opinion
Cuts in Education: A Failing Choice
A
ristotle got it right when he
said, “All who have medi-
tated on the art of govern-
ing mankind have been convinced
that the fate of empires depends on
the education of youth.”
Once upon a time America pro-
fessed to believe in a strong public
education system—at least for
some children. And we still talk
about public education as the great
equalizer and pathway out of
poverty but continue to fall far
short in assuring millions of poor
children, especially those of color,
upward mobility.
As if children and families were
not suffering enough during this
economic downturn, many states
are choosing to balance budgets
on the backs of children and to
shift more costs away from gov-
ernment onto children and fami-
lies who have fewer means to bear
them. That is a shameful trend in
public education today. Even
when students are in school,
they’re getting less than they used
to. Of the 46 states that publish
data in a manner allowing histori-
cal comparisons, 37 are providing
less funding per student to local
school districts this school year
than they provided last year, and
C Hild W aTCH
Marian Wright
Edelman
30 are providing less funding than
they did four years ago. Seventeen
states have cut per-student funding
more than 10 percent from pre-
recession levels, and four—South
Carolina, Arizona, California, and
Hawaii—have reduced per student
funding for K-12 schools more
than 20 percent.
These cuts have major effects on
critical learning opportunities. The
Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities has found funding cuts
in Georgia will mean shortening
the pre-kindergarten school year
from 180 to 160 days for 86,000
four-year-olds. Since the start of
the recession, Arizona, Florida,
Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts,
North Carolina, Texas, and other
states have cut funding from early
education programs to help close
budget shortfalls. New Jersey cut
funding for afterschool programs.
In a 2009 survey of California par-
ents, 41 percent reported their
child’s school was cutting summer
programs. Cuts limiting student
learning time are likely to intensi-
fy in the coming year. An
American Association of School
Administrators survey reports 17
percent of respondents were con-
sidering shortening the school
week to four days for the 2011-
2012 school year and 40 percent
These education cuts come at a
time when American education is
in dire straits. The United States
ranks 24th among 30 developed
countries in overall educational
achievement for 15-year-olds. A
study of education systems in 60
countries ranks the United States
31st in math achievement and
23rd in science achievement for
15-year-olds. More than 60 per-
cent of all fourth, eighth, and 12th
grade public school students in
every racial and income group are
We still talk about public education as
the great equalizer and pathway out
of poverty but continue to fall far short
in assuring millions of poor children,
were considering eliminating
summer
school
programs.
Summer learning loss is a major
contributor to the achievement gap
between poor and nonpoor chil-
dren. Districts across the country
are beginning to cut extracurricu-
lar activities and to charge fees for
supplies like biology safety gog-
gles or printer ink.
reading or doing math below
grade level. Nearly 80 percent or
more of Black and Hispanic stu-
dents in these grades are reading
or doing math below grade level.
A recent report by the Education
Trust notes more than one in five
high school graduates don’t meet
the minimum standard required
for Army enlistment as measured
by the Armed Forces Qualification
Test (AFQT). Among applicants
of color, the ineligibility rates are
even higher: 29 percent of
Hispanics and 39 percent of
African Americans are ineligible
based on their AFQT scores.
Children should be getting more
quality instructional time, not less,
to prepare to compete in the rapid-
ly globalizing economy. Instead
they’re being held back and pro-
vided less school days and hours
by stopgap solutions to budget
problems they didn’t cause. Too
many adults seem to lack a moral,
common, and fiscal sense context
for making decisions about what
to cut and what to invest in. The
Children’s Defense Fund’s first
publication in 1974 was on
Children Out of School in
America. We documented two
million children not enrolled in
school, including hundreds of
thousands of children with disabil-
ities. As we went door to door
interviewing thousands of families
in 30 census tracts for that initial
study, we never thought to ask the
question, “Is your child home
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Deltas Attacked: Stop the Violence Against Women
T
he Fort Worth Alumnae
Chapter of Delta Sigma
Theta
Sorority,
Incorporated held its annual
Sisterhood
Luncheon
last
Saturday, and I was privileged and
honored to be the keynote speak-
er. A cloud hovered over the
luncheon, though, and the media
was there to talk about it. Four
Delta women have been raped in
the Dallas Fort Worth area in the
last year by a serial rapist who
appears to be targeting women in
their 50s and 60s. The rapes have
caused such alarm that the nation-
al President of our sorority,
Cynthia Butler McIntyre, has
issued an alert, suggesting caution
in displaying Delta identification
on automobiles, and in wearing
identifying t-shirts and sweaters.
Every two minutes, someone is
sexually assaulted. More than
200,000 people, mostly women,
are sexually assaulted each year.
But only one in sixteen rapists will
spend even a moment in jail –
more than 60 percent of all rapes
are not reported to the police.
Most rapes occur within a mile of
a victim’s home, or in her home,
and almost two-thirds of all rapes
are committed by someone the
victim actually knows. Nearly 80
percent of all rapes are perpetrated
on women under 30, so the Delta
rapes are unusual in many
respects. Still, Delta Sigma Theta
Sorority has the opportunity to
turn the pain of these rapes into an
empowering moment by organiz-
ing to stop the violence against
women.
The Violence Against Women
Act (VAWA) was authored by
Vice-President Joe Biden when he
was the senator from Delaware. It
became law in 1994, and was
reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. It
is up for reauthorization again this
year, and while it should face no
trouble in Congress, who knows
b enneTT
C Ollege
Julianne
Malveaux
with this Congress? While there
should be no resistance to this
reauthorization, it is important for
women to remind their congres-
sional representatives that this
critical legislation must be reau-
thorized.
Additionally, there is a federal
agency that focuses on imple-
menting VAWA by providing
resources to organizations dedi-
cated to preventing violence
against women. The Office on
Violence
against
Women
(ww.ovw.usdoj.gov) is part of the
Department of Justice. Earlier
this fall, they held a meeting of
university chancellors and presi-
dents to talk about campus safety
and violence against women,
since college-aged young people
are more likely to be victims of
such violence than others are.
The office urges people needing
assistance to reach out to the
National Domestic Violence
Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the
National Sexual Assault Hotline
at 1-800-656-HOPE.
Although we are well into the
twenty-first century, we still treat
the crime of rape with nineteenth
century sensibilities.
Many
women lack the courage that the
Guinean victim of former World
Bank President Dominique
Strauss-Kahn (also known as
DSK) showed. Yet her treatment
is a cautionary tale about why so
many victims are silent. After
Naffissatou Diallo spoke up, we
learned all her business – that she
cleaned rooms for $25 an hour in
New York, that she had an
acquaintance or fiancé who may
have been involved in drugs and
was incarcerated in Arizona, that
she may have lied on her immigra-
tion application, and that she may
have earned income that she did
not report. Before it was all said
and done, charges were dropped.
Then DSK fled back to France
where he spoke of an “inappropri-
ate relationship” with Diallo.
Give me a break! When does
spilling your semen on someone
you do not know constitute a rela-
tionship? I digress. The point is
that many women don’t speak out
because they don’t want to be
dragged through the media mud of
scrutiny into their past lives. Even
a prostitute can be raped, but the
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november 23, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 5