Teach Truth and Feed the Damn Kids with Jesse Hagopian | Ep 61

Teach Truth and Feed the Damn Kids with Jesse Hagopian | Ep 6124 jul1 u 04 min

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What if the same government that can find billions for a war in a matter of months insists there's never enough money to feed a hungry kid or keep a school library stocked?

Marcus and Nora sit down with Jesse Hagopian — Seattle educator, Rethinking Schools editor, and author of Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education — to follow the money from the Pentagon to the classroom. Jesse traces the fight against book bans and "anti-CRT" laws sweeping the country, and grounds it in his own history: teaching in an underfunded DC classroom, then at his alma mater, Garfield High, where keeping snacks in a desk drawer became part of the job. He connects Seattle's fight for universal school meals to the legacy of the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast for Children Program, and James Baldwin's claim that "the children are all ours." On the heels of an all-too-tough fight for school meals in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, Hagopian shows us that "there's no money" has always been a ruse, not a fact.

In the middle of recording this episode, Seattle's fight for universal school meals actually won. Jesse walks through how that happened: years of students, parents, and teachers showing up, organizing, and refusing to accept austerity as the final word. It's a blueprint for hope in tough times.

Mentioned in the episode:

Guest Rant: Seattle Can't Afford Not to Feed Every Child | Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education | July 21 City Council Meeting |