Opinion
Schools: A Failing Grade in Chicago
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
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B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
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The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
L
ast week, emboldened edu-
cators in Chicago who are
members of the American
Federation of Teachers finally
euphemistically said enough is
enough and put their collective
feet down on the streets by striking
against the city of Chicago, and
the so-called reform of national
education favored by the White
House and United States Depart-
ment of Education.
Beyond mischaracterizations by
the corporate-owned media teach-
ers in Chicago are not looking for
a free ride on the reform bus, but
are challenging the very structure
of American education. In short,
the chalk board is divided into two
sides: One that enhances and sus-
tains public educators—from pay
to preparation, to pensions, and
another that would privatize the
$600 million American education
system to the highest bidder for
profit.
The question to be answered is
whether public education should
be privatized? Unfortunately, it
seems that Mayor Rahm Emanuel,
current Chicago Mayor and for-
mer White House Chief of Staff is
on the wrong side of the issue.
The Chicago teachers have the
right answer.
A review of American public
educational history is useful. In
1853, against the will of the
wealthy and corporate barons, the
United States established a public
school system for all students (in
theory). Prior to that, only White
children of the rich and resourced
were privileged to be educated
until high school or college. Fol-
lowing the American Civil War,
B LACK
L EADERSHIP
Gary Flowers
the federal government launched
the Reconstruction in which pub-
lic school for Black and White
students—albeit separate and
unequal—existed. In 1896, The
United States Supreme Court ruled
1960s such “leaders” realized that
their public taxes were going to
schools in which Black children
were being educated. Thus, the
first of education voucher ideas
appeared to allow White parents to
opt to send their kids to virtually
all-White public schools in addi-
tion to their private schools. By
the 1970s, courts instituted
mandatory busing to public
schools to enforce the “all deliber-
ate speed” phrase included in the
Brown case.
In the 1990s, the concept of pub-
The problem was never the public
schools and public teacher unions,
but rather the lack of full funding by
the federal government and support
for public unions that represent public
teachers
in the Plessey v Ferguson case that
a racially separate national school
system was constitutional. By the
1930s Charles Hamilton Houston
and Black civil rights lawyers
challenged the racially separate
and unequal national education
system that culminated in the sem-
inal Supreme Court case of Brown
v. Board of Education, in 1954.
After Brown, the idea of privati-
zation began by White parents
who did not want the children to
attend public schools with Black
children. White business leaders
and clergy aligned to establish all-
White, private academies. In the
lic charter schools was developed
across the country. The idea was
to use public funds to create pri-
vate schools with private sector
money and private investors. Yes,
“Public Charter” schools have pri-
vate investors who seek financial
dividends.
Public education
should be an American right and
not a private privilege. In the
name of “reform,” Charter schools
arose as the public school system
and its teachers were vilified as
failing to educate students. The
problem was never the public
schools and public teacher unions,
but rather the lack of full funding
by the federal government and
support for public unions that rep-
resent public teachers.
Currently, the federal govern-
ment only contributes 9 percent of
public school funding. The other
91 percent is allotted by state and
local educational entities. In many
cities Public Charter Schools are
used as an alternative threat to
public teachers should their test
scores not rise. In effect, the
White House’s “Race to the Top”
educational program forces teach-
ers and school districts to compete
for funding. Predictably, teaching
the tests to students, and cheating
on tests has resulted. Enter Chica-
go teachers.
By standing up to give the right
answer Chicago teachers are chal-
lenging the entire public school
and public union debate. In a
revealing sense, the fight that pub-
lic unions fought in Wisconsin
against a right-wing Republican
governor last year is playing out in
Chicago against a Democratic
Mayor, and by silence the Demo-
cratic White House. Hmmmm!
If American pubic school stu-
dents are to compete with their
counterparts around the world, our
nation must declare public educa-
tion a matter of national security.
As such, teachers need to be paid
well with livable pensions, public
teacher unions need to be support-
ed, facilities need to be upgraded
to 21st century standards, and the
White House and Congress should
support legislation rewards—not
punishes—public educators.
Read the rest online at
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Telephone (503) 285-5555.
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National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ-
ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers
Association.
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property of The Skanner. We are not re -
spon sible for lost or damaged photos
either solicited or unsolicited.
© 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED.
REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART
WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED.
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Page 4 The Portland Skanner
Double Whammy: Poverty, Unemployment
L
ast week, we learned that
African American unem-
ployment rates stayed level
last month, with an absurdly high
official unemployment rate of
14.1 percent. Unemployment
rates for African American men
fell, while those for African
American women rose. These
rates are way too high and under-
state the extent of pain that exists
in the African American commu-
nity.
The philosopher Albert Camus
wrote, “Without work all life is
rotten,” because so many people
value and define themselves by the
work they do. Indeed, at many
professional social gatherings the
first, second, or third question is:
“What do you do?” Work seems
to anchor us to stability, and to the
world. Too many African Ameri-
can people have no anchor.
While President Obama, Vice
President Biden and other key
Democrats have acknowledged
that unemployment rates are not
falling quickly enough, few deal
with the psychic effects that unem-
ployment has on the person. For
many, it causes a malaise and a
sense of absolute disconnection.
Others feel disillusioned and
depressed, although others use
their own talent at entrepreneur-
ship to create work where there is
none, using skills to offer goods
and services to their neighbors.
We don’t need government data
to validate the pain that many in
September 19, 2012
B ENNETT
C OLLEGE
Julianne
Malveaux
the African American community
experience, far more pain than
experienced in other communi-
new data on income and poverty
suggest, again, that African Amer-
icans experience a greater burden
than others in our society. The
poverty rate among African Amer-
icans rose from 27.6 to 27.8
percent.
Some might describe these num-
bers
as
“not
statistically
significant,” but try telling that to
the 200,000 more African Ameri-
cans in poverty. Overall, poverty
rates dropped slightly from 15.2 to
We don’t need government data to
validate the pain that many in the
African American community
experience, far more pain than
experienced in other communities
ties. The overall unemployment
rate dropped from 8.3 to 8.1 per-
cent with African American
unemployment staying level,
means some are enjoying our tepid
economic recovery, while others
are waiting for gains to trickle
down.
Unemployment data were
released on September 7, and the
poverty data released on Septem-
ber 12. That’s a double whammy
for African Americans. Not only
is the employment situation stag-
nant, with “real” unemployment
rising as high as 25 percent, but
15.1 percent. This means that
nearly one in six Americans expe-
rience poverty, while one in four
African Americans and Hispanics
experience poverty.
Incomes have dropped by more
than 8 percent in 2007, and again
African Americans have lost
more. While household incomes
fell by 1.5 percent between 2010
and 2011, African Americans
incomes fell by 2.7 percent, the
largest drop of any racial or ethnic
group. I don’t mean to underesti-
mate anyone’s pain. All incomes
fell, but African American
incomes fell most. African Amer-
ican incomes hit their peak in 1999
at $38,700. Today, with dollars
adjusted, the amount is $32,200,
the lowest level since 1997. At the
top or at the bottom, African
Americans lost ground.
In the face of this double wham-
my, how do we answer the Reagan
question: “Are you better off than
you were four years ago?” Econ-
omists have described the “misery
index” as the sum of unemploy-
ment rates and poverty rates, and
using that index, all of America
has seen erosion in status.
Still, legislation to improve both
poverty and unemployment rates
has been stuck in legislative grid-
lock because House Republicans
would rather see people suffer
than to see President Obama
appear successful. But for the
obduracy of House Majority
Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and
his posse, including Vice Presi-
dential candidate Paul Ryan
(R-WI), we might see lower
unemployment and poverty rates.
More importantly, the Congres-
sional Budget Office says that
extreme spending cuts and lower
tax rates for the wealthy will
plunge us into recession in six
months or so. As President Barack
Obama says, we have choices; we
are at a fork in the road. The dou-
ble whammy of poverty and
unemployment is a body blow.
Spending and tax cuts will take
African Americans from the hos-
pital into the emergency room.