U.S. Department of Education Announces Civil Rights Investigations

Right now students all across Florida are taking the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). This test determines whether 3rd graders will be promoted, whether seniors will graduate, how much funding a school will get and school grades. I have noticed that schools with the largest minority populations are often the ones that have the most trouble reaching that much desired “A” status. This inequality in schools is taking place all across the country. Why is that? And more importantly what can we do about it?

The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, seems to think these sorts of unequal outcomes in schools is evidence of civil rights abuses. Duncan took part in a march at the legendary Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama this week. He and other leaders were commemorating the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when demonstrators were beaten down as they marched peacefully for the right to vote.

Duncan calls unequal education the “civil rights issue of our time.” After the march, he announced there will be a nationwide investigation of civil rights in public schools. Thirty-eight school districts will be reviewed to see if they are in compliance with the U.S. Constitution’s mandate for equal education for all students.

A good education is often a ticket out of poverty. If a child develops a love of learning and the confidence in his or her learning ability, he or she can get a good education, a good job and become a productive member of society. However, at some point in their schooling, many minority and low income students begin to lose hope in what the educational system can do for them. They look for other ways to get by. Often the other ways lead to the criminal justice system. This contributes to a cycle of criminality and poverty in our communities.

In the district where my child attends school (Seminole Co., FL), just like in many districts across the country, the schools that serve minority and low income populations get the most inexperienced teachers. Might this contribute to the reason these schools also end up with “C” ratings and below and students without faith in education? And in the schools with a majority white and higher economic populations, the minority students are often segregated within the schools and put into tracks. Sometimes those tracks don’t even get counted when determining the school grades. So many of the “A” schools are “A” schools minus the minority scores. So just sending your child to an “A” school doesn’t mean they will get an “A” teacher or an “A” education.

The Department of Education is investigating to see which districts are equal access districts. They will be looking at areas such as student access to college preparatory classes, discriminatory discipline and tracking. School districts that are found in violation of students’ civil rights could lose funding or be referred to the Justice Department. How would your district measure up?

Still Seperate, Still Unequal, Now What?

The Supreme Court declared mandatory separation of whites and blacks in schools to be illegal over 50 years ago. Ever since that ruling, school districts have come up with all sorts of creative ways to do it anyway.

Orange County, Florida made a deal with the federal government to let them stop busing white kids to schools in black neighborhoods back in 1996. Now the NAACP has brought a law suit against the school district because the district has failed to hold up its end of the bargain, which was to make sure the predominantly black schools were not neglected.

The fact that school boards and white parents buck against and manipulate the system could be one reason why the whole integration experiment just doesn’t seem to be working. We’ve been fighting for over 50 years for true integration. We’ve done everything we can think of to prove how separation by race is harmful. Still, government reports and findings from agencies like the Center on Education Policy consistently show blacks lagging behind whites on every educational indicator.

Black students are absolutely capable of achieving. So what is really going on here? We need to have a frank discussion about what is keeping our kids from doing well in school. Sure, students at predominantly white schools get the more experienced teachers and more up-to-date equipment. But the question that presses on my heart is why can’t black students learn just as well in black schools. I am certainly not advocating for segregation by any means. I believe that exposure to different cultures is education in itself. But sometimes, as we can see, that just isn’t happening. Sometimes black kids will go to predominantly black schools. So I think we need to deal with the question of why does black school equal bad education. We need to candidly admit that good education begins at home. One of the problems (and I’m coming to see it as the main problem) is that our kids come to school with some disadvantages that the school itself did not create. But we expect the school to fix it. When people start talking like this, they get accused of blaming the victim. People jumped all over Bill Cosby for the following comments at the NAACP Brown vs. Board of Education anniversary dinner:

“Ladies and gentlemen, these people set… they opened the doors, they gave us the right, and today, ladies and gentlemen, in our cities and public schools we have 50% drop out. In our own neighborhood, we have men in prison. No longer is a person embarrassed because they’re pregnant without a husband. No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child.”

People accused Cosby of hating black people, of blaming the victim. Well I think he said those things because he loves black people. He’s just trying to figure out what is going on. No, we don’t need to blame the victim. We need to concentrate our resources on helping the victim help himself. We put all of our research, funding, and advocacy into trying to get the teachers, the principals, and the government to lift us up. Sure we pay taxes and we should fight for better schools. But some of our energy could go into closing the achievement gap in the home. After all, the problem starts before the student walks in the doors of the school. How can you solve such a major problem just depending on children who ultimately have to depend on their parents? We’re skipping the parents. That’s backward.

We put all of our money and resources into convincing school districts, principals and teachers to accept our kids and believe in them. Meanwhile, the cycle of low achievement continues. Our community can instead come together and work toward convincing, supporting and teaching our parents so that parents will know how to do what it takes to make sure their children are ready to learn.