This week Schools on the Frontlines host Carl Cohn shifts gears and talks with a school board member who is also attempting to combat child poverty. Jackie Thu-Huong Wong sits on the school board o Washington Unified, an 8300 student district in Yolo County east of Sacramento. She is also vice president of advocacy and policy at GRACE, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting child poverty in California.
Wong describes how the financial impact of the pandemic has landed disproportionately on the shoulders of poor families, and how her work with GRACE to advocate for those families has changed as a result. And Cohn asks Wong about the work being done in her district to ensure students, teachers, and families are prepared for the new frontier of distance learning.
With fifty years of service as a counselor, teacher, district superintendent, State Board of Education member, and executive director of the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, Cohn brings a deep understanding of the challenges school districts face as they regroup and reopen in the fall.
For more information about Washington Unified School District, please see: