We Must Harvest

Since the last message board, schools in our CARE Anacostia chapter have been laying down a powerful new foundation. Savoy ES has been bringing families together through staff and parent basketball games. Boone ES has been lifting attendance and joy with Fun Fridays. Ketcham ES welcomed a wave of volunteers for Read Across America Day. Kramer MS opened its doors for a public State of the School address that set clear goals for student progress. And Anacostia HS honored student brilliance with a published book launch that celebrated literacy and intellectualism. These five schools are planting real roots in Anacostia, and those roots, with water, care and love, will continue to grow strong.

But while schools are building, something else is trying to tear the foundation apart.

Here what’s happening.

DC is staring down a $1 billion dollar budget gap. DC is not a state, which means no state level protections and direct accountability to Congress. Every single year the Mayor must hand Congress a balanced budget. No gap allowed. When money comes up short, cuts hit the community. We see this cycle often, but this year hits different. This crisis is tied to the collapse of federal funding. Many of us remember when $1.1 billion dollars disappeared overnight last year. The fallout from that cut is still hitting us, and it is landing directly on our children.

Let us be clear. These cuts threaten the future of our schools, our neighborhoods, and our babies, kids, students, scholars, our youth!

So what does that mean for our beautiful Black and Brown students in Anacostia? Funding for DC’s early education system, programming and care are about to be crushed.

Here is why this matters. Early childhood shapes the primary grades. The primary grades shape Kramer Middle School. Kramer shapes Anacostia High School. And Anacostia HS is the last stop that helps to shape our community, our society, and our people.

We cannot sit still and let this catastrophe happen.

Click the button below so we can move together and protect what we have been building.

This is not a game. Our youth are everything. And it’s time to stand on business and protect them at all cost.

Let’s Go Anacosita!

With CARE,

Jhonna Turner, Founder of the CARE DC movement

Community Board title: Tink, tink, tink! Do not play with our babies