When 23-year-old Ngoc Vuong takes his seat Monday on the Wichita Board of Education, he’ll be the youngest person and the first Vietnamese-American to serve on the board.
Vuong talked with Suzanne Perez and The Range about his new role.
The interview was edited for length and clarity.
PEREZ: What’s happened between the election and now, and what’s your mindset going into actually serving?
VUONG: During the campaign, what I enjoyed most was visiting our schools and speaking with our students, just to listen and learn from them about their experiences and the advice they would have for someone like me. After I won the election, that need to speak with our students and visit our schools was all the more important. So, it’s been a lot of school visits, a lot of meetings with community members. Because for me, I want a nuanced perspective on the issues facing our schools, but also the solutions.
The fact is, you're not far removed from your time in Wichita public schools. How do you think that will serve you as a board member?
I graduated in 2018. A lot of the same issues I was bringing up then, especially when it came to mental health, our students are bringing up to this day. There's always something we call the “file drawer problem,” where we have all these great ideas and nothing ever comes of it. But I also tell people that I'm still a student. I'm in grad school. And so some of the challenges our students are going through, I can relate to.
What are students telling you about mental health? And what do you think the school board can do, if anything?
They feel like, when it comes to underage substance use, it's been normalized. Our schools are complacent in dealing with it. It's just the status quo. And looking at behavioral health more broadly — violence and problematic student behaviors… One student at Northwest (High) asked me my thoughts on vape detectors in the bathrooms because several school districts have implemented them. I think we have to acknowledge that abstinence-only, punitive approaches, there's a lot of limitations to that. Yes, we have to hold them accountable. But just that mindset of punishment for the sake of punishment, it’s something I fundamentally disagree with.
I think what works is evidence-based prevention programs. We need to build a sense of community and belonging. We need to address some of those underlying risk factors for substance use, mental health issues and violence. And we need to leverage our students' strengths. How can we empower students to not just give us advice, but actually be at the forefront of improving student behavioral health outcomes and creating a culture that is conducive to the learning environment?
You're joining the board at a very challenging time. Enrollment’s going down; consultants are looking at potentially the consolidation or closure of buildings. How do you plan to approach that?
I think for me, it's how do we uphold transparency and accountability throughout this entire process? So, whatever it is, we have to communicate with our folks. And again, speaking to loss, acknowledging that there's going to be a lot of growing pains. We probably will have to close some school buildings, for the reason that we literally cannot afford otherwise. What I hope our community will do is ask us those tough questions: What would an ideal education, what would an ideal environment for you look like?
My personal philosophy is that, when it comes to budget cuts, we shouldn't frame it as “this versus this” or pitting buildings against each other. It's also looking at, ultimately, what pertains the most to students’ education? One of my personal philosophies is addressing bureaucracy and asking even the folks at the very top, “What would you cut?”
Talk to me a little bit about your background, and things from that background that will serve the districts in ways maybe that it hasn't been served before.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting an elementary school that has seen a lot of newcomers — students from other countries, especially refugees. When I went in there, there's actually a little Vietnamese kid, and this kid and I were just talking for — honestly, I lost track. But just seeing all the other kids’ faces light up when I told them that, ‘Hey, I am a school board member.’ And it’s not just necessarily my Vietnamese identity, but the fact that I am a young person. I have to acknowledge that people's eyes light up. It's a very empowering feeling for our students and our school employees, when you see yourself on the school board. And so it's my hope that eventually this will just be the norm.
I was born here, but I was part of the ESL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) program. Every year I had to take this KELPA test (Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessment). And I always found that test, honestly, very demeaning. When it came to English and reading, I got a 34 on the ACT, but I still had to take it.
The reason I was able to develop my literacy skills so significantly was because every week, especially during the summer, my parents would take me to the library. I would check out probably 20 or 30 books at a time. It started off with things like dinosaurs and archaeology, but over the years I gravitated toward systemic and structural issues, with a lot of science fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction embedded throughout. So I'm very grateful for the experiences I have had through our public library.
I know some librarians who would be thrilled to hear that. Libraries are under attack right now, with book challenges and book bans. What are your thoughts on that?
That was an attempted wedge issue with our school board elections. And I would say the results of those elections speak for themselves, in terms of what our community wants when it comes to freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and this suppression of intellectual curiosity and diversity of thought. The bigger issue isn’t what books people are reading, it’s whether people are even reading books. It’s like, you’re worried about what kids are reading? Let’s worry about literacy itself.
What do you like to read?
Right now I’m reading “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin. But what it boils down to is a lot of politics and a lot of aliens. Back in undergrad, I took a graphic novels class, and so “The Complete Persepolis,” “Watchmen” by Alan Moore, “Saga” – I love those.
