What’s really discouraging is that about an hour away from where you saw that concert, an entire school district in a majority-black city is falling apart.

I have friends who teach there. They’re dedicated and caring. They buy books and supplies for the kids out of their own money. But it’s not enough. Teachers don’t make enough money to buy books for everyone. So, kids have to share.

Classrooms often go unheated in the winter, and buildings are falling apart.

Racism is baked into the system from the start. The way we traditionally fund our school systems favors wealthy (read: white) communities.

Then the charter school movement comes into play, which especially in Michigan sucks money from already struggling public schools.

The effect is racist. An entire city of Black people lack a functioning public school system.

There are bright spots here and there, but the system as a whole is badly broken.

And Betsy DeVos, the Michigan millionaire and politician who is partly to blame for the whole mess now heads up the Department of Education for the Trump Administration. Cheery thought, eh?

Oh, and she’s the same woman who cancelled policies protecting trans kids in school.

Funny how it all comes together.

Plenty of research possibilities for you. We need change bad.