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We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. New Prices Effective May 1,2010 Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services L u t h e r K in g J r . Finding Our Way Back to First Our children deserve the best education by B enjamin T odd J ealous Every g en eration believes their children deserve to be better off than they were. This b elief inspired the first slave rebellion in 1663, when a new law dictated that children of African slaves would not be able to rise above the status of their parents. This belief led Linda Brown’s parents and the NAACP to defeat segregated schooling. And it is this belief that keeps education at the center of the modern-day movement for social justice. Brown v. Board of Education built a launching pad for educa tion in the 21 st century by remov ing barriers to equality and open ing doors to opportunity. African Americans gained the confidence that their children, and genera grams. longer school days, longer school tions of children to come, would Last month, the NAACP re years and more years of educa indeed have access to a better leased a report titled “Finding Our tion. Schools also need to offer future. But somewhere along the Way Back to First: Reclaiming broad-based programs that ex way, America sputtered and lost World Leadership by Educating tend beyond the regular school its way. All America’s Children.” Our pro day, year and curriculum. Nearly 50 years after the end of active agenda builds off the foun Finally, we need to target our desegregation, we are still only dation laid by Brown v. Board of resources at those schools that sending about one out of four Education, and it is just as fo need them most. We should di students to college. In a knowl cused on quality as it is on access rect additional state funds to edge-based economy, excluding to education. school districts with high con three fourths of our students from “Finding Our Way Back to centrations of low-income stu higher education is no longer ac First” offers research-informed dents. And we should target funds ceptable. prescriptions for untapping the from all levels to help those schools According to the Organization potential of our students. The and students who are struggling for Economic Co-operation and NAACP is asking its over 1,200 hardest to achieve. Development, the United States active units to advocate for the The NAACP earned its reputa ranked 14th out of 34 OECD following reforms: tion in education by removing countries for reading skills, 17th First, all students should have obstacles that blocked children for science and a below-average a strong educational foundation from learning. But now is the time 25th for mathematics. Secretary before kindergarten. This means for proactive reform. of Education Arne Duncan called high quality, universal To make the promise of a bet this “an absolute wake-up call for prekindergarten that supports ter life for our children real, we America.” strong literacy and language skills. must support student learning and The time for tinkering and Second, we need effective achievement. We must be deter small-scale experimentation is teachers and leaders. Every mined to help every child reach over. In order to lead the world’s school, regardless of location and his or her full potential and thereby global economy, we must create resources, should have a strongly ensure that we, as a nation, lead the world’s brightest workforce. prepared, well-supported teacher and serve globally. This starts by fixing our educa in every classroom. Benjamin Todd Jealous is presi tion so that all students can gradu Third, students need more time dent and chief executive officer ate college and career-ready pro for more learning. This means o f the national NAACP. Job Creation is an Urgent Priority High unemployment calls for balanced fiscal plan by M arc M orial The latest jobs report has confirmed what ur ban America has known for a very long time: The “fierce urgency of now” is overtaking the slow pace of the economic recovery and continuing partisan gridlock in Washington. The report released on the first week of January reveals that 155,000 jobs were cre ated in December and overall unemployment remained at a steady and still too high rate of 7.8 percent. But the unemployment picture in urban America tells a decidedly different story. African-American unemployment, which has hovered at twice the national average for decades, has now climbed to 14 percent and the Hispanic jobless rate of 9.6 percent also continues to exceed the national average. Despite the efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive voices in Congress, the jobs crisis in urban America has reached emergency proportions and is tearing at the economic and social fabric of many communities. That is why, the Na tional Urban League has announced a new $70 million “Jobs Rebuild America” initiative designed to employ, educate and empower communities that have been hardest hit by the Great Recession. Our campaign is a two-pronged effort. First, through a $70 million public-private expansion of existing Urban League job train ing, education and business development programs, we intend to directly assist thou sands of jobseekers and entrepreneurs in dozens of cities over the next five years. The second component of the Jobs Re build America initiative is a public engage ment campaign to increase pressure on Wash ington to invest in the education and skills enhancement of at-risk youth and disadvan taged young adults. We also call for passage of targeted jobs legislation and a responsible fiscal plan and deficit reduction initiatives that do not exac erbate the unemployment crisis. This effort is an outgrowth of the National Urban League’s historic mission of eco nomic empowerment for African Americans and other hard-pressed urban citizens. It also builds upon the work that our network of nearly 100 affiliates has been engaged in since the start of the Great Recession. Our affiliates have served as economic first responders for communities devastated by job loss. They have also been successful in creating economic opportunity and pre paring thousands of people to avail them selves of those opportunities. We’ve worked closely with our partners in the private sector and the federal government to maximize resources and mobilize the strength of our collaborative efforts. For this expanded effort, we have put together a powerful coalition of public and private partners who have pledged their exper tise and other resources. They include, the U.S. Department of Labor, Nationwide Insur ance, Everest College, Pitney Bowes, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Stonehenge, UPS, State Farm, Target, Best Buy, the U.S. Depart ment of Justice, AT&T, Time Warner, Chev ron, BP and the New York Stock Exchange. Our collective message is this: While we believe it is important to tackle deficit reduc tion, job creation remains the nation’s num ber one priority. We urge the President and the Congress to adopt a balanced approach that marries com passion for the most vulnerable Americans with protections for the nation’s jobs and sacrifice from all. Marc Morial is president and chief execu tive officer o f the National Urban League.
