It was a dream years in the making for sisters Candace and Melinda Shaw: to open their own tutoring center in their home borough of Brooklyn.

“When I was younger, our parents made a library in our home, and we had a whiteboard, and I was doing math problems all day on it, and it was so exciting for me," Candace said.

It began during the early days of the pandemic when schooling went remote. The duo offered math tutoring in their East New York home. They recognized a need.

"Parents started struggling with online learning. I mean, they needed a lot of help,” Candace said.

They quickly outgrew their space.

After doing a market analysis, Candace and Melinda realized Bedford-Stuyvesant was lacking in after-school learning programs.

"If you go to different areas, maybe like Park Slope, there are a lot of educational centers for children. So we said, 'Hey, we need this in our neighborhood,'" Candace said.

"Why Hate Math?" was born out of love for the subject, and recognition of education disparities among children of color. Candace and Melinda are co-owners.  

Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) shows that Black students score lower than white students in both reading and math. Additionally, Black and Hispanic students are more likely to drop out of high school compared to their white peers.

There is also a funding gap: The NCES reports that on average, school districts with high percentages of minority students receive less money than schools with predominately white students. Data from The Education Trust show that in some districts, it is up to $2,700 less per student.  

“One of the things that I've learned through teaching and through doing further research on trauma and healing in schools is that we've got a design issue for schools. New York City is the most segregated school district in the country. And so because certain schools are made for certain people, and because we design schools, not for cultural affirmation, not for well-being, not for collaboration, we have the results that we do," said Wenimo Okoya, the director of the Center for Strategic Solutions at NYU.

Okoya started her career as a middle school teacher, where she said she saw both health and education disparities firsthand.  

“The thing that kind of really writhed my spirit was that students not too far down the road had a very different experience than my kids. Simply because of where they were born, their ZIP code, that sort of laid out what their future might look like," Okoya said.

In an effort to break the cycle, not only does Okoya believe more resources should be allocated to these schools, but more support should be given to parents to increase involvement.  

“One of the things that people don't know is a major driver of disparities with regard to funding is the activity of the PTA. PTAs in affluent white communities have a lot of access to capital, social capital, financial capital, that allows them to bring that into their schools," Okoya said. "And so if we could figure out a way to empower parents in low-income Black and brown communities, and come together as a city, maybe you have a school that has more resources supporting a school that doesn't."

While helping children excel at math is the core of their mission, Candace and Melinda say the kids — and their parents — are getting so much more out of it.

“We always say that we focus on their confidence. So it kind of starts with how you view yourself, because a lot of them don't view math as something that they should know. So we have to kind of break those stigmas," Melinda said. "But it really doesn't just start with the students, it starts with their parents. Because it's not something that they really prioritize. Because unfortunately, the parents might have also had that issue growing up."

Since opening in 2023, more than 200 kids have come through their doors looking for support. Candace and Melinda will soon be launching a nonprofit to reach even more students in the community to further bridge the education gap.

“We've seen so much transformation. Their grades are definitely improving, their confidence has improved so much. Children who would have previously found every reason to go to the restroom to escape doing an addition problem are now coming in and saying, 'Ms. Melinda, look at what I'm doing right now, give me any problem. I'll solve it for you!'" Melinda said. "So it's not just necessarily what's happening in the classroom, but also just having that level of confidence in them knowing that they could really do the work now."