Written by Hailey Marie Thomas

I know what it means to face challenges and keep going.

When I was a teenager, I dealt with serious health complications that made school much harder for me than it should have been. It was a dark, difficult time, but I decided to stay disciplined. I pushed through the pain and the setbacks. That experience in itself taught me resilience. It taught me how to keep going when the odds are stacked against you.

I carry that resilience with me every day as an educator in Memphis. But here is the unfiltered truth: we rely far too much on the "resilience" of our children to make up for the failures of our school district.

We praise our students for their grit when they succeed despite learning in overcrowded classrooms. We applaud their determination when they graduate from schools in the Northwest region that don't even have adequate janitorial services. But we shouldn't have to force our kids to be this resilient just to get a basic education. Resilience is a beautiful character trait, but it is not a substitute for equitable funding and safe learning environments.

As a current educator, I believe that every child, no matter their socioeconomic status, race, or zip code, deserves a quality education. Right now, that is not happening in Memphis Shelby County Schools. We have created a system of winners and losers, where some campuses thrive and others are left to literally learn in squalor. And while the adults at the top argue over lawsuits and press conferences, our most vulnerable students are paying the price.

I am not going to give up on this school system. Because of what I overcame in my teenage years, I believe that our schools can overcome this current crisis as well. But hope and grit are not enough. We need aggressive, unapologetic action.

On the board, I will fight to bring equal resources to all schools. I don't care what neighborhood a school is in; if it has Memphis children inside it, it deserves top-tier funding, clean facilities, and robust teacher support. I want to ensure that every single campus is a caring, safe, and wonderful learning environment for our students.

We can no longer accept a system where a child's educational outcome is determined by their parents' income or their neighborhood's tax bracket. We can no longer accept politicians who tell our underfunded communities to simply "be resilient."

Our students have already proven how strong they are. Now it is time for the adults in the room to show some strength. It is time to fight for the equitable, fully-funded education that every child in Memphis deserves.