Two kids, 19 schools: Bernita’s struggle to find a better education

In-person learning in Detroit public schools screeched to a halt in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were limited to virtual instruction only. Historically one of the lowest-achieving and poorly run districts in the country, Detroit public schools produced, predictably, even worse academic outcomes during this period. Parents who already struggled to access a quality education found it nearly impossible to get their kids, who were trapped in virtual environments, the learning support they desperately needed.

Bernita Bradley was one of those parents. Even before the pandemic, she became actively involved in her children’s education when she realized the schools were failing to meet their most basic academic and safety needs.

When Bradley went to pick up her seven-year-old daughter from school one day, school officials told her that her daughter had already left. But this was not the case. No one had picked up Bradley’s daughter; the school had lost track of her. Luckily, her daughter was found, but only after a frantic search.

Not surprisingly, Bradley lost trust in the school after this incident. But this was just one of many examples of the school system’s failure to protect Bradley’s children, let alone prepare them for future success.

“We hear over and over again about parents who have transitioned from some types of schools to other types of schools, trying to find the best fit for their child,” Bradley says. “The reality is, most parents want their child to be learning, thriving, safe, cared for, and prepared for the future. And we weren’t finding that.”

Over the years, Bradley enrolled her two kids in 19 different schools, hoping with each one that they would receive a better education. She knew there had to be a better way for her children to learn than the conventional instruction these schools used.

“There’s no cookie cutter approach for children,” she says. “That’s the problem. A lot of schools want this one-size-fits-all approach. And that’s not the reality for our children. In a classroom of 25 children, you have 25 different learners, and each one learns on a different timetable. They learn in a different process.”

Bradley knew something needed to change — not just for her kids, but for all the children who were falling behind in the conventional school system. She knew her kids weren’t alone.

“Whatever hurts one child is hurting another one,” Bradley says. “If there’s something that hurts me or hurts a child, I need that changed for somebody else, because nobody else should ever have to go through this again.”

Bradley has demonstrated time and again a willingness to engage with her community for positive change. When her kids were struggling with their education, she volunteered at their schools to help create a caring and safe environment. And she worked with families in the community to ensure their voices were heard.

But even with these efforts, the learning environment did not improve.

“It’s sad, when I’m a parent who knows how to navigate the system and knows how to get what I need for my child, and it’s still not happening,” she says.

“This is my most prized possession. My child is who I’m fighting for. My child is who I need to thrive ... I need my children to know that they’re going to be successful when they get older, no matter what they’re doing. The path to success does not look the same for everybody.”

Engaged Detroit: Learning everywhere, all the time

The pandemic-era school closures were the final straw for Bradley. Faced with new challenges posed by remote instruction and a lack of support from the school, her daughter’s motivation and performance plummeted. She thought her only option now was to drop out and get a GED.

Bradley did not want that, so when her daughter requested homeschooling as an alternative to dropping out, she went all in and saw positive results immediately.

“I watched my child go from being this child who had no support during the pandemic — literally none — to thriving and loving learning,” she recalls. “She took ownership of her own education … I saw her happy for the first time about taking her own education journey.”

After connecting with other parents who homeschooled during the pandemic, Bradley made the decision to launch Engaged Detroit in the fall of 2020. She leveraged the skills of experienced homeschooling moms in the community. These moms provided coaching to novice homeschooling parents, who in turn became coaches themselves.

Bradley built a network of families who supported one another by sharing resources that helped their children engage in a fun and meaningful homeschooling experience. At Engaged Detroit’s downtown building, parents and their children came together for community events and coaching sessions.

“We decided if families just had a better understanding about what to do for homeschooling … then they’d do better with leading that process for their families,” Bradley says. “I am so honored to have our parent coaches because they are champions in homeschooling. They’ve been doing this for decades. Some of them are former educators. And we’ve even transitioned some of our parents who were getting coaching into now being coaches or parent facilitators who lead this process for other parents.”

The coaching service is free for parents and helps them navigate the world of homeschooling. Parents can learn about laws pertaining to homeschooling and state education standards. Coaches help them assess their child’s skill level and find the curriculum resources they need. Engaged Detroit also connects parents with other homeschool families and community partners that provide additional support for their child’s education journey.

One of these partners is Avalon Village in Highland Park. Boniswa Brock, an education consultant at Avalon Village, collaborates with Bradley to provide resources for homeschooling families in Detroit. According to Brock, “Bernita is an amazing miracle worker. What she talks about, and what she does and believes, is transforming for our community and for our families.”

Perhaps most importantly, by partnering with Engaged Detroit, parents better understand homeschooling and the countless learning opportunities it presents.

“What people don’t understand is that learning is everywhere, all the time,” Bradley says. “It can go from me being in a baking class with my child to me being in a mechanics class, a physics class, me building things with my children. It can come from the parent learning with the child, learning how to teach their child, all the way to children being at the Charles H. Wright Museum doing a history project. Learning for homeschool families is so phenomenal.”

Government barriers: Parent partnerships key to making a difference

Bradley’s story is not unique in Detroit. Many parents feel their children’s needs are not being met by the public school system, where only 5% of eighth graders are proficient in reading, according to national tests. These are the parents Bradley strives to reach. She believes more would rethink public school and consider unconventional learning approaches if they had the knowledge and resources to give their children a quality homeschooling experience. This is what inspires Bradley’s work.

Engaged Detroit now serves more than 100 homeschooling families and more than 300 children. The families reside in Detroit proper as well as in the surrounding metro area and beyond. While Engaged Detroit’s reach is expanding and demand growing, its impact is limited by constraints outside of Bradley’s control.

To serve more families, Bradley must hire more parent coaches and support staff, purchase additional curriculum resources, cover the cost of rent and utilities to keep her building open and dedicate more of her own time to running the organization.

While some entrepreneurs might charge parents a fee to offset these growing operational costs, this is not an option for Bradley. Most families served by Engaged Detroit lack the financial means to pay for the support services the organization provides. Many are from low-income backgrounds, and some are even homeless. Engaged Detroit’s mission includes providing parents with coaching regardless of their financial circumstances.

In a growing number of states (33, currently), school choice programs give parents the option to use public funds to offset the cost of private school tuition and other expenses like tutoring and curriculum resources. These include programs such as education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships and vouchers. In Michigan, however, public funds cannot be used to support any private educational expenses, even for low-income parents, due to a unique amendment to the state’s constitution added more than 50 years ago.

This amendment means most low-income families residing in Detroit cannot access educational opportunities that would give their children a better learning experience. While many parents choose to send their children to a charter school instead of the conventional district schools, some cannot make the same choice for lack of transportation or other barriers.

In the absence of school choice programs in Michigan, Bradley must rely on funding from private donors to sustain her organization. Her capacity to scale her innovative model and support more families is limited by the funding she’s able to secure from one year to the next. As a result, many families that lack access to more effective options will continue to be underserved by their local public schools.

In other states, parents with the support of public funds can access better options for educating their children. These funds provide a lifeline for many low-income families who would otherwise have no other choice but the one-size-fits-all model offered by their conventional district school. But in Michigan, many families still lack access to other options and are stuck in a system that is failing their children.

Perhaps in time, Michigan lawmakers will make school choice an option for more families in need. In the meantime, Bradley will do what it takes to continue her work and spread hope for other parents desiring more opportunities for their children. Through Engaged Detroit, she has shown that partnering with parents in the community is key to making a difference.

“I don’t deem myself as like this superhero parent,” Bradley says. “I deem myself as a parent who sees that there needs to be more parents like me. More like-minded parents who come together and say that we’re going to change the system that’s broken for our children.”