Jilly Gokalgandhi Works for Equity in Education
Newly elected to the Milwaukee Public School Board representing District 5, Jilly Gokalgandhi has big plans for her new role. Committed to following through on her campaign promises, she is determined to make policies centered around equity, which include funding for special education, multilingual education, and working on restorative justice practices. As an immigrant, she brings a unique lived experience to her role and cares deeply about creating an education system that is inclusive for all students.
Born in Mumbai, Gokalgandhi moved to the United States with her family at the age of three and continued to go back and forth between India and America throughout her childhood. “I have this understanding of culture and how the world works from two perspectives: South Asian and American.” she explains. She was inspired by the Indian freedom fighters who helped India win its freedom from the British (only 74 years ago), as well as the many other activists who fought against the establishment. That fascination with the country’s history sparked her interested in government and democracy.
This year, Gokalgandhi decided to run for office for the first time after years of working in public education. “What motivates me to run is we need people who have seen first-hand what’s going on in our community and who have stories like mine and like our students,” she says.
Rethinking Discipline
She’s most excited about working on ways to rethink the disciplinary systems in our public schools and repairing harm with students rather than punishing them when they do something wrong. “Our kids don’t need to be spending an afternoon in a juvenile detention facility,” she says. “Our kids don’t need police in the building. They are children.” Gokalgandhi heard story after story from families during her campaign telling her that the current system doesn’t work – punishing students doesn’t solve the problem. Instead, Gokalgandhi explains, we need to repair relationships between students and staff and establish policies that teach staff and students how to resolve conflicts.
This work starts by taking a deep look at the current theories around restorative justice in the school district and partnering with the people that have already been doing this work like the organization Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT). She says we need to “understand how we can further champion and fund that work, so that it’s given the importance it needs to be given.”
Gokalgandhi says she’s learned so much from the people she met across the city on her campaign trail and she’s using those stories to fuel her work in her new role. “This campaign has reminded me that there are amazing people in our community who are really committed to making sure that we live in a thriving place.” With a fresh set of eyes and diverse experiences, she brings a passion to Milwaukee’s school board, fighting to make sure students of all backgrounds have equal access to education.
Read this story on the Shepherd Express, part of the column Hero of the Week.