten percent
proficiency increases by twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
This promise was made in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Right, we have one more school year and the proficiencies
have actually gotten worse. We got We've dropped a percentage
in proficiency. I believe it is in math for black students,
and I think we might we're like teetering around the
same percentage for English. So there's been no improvements and
(12:28):
with the current I guess focus our lack of focus
on improving these numbers. I don't see a way for
us to get to ten percent increase in one year.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You and I have talked before about the way in
which a lot of this has been approach academically, where
it's not let's elevate black and brown students so that
they can succeed more. It's let's bring down the standards
so that they can reach those standards, which, frankly to me,
seems like a racist approach to governance in general and
(13:06):
to education in specifically.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Do you agree with that?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I agree one thousand percent. So this ten percent increase
that was that DPS committed to in this strategic roadmap.
Since they have seen and since there has been, you know,
outcry that they're there that we're not going to get
to that increase, the board voted to allow the district
(13:32):
to lower that percentage to a two percent increase, and
that be acceptable. That is extremely racist to me to
lower the standard for black, brown.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And it's unacceptable.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And then we have like you look at that incident incidents,
and then you look at Scott Morero, who will post
on his social media pictures of himself at a Juneteenth
per aid Alex Murray. No no, no, no, no, no, not
Scott Mari, Scott Eserman. I mean, okay, there you go,
(14:06):
Scottsman board director Scott Essherman apologies post pictures of himself
at a Juneteenth event and claim that this somehow translate
to some some kind of support for the black community
and black students. It's it's a it's a slap in
the face. It's pandering, and it's not real. And so
(14:29):
I think people need to understand what's really going on,
Like there's a lot of window dressing going on and
uh a play action play when there's really no no
equity push happening.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
A couple of minutes left with our guest in studio,
Brandon Pryor, Parents Demand Justice dot org. When you look
at the school board and the failure to hold morero
accountable and to really consider and take series and I'm
talking broad brush. We did see a couple of school
board members, particularly in John young Quist and kimber Lycia,
(15:02):
who voted against extending his contract, and they had I
think very fair reasons for doing so. But but if
we talk broadly about the board and their unwillingness and
and maybe when you see somebody like Scott Esserman go
and pay lip service as opposed to actually doing the
work to improve the quality of education. How what what
(15:22):
message do you think that sends to the people of
Denver and what message do you think needs to be
sent to the school board this fall.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I think the message that that as being sent to
Denver is it's kind of like a a mirage, you
know what I mean. They're trying to paint this picture of,
you know, how good DPS is doing, and we see pictures,
we see posts from Morrero and and DPS their websites,
(15:54):
but it's not actually that. And I think that I
just really think that more more people need to get involved.
I think that more people need to check out our
website Parents Demand Justice dot org and sign up for
regular updates see how they can get involved. But I
just think that come November, we are going to have
(16:16):
to have a quality slate of candidates to replace these people,
like you said Kimberly Sia John Young quest. I'm proud
of them for standing up and doing what's right, but
we need more of the same, and I think we
need to be able to count to six and not
just five.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Final question, we are out of time, so as brief
as you can. I asked you this when we had
a phone conversation several weeks ago, because I don't see
enough black leadership speaking up and speaking out on what's
happening in our education system in Denver and how far
behind black students are. Why is there not a more
(16:55):
outspoken outrage from folks within the black community.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Because people, people who are in position to hear from
the black community, they know how to go into the
black community and find certain leaders and tokenize them, right,
I honestly.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Believe that, And.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I also believe that a lot of the other black leaders.
There are some black leaders who are focused in their
kind of arena, and so education might not be that,
And they're pushing the needle for equity in certain spaces
like housing, healthcare, and you know, certain areas like that.
(17:39):
So that could be it be the thing. But I
just think we need more people to step up.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Brandon Pryor Parents Demand Justice dot org is the website
really great to have you here today, Thanks for taking some.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Time, definitely thanks for having me. You can keep up
the good work.
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