In this essay, Gloria Ladson-Billings describes her reaction to Barack Obama’s election and her desire to share these historic moments with folks she considers “everyday people.” She then looks to the future of education in the United States and highlights obstacles to the Obama administration’s meaningful engagement with education issues. Ladson-Billings uses the frame of interest convergence to suggest that this new administration has the opportunity to engage in pragmatic politics and to put forward polices that simultaneously promote both the interests of public school students— particularly those from disenfranchised communities—and national interests. She illustrates this argument through a chronicle imagining a future discussion among the president’s cabinet. Finally, she closes by describing the power of the president’s inauguration for uniting diverse communities and broadening the definition of everyday people.

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Gloria Ladson-Billings conducts research that focuses on the successful teaching of African American students, culturally relevant pedagogy, and critical race theory approaches to education. She is the author of Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (1994), and her work has appeared in Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, and Teachers College Record.