TEXAS’ Widest Circulated and Read Newspaper with a Black Perspective

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SCHOOL “DAZE” 2004-05
Education from a Black Perspective

“The U. S. Department of Education (USDE) currently administers a budget of about $63 billion per year and operates programs that touch on every area and level of education. The Department's elementary and secondary programs annually serve approximately 14,000 school districts and nearly 54 million students attending more than 93,000 public schools and 27,000 private schools. Department programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to over 9.5 million postsecondary students.”

At first glance, USDE’s 2004 report on ED.gov, validates that America has the most effective (free) public education system in the world, therefore should be the most literate. “No Child Left Behind” notwithstanding, but from a common sense, Black perspective, the nation’s antiquated public school system is broken and desperately needs fixing, insofar as Black America’s children are… not only being left behind, but are being blamed for their misfortune. Low test scores aside, African American News & Issues would be remiss, as Black American’s uncompromised editorial voice, not to tell it like it is. And truth is, when you consider how far descendents of slaves have come in 139 years of freedom and only 50-years of integrated schools, we should be Black and proud. In spite of Bill Cosby’s controversial “Blind lead the blind” misconception.

Conversely, it’s fashionable to indict Black America’s underserved, disenfranchised parents for their inability to properly parent their confused children (any better than their confused, functioning illiterate parents were able to parent them), Black America has historically done more with less-- to produce more of the nation’s most creative, innovated and dedicated workforce—than any other ethnicity indigenous to the United States of America and all of its colonized provinces. If, however, one uses stats and data accumulated by the mainstream media, that sadly is co-opted (as gospel), by some of the Black media, perhaps it’s time for one to go back to school. Black perspectives aside, access www.arc.org/erase/history.html, and peruse the Exposé of Racism & Advance School Experience (ERASE), a resource for parents, teachers and students.

If you still need mainstream America’s validation, please read: “Public Schools in the United States: Some History: The timeline” asks and answers, “Why are there public schools in the United States? This may seem like a question with an obvious answer, but not all countries have free public schools. In many countries, people have to pay to send their kids to school not only to college, but also to high school and even grade school. In the United States, public education has not always been free or universal. Race has often been the deciding factor. The original U.S. Constitution did not recognize slaves as full human beings, let alone citizens. It's not surprising that southern states made no provision for their education.
But southern laws went further than that. Slave owners considered Black literacy so dangerous until it was illegal for African Americans (whether slave or free) to learn to read, or for anyone to teach them.

“Until 1905, when the Supreme Court ruled the practice unconstitutional, California law excluded Chinese children from the public schools. But today in the United States, grade school and high school are not only free, but until you're sixteen years old, school is compulsory. Why? Reasons you usually hear for why we have public schools: *Because the United States is a democracy. Our citizens need to be educated so they can make good decisions. *Because there are no economic classes in the United States. Everyone is created equal and everyone has the same chances. Public schools give everyone equal access to education. *Because people have to be able to compete, if they are going to be able to make a living and be productive citizens.
“Some real reasons we have public education in the United States: Public schools give businesses something they need: a pre-trained workforce that has been taught important skills. These skills may include ability in subject matter like reading or math, but even more important to business is attitude. Public schools teach ‘skills’ that business owners find very useful like competition, obedience and respect for authority. Public schools create the illusion that everyone has an equal chance. Even though some schools are rich and some are poor, the fact that everyone can go to public school is supposed to prove that if people of color can't get ahead, there is something wrong with them with their culture, families and community, or their genes.
“One way of looking at the history of public education in the United States is to see how wealthy people and business shaped the schools to contain and control poor people and turn them into useful workers and consumers (See TwiliteZone.com). For this reason, rich people are willing to support public schools with their tax dollars because they benefit.” However, Black America is constantly fed a steady stream of misinformation and propaganda that has convinced us that today’s African Americans are anti-education, therefore we are wont to believe the supposition, “There are more Black males—between the ages of 17-24 in jails than in colleges. Unfortunately, that negative data is thoroughly ingrained in Black leader’s malleable minds. The fact that stats are only gleamed from 4-year accredited Universities (See Bud’s Eyeview), Black America’s most skilled workers aren’t even considered in the research.

Thus, one has cause to pause and ponder why Black America isn’t taking advantage of the Brown vs. The Board. Especially when one reads politicized articles such as, “President Bush’s 2005 budget request includes $419 million—an $18.8 million or 4.7 percent increase—to assist higher education institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” So why are we blaming the White power structure for our educationally woes? Surely, one can easily see how White America maintains control of education when they read: “Without debating the reasons for these realities, let’s take a look at the ethnic makeup of the faculties of our educational institutions. Data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (2003), showed that approximately 3 million of the nation’s estimated 3.5 million k-12 teachers (public and private) are white.

“That translates to about 85%. Post-secondary education is slightly different; 75% (2,148,845 of a total 2,883,175) of America’s college and university educators are white. A 2002 Independent Postsecondary Education Data System’s report on the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities further emphasizes these discrepancies. In collecting data from the 105 CCCU member colleges and universities. They found that there were only sixty-two African-American male faculty members – and of these sixty-two, 37 were part-timers. Only 7 African-American males held Executive, Administrative or Managerial positions. As I stated before, we don’t have to debate the reasons why these discrepancies exist; but the fact of the matter is they do exist.”
Even so, there is only one college in the nation that had a 100% graduation rate? Would you like to hazard a guess to name that university? Believe it, or not, but according to The Race Relations Reporter’s Old Dominion University’s Facts by Race & Ethnicity: “Texas College in Tyler, Texas, achieved a perfect 100 percent graduation rate for black students entering the college in 1996. Butler-Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina, was not far behind with a black student graduation rate of 98 percent. In addition, 11 of 76 HBCUs had high graduation, e.g., Spelman College (76%), Clafin U. (70%), Morehouse College (65%), Fisk U. (61%), Xavier U. (59%), Talladega College (54%) and Miles College (52%).

In essence, even if more Black males between the ages of 17-24 are in jail than college, the U. S. Census reports that of the estimated 38.3 million African Americans (13% of nation’s population), 79% of our 25 and over, had at least a high school diploma; 17% had college degrees and 1.1 million have a Master’s, Ph.D, M. D., or J.D. Thus, don’t count our kids, who’re left behind, out of the race until the fat lady sings.