Page 8
Portland (DbserUer
January 27, 2010
Rising to Your Full Potential
Community colleges offer a path
by
A lgie
C. G atewood
“During the last eight years,
the poverty gap in America has
w id e n e d ,” w rite s M arcu s
Mundy, president o f the Urban
League o f Portland, in the intro
duction to the League’s recent
report on The State o f Black
Oregon.
“It has been said that when
America gets a cold, African
Americans get pneumonia. If
there’s a poverty gap for Ameri
cans g en erally , the A frican
American poverty gap widens
to chasm proportions.”
Sage words from Mr. Mundy,
and sobering words as well. The
hard fact o f the matter is that
despite the many and manifest
strides our society has made in
the direction o f equality - not
the least o f which is the election
o f the first African American
president o f the United States
- a substantial gap persists be
tween the relative positions o f
communities o f color and the
mainstream population.
Whether it’s in educational
attainm ent, econom ic status,
health, representation in the
criminal justice system, even
quality o f the local environment
- people o f color consistently
come out on
the losing end
in c o m p a ri
sons with the
majority.
C onsider
the following
fin d in g s
from the Urban League’s re
port:
with $46,800 for mainstream
households.
• By the time they reach the
1 Oth grade, 60 percent African
American students in Oregon do
not meet reading standards. Sev
enty-five percent do not meet
math standards, and 63 percent
to not meet writing standards.
• 3 7 percent o f African Ameri
can-headed families own their
homes, compared to 68 percent
o f mainstream families.
the more likely he or she is to
attain professional success, own
a home, maintain good health,
stay out o f prison, and - perhaps
most importantly - pass on the
importance o f education to his or
her children, thus ensuring that
future generations can share in
the American dream.
Again, there are a host o f
reasons why the American edu
cational system produces a dif
ferent set o f outcomes for dif-
Regardless o f background,
one’s economic security is a
direct function o f one’s level
of educational attainment.
underrepresented students en
rolled in community colleges are
the first people in their families
to seek higher education, com
munity colleges offer an acces
sible, less-intimidating environ
ment than many four-year insti
tutions.
For example, at Portland Com
munity College’s Cascade Cam
pus, where I am campus presi
dent, minority students are rep
resented at a higher rate in the
student body than they are in the
general population. This is due in
part to demographics - the cam
pus lies in one o f the most di
verse neighborhoods in Oregon
- but also because costs are
reasonable and systems are in
p la c e
to
su p p o rt
underrepresented and first-gen
eration students.
My intention here is not to
suggest that the deck is n ’t
stacked against some students -
the Urban League’s report is full
o f examples o f the pernicious
persistence o f inequality. Rather,
my objective is to show that the
pieces are in place at community
colleges for students o f all back
grounds to rise to their full poten
tial.
Over the course o f my career,
I have seen too many examples
to count o f the transformative
power o f higher education. The
road may at times be difficult,
but the opportunities exist. It only
remains for one to rise up and
seize them.
• Median income for African
American-headed households in
• African Americans are six ferent segments o f the popula
Oregon is $30,000, compared times more likely to be incarcer tion, and again, I’ll leave it to
ated in Oregon than members o f others to spell out those reasons.
the mainstream population.
As much as the educational sys
Much ink has been spilled over tem needs reforms to improve
F ill O u t & Send To:
the decades in an attempt to access and quality for minority
explain the root causes o f these students, these same students
disparities, as well as their stub
| Ann-. Subscriptions, PO Box 3137, Portland OR 97208 I born persistence even in an age are faced with the reality o f the
moment - they need education
I s u b s c r i p t i o n s a r e j u s t $ 6 0 p e r y e a r I that has been described by some and job training now, not at some
J
(please include check with this subscription form)
I as “post-racial.” I w on’t re-cross far-off point in a rosier future.
that well-traveled ground; most
There are many barriers be
N ame :
people, in any event, can come tw een
tra d itio n a lly
T elephone : _______
I up with their own, quite accu underrepresented students and
I
rate, explanations for the linger higher education, most notably
I A ddress :
ing social and economic divides c o st and a v a ila b ility o f
I
between Americans o f different coursework. So in many cases,
I o /' em a il su b sc r ip tio n s@ p o r tla n d o b se r v e r .c o m I backgrounds. Rather, I would
a great option for minority stu
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — j
propose a simple, elegant solu dents is com m unity college,
Algie C. Gatewood. Ed.D.,
tion - education.
where these barriers are signifi is president o f Portland Com
The common denominator that cantly reduced if not eliminated
m unity C ollege s Cascade
undergirds the statistics above is entirely.
Campus. You can read the
education. Regardless o f back
Community colleges offer the Urban League o f Portland’s
ground, one’s economic secu most affordable tuition, and the
report on The State o f Black
rity is a direct function o f one’s greatest variety o f scheduling
Oregon
at
.u lp d x.o rg /
level o f educational attainment. opportunities. And given that a
StateofBlackOregon.
The more educated a person is, s ig n ific a n t p ro p o rtio n o f
Q I , h o p r i h p I 503-288-0033
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Your Care
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Marines in Haiti
The M arines have landed. Not a new expe
rience for Haiti.
While Americans are focused on the natural
disaster, many o f us are unaware that much o f
Haiti’s disaster is manmade. Made in the USA.
From the early days o f the republic, when the
U.S. imposed a trade embargo for 60 years
(fearing a spread o f the slave revolt), Haiti has
been economically crippled by American impe
rialism. U.S. corporate interests in Haitian sugar
and coffee plantations were enforced by a Ma-
rine occupation from 1915 to 1934.
More recently, subsidized U.S. agribusiness
products have flooded Haitian food markets,
driving small farmers o ff the land to work in
American-owned industrial sweatshops.
In2004, the U.S. military removed the elected
president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, who had
dared to raise the minimum wage in those sweat
shops.
Beware whose interests are served by the
“humanitarian” Marines.
Jamie Partridge
Northeast Portland