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• By Thomas Marshall III, M.Ed. • IDRA Newsletter • August 2026 •

Southern students deserve well-funded, safe and supportive public schools that expand opportunity, value their cultures and help every student thrive. 

As a third-generation South Carolinian, I spent my entire K-12 schooling within the hallways of Richland County School District One. I remember the hot, humid days when going back to school meant the beginning of new possibilities. I was excited to see new and old friends, meet teachers for the first time, and dig into classes full of new topics and lessons.

Nearly one in three students in the country goes to public school in the South. Southern schools are filled with students who want a rigorous, diverse curricula, families who are organizing to improve school policy and practice, and diverse teachers who want to make an impact.

Despite this excitement, one of my first awakenings to social and economic inequity came through schooling in my town. I noticed old books falling apart and kept around for years and tattered facilities needing constant repair.  As one of 30 students in my 11th-grade statistics class, I could barely get one-on-one time with my teacher.

These instances of inequity were not my fault.  They were determined by the zip code I was born in. Just up the road, 11 miles away, was AC Flora High School in the school district where I took the ACT. It was a different story. It had updated facilities, smaller class sizes, and even more options for clubs and after-school activities.

A series of policy decisions by local, state and federal lawmakers had created my “poor school” despite it being full of rich minds.

IDRA works to ensure all students can access and succeed in their public schools. For example, we advocate fair school funding, we work with underserved middle school students to build pathways to college through STEM, research dropout rates across Texas, and influence policy change.

This work is deeply important. We know that creating a school climate where every child can thrive is essential. Our work concentrates on the U.S. South, where schools are often overlooked and not prioritized when it comes to educational opportunities.

As students and families head back to school this fall, IDRA lays the foundation for what the future of our public schools should look like, particularly in the U.S. South.

Advancing Policies that Support All Students and Families

Often, public education advocates are tasked with pushing back against harmful policies in southern states. We must also affirmatively advance policies that support students and their families’ everyday schooling.

Create Safe and Supportive School Communities – Every student deserves a school where they feel safe and welcome, they can stay engaged, and where people care about them. When and if behavior challenges occur, schools need responses that do not overly punish students.

Practices like restorative justice promote social-emotional learning that helps students address what they may be going through, like mental health challenges. It provides a framework for students to engage with others who are different or with whom they disagree.

Fund Students’ Future – Students need fully-funded schools to ensure schools in the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods have the resources needed to thrive. But all across the South, school funding remains at relatively lower levels than other parts of the country.

The Education Law Center’s latest Making the Grade report shows that the southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida and North Carolina all rank in the bottom percentile of average per-student funding (Farrie & Kim, 2025).

Expand Opportunity for Emergent Bilingual Students – Public schools are responsible for educating students whose first language is not English. Emergent bilingual students bring important linguistic and cultural strengths to their schools and communities. Yet, students and their families often are denied the resources and support needed to meaningfully engage with schools in a language other than English.

This is prevalent in states across the U.S. South, like Texas, where one in every four students is bilingual. We must invest in teachers who have the training, credentials and specialized expertise to serve emergent bilingual students effectively. By investing in addressing the persistent shortage of teachers in this area, we can ensure all emergent bilingual students can be college and career ready.

Sustain Culture and Student Engagement – A thriving education system is inclusive, where everyone feels valued and welcomed. Across the South, because of its history, many state legislatures are following paths that restrict and censor curricula and deny students opportunities to analyze our history, society and overall democracy critically.

Much of IDRA’s work to create culturally sustaining schools is done through ensuring schools are protecting students and working to stop bullying and harassment. Incidents of targeted bullying, harassment and hate crimes are on the rise in schools. In Texas, 4,099 bullying incidents were reported in 2023-24, an 11% increase from the previous year (TEA, 2025).

IDRA has advanced its anti-bullying work across Texas to help school districts pass legislation to build more protections for students who are bullied and help students who exhibit bullying conduct through behavioral interventions. And we created a model policy that school districts and lawmakers can implement in their local or state contexts (IDRA, 2024).

Southern education is paramount in the arc toward an equitable education for all students. Nearly one in three students in the country goes to public school in the South (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019a).

The U.S. South is racially diverse. About 40% of the country’s Black and Latino K-12 public school students live in southern states (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019b).

Despite the poor policy decisions that plague Southern schools, communities are pushing for good, sound policies that research shows positively impact all students.

My public schools may have been poor in resources, but they were rich in heart, work ethic and school culture. Many Black teachers were shaping brilliant young Black minds. Teachers like Mr. Edward Chambers, my 12th-grade English teacher who passed away a couple of years ago, remain with me today. I can still hear his boisterous laugh and remember the readings he assigned, including Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. That piece of literature brought together my passion for Black history and Southern Black narratives that are so important for students to reflect on and discuss, just as I did as a student.

Southern schools are filled with students who want a rigorous, diverse curricula, families who are organizing to improve school policy and practice, and diverse teachers who want to make an impact. All that is left are courageous policymakers with the power to secure education justice.

Resources

Education Law Center. (2025). Making the Grade 2025: How Fair Is School Funding in Your State? Education Law Center.

IDRA. (May 2024). IDRA Model Policy – Identity-based Bullying.

TEA. (2025). Discipline Reports. Texas Education Agency.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2019a). ACS 5-year Estimates, S1401 Table: School Enrollment.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2019b). ACS 1-year Estimates, S0201 Table: Selected Population Profile in the United States.es

Thomas Marshall III, M.Ed., is IDRA’s policy communications strategist (thomas.marshall@idra.org).

FAQs

What does education justice in the South require?
Education justice requires public schools where all students have the resources and opportunities they need to thrive. Key priorities include safe and supportive school communities, fair school funding, strong support for emergent bilingual students, and culturally sustaining learning environments.

Why is school funding important for education justice in the South?
Adequate and equitable school funding helps ensure that students in economically disadvantaged communities have access to the teachers, programs, facilities and other resources they need. Several southern states rank among the lowest in the country for average per-student funding.

How can schools better support emergent bilingual students?
Schools can support emergent bilingual students by recognizing their linguistic and cultural strengths, communicating effectively with their families and investing in teachers with the training, credentials and specialized expertise needed to serve them.

How can Southern schools create safe and inclusive learning environments?
Schools can create stronger learning environments by using supportive approaches to student behavior, preventing and responding effectively to bullying and harassment, valuing students’ cultures and identities, and giving students opportunities to engage critically with history and society.

[© 2026, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the August edition of the IDRA Newsletter. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]