By Donna-Marie Cole and Karen Parker Thompson

As classrooms across Pennsylvania fill with the energetic sounds of students at the beginning of a new school year, hopeful for the ways they will grow, stretch and learn in the months ahead, it is time to stop and consider: are we adequately educating our kids and preparing them to succeed in whatever the future holds for them?

Are we attracting teachers who have shared experiences and backgrounds with their students and can truly relate to and speak to them?

We’ll save you the suspense. We are not. In fact, we are failing so many of our kids in so many ways. For one, we simply do not have enough teachers who represent the actual demographic of the commonwealth.

Data shows that nearly half of Pennsylvania k-12 students are people of color

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