Joyce Wilkerson is one of the first nine members appointed by Mayor Kenney to the Philadelphia Board of Education (BOE) in April 2018. Beginning in July 2018, the Board will oversee the School District of Philadelphia.
Joyce has an extensive career in public service. She most recently served as a mayoral appointee and Chair of the SRC, where she oversaw milestones such as the creation of a new teachers’ contract and the return to local control.
What area of the city do you call home? What do you like to do in your free time?
I live in Northwest Philadelphia. Outside of work I like to garden, and travel when I have time.
Who were the people in your life who helped you to form your values?
My family has always valued education. My mother was working on her PhD in early childhood education and childhood development when she got married and started raising kids. And my father, who was orphaned early in life, was determined to get an education so that he could build a life for himself.
What motivated you to join the Board of Education?
Education is important – and we’re running out of time before we have another generation that is not going to have the opportunities that they deserve.
Tell us about your educational journey. What inspired you to pursue the majors and degrees you now have?
I went to public schools in Cleveland. There was a day when I came home from third grade and I told my mother I needed more coloring books, because I was finishing my work quickly and the teachers would tell me to use the free time to color. But gifted programs weren’t the kind of thing that was offered to black kids. It was clear to me then how insidious racism was in the education of black kids, and how pervasive the discrimination was. That was part of my political education.
I went to Mt. Holyoke for two years, worked for the NAACP in New York, and then went to the University of Pennsylvania before attending Berkeley Law. I saw law and going to law school as an extension of the civil rights movement, and I specialized in poverty law and legal aid.
What are your personal goals for your service on the Board?
I think we need to re-engage people in the city around education. We need to build a community vision of public education. What the 2001 state takeover did was drive everybody into their own journey for public education. People gave up on the system as a whole.
More than fifteen years later, we realize that people have become very disconnected from public education – and that’s not good for the city. It’s a cost that the kids pay.
What do you think is important for our school system’s success?
We need to stabilize the finances. The District is being very focused and strategic with its investments, but there just aren’t enough resources. The kids don’t have the exposure they deserve to have to the arts. The classrooms aren’t the physical places that kids ought to have available to them. We need to expand what we’re offering to students.
What was your first impression of the slate of Board appointees?
They’re not the usual suspects. For me, one of the biggest benefits of the new Board structure is having more people around the table to share the work. We can have real committees. I look forward to getting to know the other board members and their involvement in public education up to this point.
