We are so deeply embedded in the factors that impinge on a school without an analysis of the particular context. What is the political economy? What is the neighborhood structure? I am working in Oakland. The Black Panthers started in Oakland. What is the water in this city that makes this the place? There is something about being a youth in Oakland that makes you different from those who demographically mirror you.

What is the greatest obstacle you need to overcome?

The biggest rock to be moved is: Public schools for what?

In the absence of an honest and invested national discourse about the purpose of public schools in a pluralistic, multiracial democracy, we are just playing games. The foundation of public schools in this nation is rotten to the core. We talk about fixing schools. Schools are designed to sort children. And they do it very well. Schools are doing exactly what they were designed to do.

If we actually want a public education system that creates an engaged citizenry and a generation that is healthy and well and are full participants in our democracy, then we need to go back to the founding principles: how we set up the school day, who we hire, how we acquire both the human and financial capital to match that purpose.

What challenges do you see?

I don’t think it is the skill piece, I think it is the will piece. We lack the public will to transform our public schools. What scares me is that even with all the signs — children are showing up to schools and shooting their classmates and their teachers, with regularity — and we are talking about gun control.

We are not doing any root cause analysis. The root cause is not the existence of guns. There is something going on sociologically with the fact that these kids are showing up at school. They are not showing up at the mall, they are not showing up at the basketball game because school is the epicenter of their pain, the epicenter of their disconnectedness. Why isn’t anyone listening to them?