AzABSE’s Open Letter to Support Continuous Learning

April 2, 2020 – Dear Superintendent Hoffman and Governor Ducey:

During this trying time to determine the best efforts to support the learning process of students who are out of school for the remainder of the year, the Arizona Alliance of Black School Educators (AzABSE) is seeking ways to support families and children. As we know, it is crucial we continue our efforts to reduce the Achievement Gap in the United States.

Specifically, to Arizona’s equity, diversity and inclusion endeavors, we must find ways to not lose valuable time debating the resources but use the immediate resources we have. AzABSE believes that one way to ensure the Achievement Gap does not further displace minority students in education is to release a collaborative message imploring that stakeholders get involved. Although we know work is being done, getting this message out to communities is our way of showing our support by providing information beyond the educational system’s process that may not be reaching every family.

As such, we are writing to ask that, as the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, you support our efforts in communicating outwardly, urging districts and community services to collaborate and support continued educational growth. To that end, we ask that you support all the following objectives:

Districts: Please utilize your technology to support at-home services by providing at minimal, one computer per family of the students that you serve.

Business Community: We appreciate your support in education during these trying times and are looking for sound, salient solutions to maintain the continuous learning and instruction for our students in Arizona. Please assist the educational system by providing any internet services that your ‘cafe-style’ businesses provide to customers on a regular basis.

Families: Various internet companies have offers that can support your home with internet services. We strongly urge that you seek out those available services.

We would like to share this information with districts and the community-at-large within the next week. We request your endorsement either by way of a collaborative letter, depicting our various letterhead symbols to show our solidarity in generating this message, or by your release of an additional support notice to accompany ours through various media outlets. We look forward to hearing from you concerning this request.

ARIZONA ALLIANCE OF BLACK SCHOOL EDUCATORS
602.730.4080| info@azabse.org | www.azabse.org