The Shame of the Nation Essay Pt. 1

Dear President Obama,

I am honored to serve on the “U.S. Commission for Improving the Quality of Education Opportunity for Marginalized Children in the United States.” I know that there are many positive attributes to an American education; however, there is much more to be done to ensure quality. I agree that conditions have worsened since Brown vs. Board of Education and it has been ignored or overlooked.

America, we have failed our schools by intentionally and unintentionally restoring segregation. In the book The Shame of the Nation, Kozol attacks the disparity in expenditures on education between central cities and wealthy , and the system of property taxes which most for funding school systems and states rely on. It describes how, in the United States, Black and Hispanic students tend to be concentrated in schools where they make up almost the entire student body. Kozol found that conditions had grown worse for inner-city children in the 50 years since the Supreme Court in the landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education dismantled the previous policy of segregated schools and their conceit of "separate but equal".

The chief most significant cause to resegregation in America is due to socioeconomic status. The rich live in luxury and the poor struggle for survival. Socioeconomic status determines the quality of education a child receives. Funding for education is provided by the federal government and from property taxes. The property taxes of the inner city are value far less than the suburbs. The more property taxes, the more funding for your school district. For example, in Arizona, a typical class of children of low income receives $29,000 less than does a class of nonpoor children, in Texas $23,000 less, Pennsylvania $33,000 less, in Illinois nearly $62,000 less and in New York $65,000 less (page 246). These numbers have determined that our suburban students are worth more value than their counterparts. As commissioner, I would like to increase more federal funding per pupil in the inner city in efforts to build better facilities with state of the art technology and to provide inner city students with more resources conducive to learning.

The Robin Hood approach would not be successful because taking money from the rich to give to the poor will upset “hard working families” and people do not want to share the wealth and only invest in the school district their child attends. I have seen money taken from the suburban schools and the funds improved athletics in the inner city and not toward education. However, equal funding for ALL students is a passion for mine. Education should not be depicted by dollar signs. President George W. Bush once compared increasing the funding of urban schools to “pumping gas into a flooded engine,” implying that any additional funds received by urban schools would be a waste. Is the value of a child similar to a flooded engine?

In the education system, children are viewed as an investment. It's like buying into a stock. Those who want to invest into a good stock, will invest their money and time into children who will be more successful. The children who are not able to mature intellectually and academically, are not children people want to invest in.

In many cities, wealthier white families continued to leave the city to settle in suburbs, with minorities comprising most of the families left in the public school system. This is known as white flight. White flight is a form of segregation because it allows a group of people to be separated in one particular area known as ghettos. When minorities begin to integrate into predominantly white neighborhoods, the demographics change from mostly white to a minority neighborhood. There is lack of diversity in our communities, therefore we are not able to live, work, or play with other races. Flight indicates fear, it indicates separatism, and most importantly it’s another form of segregation. For example, a friend of mine Richard Mills, who also served as a commissioner of education, discussed about a virulent resistance in East Meadows to keep students from Roosevelt integrating their schools.

The fliers said that Roosevelt schools were “failing badly,” because of rampant violence” and “drug sales” and “continual assaults” and other problems such as “teenage pregnancies.” If the integration plan went through the fliers warned “we will have no choice except to remove our children from the Eat Meadow schools and away(page 158).” This residential segregation is a repeat of the segregation of the 1950’s, but are accepted with terms such as school zone or school district. In Alabama, an area of apartments that were populated by minorities and was a part of the suburban school district but was soon annexed from the district and those students had to attend the inner city schools. As commissioner, I would suggest combining school districts, especially the smaller districts with other districts. This will allow populations of race to integrate and more federal funding will be used to accommodate the growth in populations.

Segregation has a major impact on the educational and cultural climate of schools. Minority students who attend suburban school districts are a part of a curriculum that they are not able to identify themselves with. Minorities of the inner city are taught the fundamentals of an American education. Fundamentals include ideologies, concepts, theories, literature, and history that are mostly credited to white scholars, leaving little curriculum to discuss the achievements of minorities and their contribution throughout history. As commissioner, I would like to implement a multicultural education. Research indicates that lessons, units, and teaching materials that include content about different racial and ethnic groups can help students to develop more positive intergroup attitudes if certain conditions exist in the teaching situation (Banks, 1995b). These conditions include positive images of the ethnic groups in the materials and the use of multiethnic materials in a consistent and sequential way.

The structure of classes in public schools is different than suburban areas. Disciplinary and behavioral corrections are a main focus in school. Recess is removed from elementary schools and is replaced for time focused on standardized testing. Teachers are emphasizing on standardized testing rather than being passionate for their specialty subject. Our expectations of inner city students are too low. Kozol’s addresses how inner city students are trained or given career choices that will make them “governed” and not “governors”. For example, one school official said, “We must start to think of students as workers” (p.94). We must instill in our youth they can be more than workers, beauticians, basketball players, rappers, or cashiers. But we must initiate a psychic conversion for our students to think of themselves as equal, capable to achieve, and give them affirmation that they are human, too.

“We now have far more educated black adults who have participated in desegregated schooling and who don’t want to go back. We also have a lot more white adults who have experienced school integration and have seen it work successfully.” Most people are not “doing anything politically today,” Orfield said, “but we should challenge them to act….” (page 122) We must stand up to segregation. No child should be left behind.

Sincerely,

Christopher Brown