By day, Carmita Semaan thinks of ways to keep people who look like her fulfilled in their jobs as educators and school leaders.

But at night, there is a lot keeping her up.

“It feels like perilous times,” she told The 74.

The philanthropic backing for the work to build up pipelines for more educators of color — which saw unprecedented support in the wake of George Floyd’s killing — is dwindling. And a generation of young people are being challenged to see education as a viable career, amid poor wages and political restrictions, said Semaan.

“A number of funds that were set aside specifically for diverse leaders and educators, those things are being sunset now,” said Semaan, who founded the Surge Institute in 2014 to provide leadership development opportunities for educators of color in several American cities.

“The wild enthusiasm that we saw for elevating and amplifying leaders of color and having them be thought leaders, those tones are becoming more muted.”

After nearly a decade supporting Latino, Asian, Native and Black leaders like herself thrive in higher level positions in districts nationwide, Semaan has witnessed ebbs and flows in public opinion, success and philanthropic priorities when it comes to diversifying the workforce.

In conversation with The 74, she reflected on the biggest challenges to bringing in more leaders of color, her personal experiences being discouraged from the field, and what’s at stake for the next generation without systemic change in recruitment and retention.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell me about what you’ve been seeing, hearing, thinking. What is the state of diversifying teacher and leader pipelines right now?

It feels like perilous times.

In 2020, because of the combination of the pandemic and the racial reckoning post George Floyd, there was a lot of attention being paid, or at least lip service being given, to education equity. Regarding the need for not only creating pathways, but for retaining teachers and leaders of color. At the time, when people asked me a very similar question to the way you’re asking now, I would say I was cautiously optimistic.

The reason I was cautious is because I think that this work has to be movement work. And it felt like people were responding to a moment with all the right words. But if there’s not true belief that is grounding those words and activities, then when the next thing comes, it is very easy to pivot away from that.

I’m thinking about … the role that pay disparity and politics play, and how that weaves into the ability of teachers to do their job. Burnout from the past two and a half years is particularly impacting teachers of color. I think that those things should give us all pause, and cause us all to question whether that bump of interest and commitment and urgency post George Floyd, if that somehow lost its luster.

People have felt that they’ve checked some boxes and are now moving on, whether it be book banning or school boards and fighting for seats.

Read the full article about racial inequity in k-12 education systems by Marianna McMurdock at The 74.