April 20, 2016
Page 7
O PINION
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Voting is Key to Education Reform
We are facing
some tough
choices
b rian l. P auling
Education – the an-
swer to many of the
problems ailing our
country – is getting
the least amount of at-
tention from the can-
didates on the presi-
dential campaign trail.
According to a November
Gallup poll, only four percent
of Americans consider educa-
tion or education policy to be the
most important problem facing
our nation. Respondents instead
cited the economy, poorly run
government, immigration, gun
control and health care of most
concern. While I agree that these
are important issues, we at 100
Black Men of America, Inc. be-
lieve that without a quality edu-
cation, many young people, par-
ticularly African Americans, will
be condemned to lives of pover-
ty, incarceration and despair.
As a nonproit mentoring or-
ganization, the education of our
youth is one of our top concerns.
by
In our advocacy work, we have
sought to raise public aware-
ness about the need to reform
our nation’s education system,
especially in predominately
African-American and
low-income communi-
ties where far too many
of the schools are failing
our children.
We are working to
ensure that every child,
no matter their zip code,
has access to high-per-
forming schools. Schools with
caring and nurturing environ-
ments, high-performing teach-
ers, rigorous curriculum, and the
proper materials and technology
are some of the key ingredients
to preparing our kids to suc-
cessfully graduate high school,
handle college-level coursework
without requiring remediation,
compete in a global marketplace
and become productive members
of society.
How we get there is the real
question. One answer is by vot-
ing. When we go to the polls
in the upcoming primaries and
in November, we will not only
elect the next president. We will
use our voting power to also
make important decisions about
our children’s education.
In some states, for example,
the electorate will be asked to
decide whether to turn the op-
erational and decision-making
control of failing schools in their
communities over to their state
governments. Others will be
asked whether more charter pub-
lic schools should be permitted
to open in their communities to
provide families with an option
to traditional public schools. Still
others will be asked how mon-
ey raised through state lotteries,
property and sales taxes, and state
and federal allocations should be
earmarked to support educational
initiatives from cradle to college.
As voters, we are facing some
tough choices. Many of our lo-
cal public schools are struggling
and some even failing, but is a
state government takeover the
answer? There has been a de-
cades-long imbalance in the dis-
tribution of educational quality
and opportunity due, in part, to
how public schools are fund-
ed, but will proposed funding
formula changes address those
inequities and produce success-
ful outcomes? If we allow more
charter schools, will that irre-
versibly damage our traditional
public schools or will the com-
petition make both stronger?
What happens to the children
and schools in our communities
will depend largely on the ac-
tions we take as voters. Elections
at both the federal and local lev-
els – from the school board to
the statehouse and from the as-
sembly to the White House – are
vitally important. We need to be
talking about education in our
households and at PTA meetings,
in our barber shops and coffee-
houses, and in our workplaces
and houses of worship.
But transformation doesn’t
come by talk alone. We also must
take decisive action. We can start
by increasing our knowledge of
the issues, committing to exer-
cise our right to vote, encourag-
ing others in our communities
to do the same and then casting
ballots for candidates for whom
education and the academic suc-
cess of our children are top pri-
orities.
The choice – and the vote – is
ours.
Brian L. Pauling is national
president and chief executive ofi-
cer of 100 Black Men of America,
Inc. Learn more about the work
of The 100 at 100blackmen.org
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