opinion
Demand excellence in education
“challenging people to Shape
a better Future now”
b ernie F oSter
Founder/Publisher
b obbie d ore F oSter
executive editor
t ed b ankS
advertising Manager
J errY F oSter
account executive
l iSa l oving
news editor
h elen S ilviS
Multimedia editor
d avid k idd
graphic Designer
M onica J. F oSter
Seattle office Coordinator
J ulie k eeFe
S uSan F ried
Photographers
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T
he best quality education is
one of the most important
issues that will determine
ones future life, prosperity and
destiny. But for Black American
parents and students, this is the
single most important issue that
will affect not only our overall
quality of life, but also will deter-
mine how we will achieve to the
fullest extent actual freedom, jus-
tice, equality and empowerment.
Excellence in education should
not be just a matter for national
political debate and dialogue; it
should be the cause for urgent
grassroots social action, protest
and demand.
The truth is we are not making
enough noise and clamor about
what is happening to the majority
of Black youth in the public
schools systems across America.
Why are 45 million Black
Americans so silent about the fail-
ures of the primary and secondary
school systems when it comes to
the education of our children?
The high school dropout rate for
Black students continues to be
double that of White students.
This statistic has become so com-
mon that in many school districts
it no longer serves as the subject or
predicate for policy change at the
school board level. Yet we know
well the direct correlation between
low academic achievement and
persistent high school dropouts as
well as the direct correlation
between disproportionate high
unemployment and incarceration.
Income inequality is directly
related to educational inequality!
e ducation
S erviceS
Benjamin F.
Chavis Jr.
Poverty persists disproportionate-
ly in the Black American commu-
nity because of the absence of eco-
nomic empowerment that would
be fulfilled if we would educate
ourselves more fervently and
A recent study completed by
Stanford
University’s
Sean
Reardon established that income
inequality also predetermines how
well a student will do in school. In
other words, students from “rich”
families potentially do better in
school than students from “poor”
and working class families. For
the first time the study revealed,
“The achievement gap between
children from high and low
income families is far higher that
the achievement gap between
black and white students.”
The truth is we are not making enough
noise and clamor about what is
happening to the majority of Black
youth in the public schools systems
across America
urgently with excellence in every
subject matter and discipline of
But it should not be shocking
that the academic achievement
gaps are determine both by race
The future is in our own hands to the
extent to which we demand and
achieve the best education in the
world without apology or excuse
study. The future is in our own
hands to the extent to which we
demand and achieve the best edu-
cation in the world without apolo-
gy or excuse.
and economic class status. The
question is what can we do about
these systemic inequalities? This
is why I have joined the ranks of
the Black Alliance of Educational
Options (BAEO). The mission of
BAEO is to increase access to
high-quality educational options
for Black children by actively sup-
porting parental choices policies
and programs that empower low-
income and working-class Black
families.
From Mississippi to Kentucky to
Virginia, New Jersey, Missouri,
and New York as well as in
Alabama and other states, there is
a growing national movement of
Black parents and advocates for
school reform.
We salute the involvement and
leadership of some the outstanding
performing artists and young
emerging leaders in the African
American community who have
taken a public stand on the crucial
education issue. Especially we
note the renowned leadership of
John Legend. He is a member of
the Board of Directors of Stand for
Children Leadership Center and
the Education Equality Project,
two groups that work on education
reform.
Legend emphasized, “Half of
my fellow students dropped out
before graduation, I was one of the
lucky ones — I finished high
school and went on to college
…With a different situation differ-
ent teachers, maybe I would’ve
been one of those 53 percent of
young black men who do not grad-
uate from high school. One of the
53 percent doing the low wage
jobs, unemployment and prison.”
New York life: Parades and ‘Nut Drivers’
“J
immy, Jimmy...give this
man what he wants but
DON’T HELP HIM.”
It all started innocently enough
with the purchase of a “nut driver”
at my (former) favorite neighbor-
hood hardware store. Normally, I
would have searched out the tool
myself but the nut drivers were
hanging high above me so I asked
“Jimmy” for assistance. I handed
him the nut I needed to drive and
he selected the tool. Unfortunately,
when I got the tool home, it was
the wrong size. I took it back. The
manager was nearly apoplectic
that I wanted to return the tool
despite the fact that his employee
had picked it out for me. So….
Jimmy was loudly instructed to
not help me anymore. Finally, a
New York shop keeper worthy of
my disdain!
Now, it took me five months to
come across such a jerk but, yet,
many of our out-of-town friends
would fully expect to encounter
this type of treatment the minute
they set foot in New York City. An
Australian colleague, here on a
business trip, recently asked me if
it was safe to ride the subway to
reach our apartment at 7 p.m. He,
of course, didn’t realize that 7 p.m.
is still rush hour, but, even if he
had said 11 p.m., I would have told
him it was safe. Old stereotypes
about this town die hard.
One thing that hasn’t changed
about New York is the need for
resolve. I ride the train (subway)
to work. One many days, I’m
faced with a dilemma. A seat-hog
page 4 The Seattle Skanner november 30, 2011
n orthWeSter in nYc
Jeff Tryens
will, for either physio- or psycho-
logical reasons, occupy way more
than one seat. Sometimes two seat
hogs will sit next to one another
hogging a middle third seat. Sure,
I could just stand there waiting for
a seat to open up at Times Square,
OR I could plop myself down, cut-
My favorite part of the parade
was the float representing the
Oneida Indian Nation. It was a
fantastic combination of Oneida
beliefs, note creation story giant
turtle (Oops, sorry about that miss-
ing head.), and total kitsch, note,
well, the whole float. I understand
that the Oneida’s gambling opera-
tions give them the luxury to be in
the parade, but I admire their
attempts to marry traditional
beliefs with the dominant culture.
Assuming, of course, it’s not a
A seat-hog will, for either physio- or
psychological reasons, occupy way
more than one seat
ting right through the hogger’s lit-
tle “I dare you” shield. Well,
believe me, that requires resolve to
do on a regular basis.
I enjoyed my first perk of the job
this weekend. I was a winner in
the Mayor’s office lottery for
bleacher tickets to the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day parade. What a
scene. The same number of people
that live in the entire state of
Oregon line the streets of New
York to watch this extravaganza. It
was really fun but a little disap-
pointing. After you’ve seen 20
giant balloons, number 21 looks a
lot the same. Same goes for weird-
ly dressed marching band
majorettes. And so on. There’s a
kind of corporatized sameness to
the procession that’s just a little
boring.
cynical attempt to fit in allowing
them to maintain their monopoly
on the lucrative gambling trade.
Nah.
Every once in a while I am
struck with disbelief that we’re
actually living in Manhattan. The
other evening Pat and I stood on a
high rock in lower Central Park
overlooking a busy ice skating
rink framed with trees in the fore-
ground, tall buildings in the back-
ground all set off by a gorgeous
pink sky. Stunning. And to think
we were just taking a little detour
(that also included Rockefeller
Plaza) on our way to a see a
movie. It felt like we were in a
movie!
Work has been a little more chal-
lenging for me since city govern-
ment started pushing back against
the Occupy Wall Street movement.
I haven’t had to do anything that I
found distasteful but being on the
other side of the metaphorical
fence when the pushing and shov-
ing starts is no fun. I find it very
unfortunate that a group who’s
purpose is to expose the increasing
wealth disparities in this country
by focusing on corporate greed
has, in the process, made life mis-
erable for some of the country’s
most progressive mayors.
My latest challenge - I’m hiring
a statistician to develop a new
project in Operations based on a
concept called predictive analyt-
ics. By integrating data from lots
of different sources, we’re going
to try to predict the likelihood of
problems arising in the future. For
instance, we’re already looking at
how to better predict which acci-
dents will result in successful
claims against city government. A
colleague has created a program
that spits out a weekly list of the
25 residential building at highest
risk of a catastrophic fire based on
six different variables his team
examines. The idea is use these
techniques to better marshal
scarce prevention resources.
Anyway, I’m hoping that the
help in my new favorite hardware
store (which looks amazingly like
my old hardware store) will be
nicer. Who, after all, wants to live
in a neighborhood without a
decent hardware store?