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Don Coleman: pastor and public school champion

Nathan Clarke and Laura Joyce Davis have a written and video profile of 7th District School Board representative Don Coleman up at Christianity Today.

It’s a great read, and difficult pull just one paragraph from:

Coleman was elected to Richmond’s school board in 2008, and two weeks ago was voted its chairman 9-0. He talks passionately about working with the school board, the city council, and Mayor Dwight C. Jones to give Richmond public school kids a brighter future.

But he’s also realistic about the challenges they face: 79 percent of Richmond’s 24,000 students receive free or reduced price lunches and belong to the 20 percent of Richmond residents living in poverty. A third of Richmond students don’t attend its public schools; those who can afford private school go elsewhere. Many of the students who stay come from broken families that are unable to adequately support them.

[…]

“As a community we have to do a better job of rescuing these young people. It isn’t their fault that they’re in a challenging situation.”

Nathan Clarke is film director for This Is Our City, and is currently working on a film series about Richmond’s natural landscapes. Laura Joyce Davis is an award-winning author based in Oakland, California.

• RELATED: The New School Choice Agenda (Christianity Today 4/9/2012)