Failing to Make the Grade

“I NEVER RODE A BIKE WITH TRAINING WHEELS,” SAYS TAHEEM FENNELL. One day, when he was four, he just ran and jumped on, his feet pushing forward on the pedals. Taheem is now 13, but his riding has been curtailed. His mother forbids him from tooling around their Quaker Hill neighborhood in Wilmington, Delaware, because she’s worried about his safety. In the summer of 2017, Taheem’s 16-year-old sister, Naveha Gibbs, was shot and killed 20 minutes away; she was with a 26-year-old man thought to be in a gang.

In the crisis over income inequality in the U.S., Wilmington is ground zero. For youth, the city is the most dangerous in the country. In Taheem’s neighborhood, where students are predominantly black, schools are underfunded and under-resourced.

They’re also being neglected by the Trump administration. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ push for alternatives to the traditional public system would help drive students toward charter schools and private schools at the local level. (Her Obama-appointed