Organization receives national funding to diversify education

An organization that works to recruit and retain Black teachers in Southern Nevada has received funding from a national nonprofit to continue recruiting teachers of color.

The Southern Nevada Black Educators Initiative announced Friday that it had received an investment from the NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit that funds innovative solutions to improve education.

The organization works to retain Black teachers in Clark County by giving them professional development opportunities, helping them get teaching licenses renewed and offering scholarships for students looking to enter the education field.

A spokesperson for the organization said it had received $160,000 from the NewSchools Venture Fund to continue its mission, which includes increasing the number of Black teachers in Clark County schools to 25 percent by 2030.

Black teachers make up 7.3 percent of the Clark County School District’s teachers, or 1,373 of the district’s 18,000 licensed professionals, according to a news release from the initiative. Of those educators, the organization said, less than 2 percent were men.

That has real-world implications for Black students, who research has shown perform better academically and have lower rates of discipline when they have at least one Black teacher.

On Friday, the Southern Nevada Black Educators Initiative called the absence of Black teachers in classrooms a public health crisis.

“Trendy hashtags and lip service from school districts and elected officials is not enough,” Jordan Hankins, executive director of the organization, said in a statement. “SNBEI believes that stakeholders must develop a strategic plan to hire, support, and promote more Black educators. Doing so would reflect a serious commitment to ending Black exclusion and improving Black student achievement and success.”

Contact Lorraine Longhi at 702-387-5298 or llonghi@reviewjournal.com. Follow her at @lolonghi on Twitter.