VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. — Principal Lauren Dressback didn’t think about it after it happened. After all, she was workplace-close with Wesley Smith, the custodian at Cahaba Heights Elementary School, in this affluent suburb of Birmingham. She called him “the mayor.” She said that he knew her two children, asked about her family almost daily and […]
The South
The coronavirus pandemic hit communities hard in the rural Deep South, where schools are already among the most ill-resourced in the nation, well-paying jobs are few and necessities like Wi-Fi, public transportation and medical insurance are often out of reach. The Hechinger Report is investigating these problems and covering resiliency and innovation in communities fighting back against an education system that has yet to eradicate systemic racism and white supremacy.
