Page 6
January 6, 2016
O PINION
Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the
Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and
story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com.
Don’t Want to See Mistakes of Past Repeated
The education
inequality
struggle
m arian W right
e delman
2015 was a hard
year for poor chil-
dren and children of color in a
gridlocked and cantankerous Con-
gress. The Every Student Suc-
ceeds Act replacing the No Child
Left Behind Act was enacted after
gutting a strong federal role in ed-
ucation policy designed to protect
these children and jeopardizing
their opportunity for a fair and ad-
equate education to prepare them
for work in our globalizing econ-
omy.
Over the past 50 years under
the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act too many states vi-
olated their responsibility to serve
their poor and non-white children
equitably, did not comply with the
law and misused huge amounts of
the funds intended for poor chil-
dren for other purposes. With the
loss of federal accountability in
the new Act, I hope we will not
see the mistakes of the past re-
peated and poor children fall fur-
ther behind.
In 1969 the Children’s Defense
by
Fund’s parent body the Washing-
ton Research Project and the Legal
Defense Fund conducted a
thorough study of how funds
from Title I of the landmark
Elementary and Secondary
Education Act were being
spent. It found that states
widely used federal money
as general state aid for all
their children without targeting it
to eligible children most in need,
sometimes to maintain still segre-
gated and unequal schools.
Massive and continuing state
and local violations of account-
ability and poor achievement lev-
els for the neediest children result-
ed in passage during the George
W. Bush Administration of the No
Child Left Behind Act with bipar-
tisan support including Senator
Ted Kennedy and Congressman
George Miller — which attempted
to build in a much needed stronger
federal accountability role.
The new Every Student Suc-
ceeds Act begins a new era but
without needed federal account-
ability and relying on hopes that
all states will fulfill their crucial
responsibility to educate all their
children fairly and prepare them
for work and life. To ensure we do
not repeat the mistakes of the past,
all of us — every parent, child and
community advocate who cares
about our nation’s future — will
have to work very hard.
It is nation threatening when we
look at how our children in pub-
lic schools are performing in the
fourth and eighth grades in 2015
and see more than 75 percent of
lower income children, more than
80 percent of black children and
required to help fix schools where
student test scores are in the low-
est five percent, where achieve-
ment gaps are greatest, and in all
high schools where fewer than 67
percent of students graduate on
time using evidence-based pro-
grams approved by the U.S. De-
partment of Education.
To ensure we do not repeat the
mistakes of the past, all of us —
every parent, child and community
advocate who cares about our
nation’s future — will have to work
very hard.
more than 73 percent of Latino
children cannot read or compute at
grade level. What is a child going
to do in a competitive globalizing
world if he cannot read and com-
pute at very basic levels, is unable
to graduate from high school, or
is shunted into a cradle to pris-
on pipeline accelerated by unjust
zero tolerance school discipline
and misdirected special education
policies?
While states will set their own
goals and timelines for academic
progress, their plans will require
federal approval. States will be
The Act takes significant posi-
tive steps to help students in foster
care who have not had targeted
attention before by state and lo-
cal education agencies. Although
public child welfare agencies have
had obligations for ensuring edu-
cational stability for these children
for a number of years, the new law
helps ensure their school stability
and educational success.
There are important improve-
ments in the Act for more than
1.3 million children and youth
experiencing homelessness also
focusing on school stability and
success. State and local education
agencies must ensure their Title I
plans promote identification, en-
rollment, attendance and school
stability of these children.
As hard as it has been for poor
and other vulnerable children to
move ahead and to make adequate
progress even with federal account-
ability, it will be even harder with-
out it. Parents, community leaders,
public officials and child advocates
must hold state, district and school
leaders accountable for establish-
ing and meeting performance tar-
gets for children. They must join
with state and local education
agencies to insist on increased re-
sources to address the needs of the
most vulnerable children.
Child advocates and parents
must ask for and review state and
local school plans and notify the
U.S. Department of Education and
local media if they think school
districts are neglecting some chil-
dren or violating the new law. At
stake are millions of children’s
hopes, lives and futures. Those
unable to read and compute and
graduate from high school are
being sentenced to social and eco-
nomic death. They deserve better
in the world’s biggest economy.
Marian Wright Edelman is
president of the Children’s De-
fense Fund.
Stakes High for Opportunity and Justice Issues
Social structures
of the past are
challenged
m arC h. m orial
The 2016 Presiden-
tial election still is more
than 10 months off, but
already it promises to
serve as a referendum on
social justice and racial
reconciliation, in a year when na-
tional attitudes are changing faster
than ever – and not always for the
better.
Pending U.S. Supreme Court
decisions and legislation before
Congress in 2016 will profound-
ly impact racial consideration in
college admissions, voting rights,
collective bargaining and criminal
justice reform.
The court’s decision on Fisher v.
University of Texas, brought by a
white woman who claimed she was
denied admission to UT because of
her race, could put an end to efforts
by educational institutions to ensure
by
diversity among their student bod-
ies.
The constitutional principal
of “one person, one vote,” estab-
lished in 1964 in Reynolds
v. Simms could be undercut
by the court’s decision on
Evenwel v. Abbot. In Reyn-
olds, the Court determined
that legislative districts, both
state and federal, must con-
tain roughly equal numbers
of people, guaranteeing fair
representation. The plaintiff in Ev-
enwel claims that “one person, one
vote” refers only to the total voting
population. That would mean that
urban districts, which contain more
children, immigrants and other dis-
enfranchised persons, would be dra-
matically under-represented while
suburban and rural populations
would be grossly over-represented.
The rights of public-sector
unions are at risk in Friedrichs v.
California Teachers Association.
Under current law, unions may
collect dues from non-members
for collective bargaining but not
political activity. Friedrichs argues
that even collective bargaining ac-
tivities, from which non-members
benefit, are political so non-mem-
bers shouldn’t have to contribute.
Public-sector unions have been
a driving force in bringing Afri-
can-American workers into the
middle class; Friedrich could turn
back the clock on that progress.
Congress has an opportunity
in 2016 to correct one the most
egregious blows to voting rights
in the 20th century. The Supreme
Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby
County v. Holder gutted a key pro-
vision of the Voting Rights Act of
1965. Jurisdictions with a history
of discriminatory voting practic-
es no longer would be required to
seek preclearance with the U.S.
Justice Department before making
changes to voting laws. Immedi-
ately following the Shelby deci-
sions, states rushed to enact voter
suppression laws targeting peo-
ple of color, students and senior
citizens. The bipartisan Voting
Rights Amendment Act would re-
store preclearance and safeguard
the rights of vulnerable citizens
whose voices are being silenced.
Heading into 2016, the nation-
al outcry against police brutality
seems to be reaping results, with
officers in Chicago, North Charles-
ton, S.C., Baltimore and elsewhere
at last facing criminal charges for
apparently racially-motivated vi-
olence against people of color.
This could be the year for a full
turnaround if the National Urban
League’s 10-Point Justice Plan is
adopted. Congress should enact a
national comprehensive anti-racial
profiling law, mandate uniform
FBI reporting and audits of all le-
thal force incidents involving law
enforcement, and create incentives
for police departments to use body
and dashboard cameras, review
and revise deadly force policies
and tighten hiring standards.
Perhaps most importantly, the
economic recovery from the Great
Recession has left many urban
communities behind. The overall
black unemployment rate remains
twice the rate for whites, with rates
as high as 25 percent for young
black men. Many people working
even two or three jobs can’t make
ends meet because of dismally low
wages. Several Presidential candi-
dates have promised, if elected, to
pursue a national minimum wage
hike, which would be a signifi-
cant step toward reducing pover-
ty. Tired pledges to slash taxes on
the wealthy, which we’re hearing
from many of the candidates, will
do nothing to create jobs. Con-
gress has an opportunity to create
thousands of jobs and revitalize
the national economy by enacting
a surface transportation bill that
guarantees employment for work-
ers in low- and moderate-income
communities and ensures access to
contracts for minority businesses.
As our nation grows more di-
verse year by year, the social struc-
tures of the past are challenged.
We in the National Urban League
Movement will continue to be at
the forefront of those challenges,
and we pray for guidance as we rise
to meet them in the coming year.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer of the
National Urban League.