This week’s Supporter Spotlight is Chris Stewart!
Chris is the CEO of brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education activists demanding a better education and a brighter future for every child, and a principal at Yielding Assets, LLC, a grassroots consultancy helping government, nonprofit and foundation clients create self-sustaining projects for social good. In 2007, Chris was elected to the Minneapolis Public School Board, where he helped push innovative school reform strategies, created the Equity and Achievement Committee, and authored a board-level “Covenant with the African American Community.”
“You might wonder how, in a state known for ‘nice,’ we could allow our schools to shepherd Black, Latino and Native students through a system that fails to give the vast majority of them proficiency in basic and critical academic skills. Just look at fourth-grade math: Black students are 39 percentage points behind their white peers, while Latino students are 43 points behind and Native students 44.
We owe these children and their families schools that will help them tap into their natural gifts and endless potential. We need it written in the charter of our state that we will accept nothing less than a quality education for every child. The Page amendment isn’t about being “nice”—it is about being humane.”
– Chris Stewart
CEO, brightbeam