Pew economic mobility study

The Pew Charitable Trusts study on the impact of neighborhoods on economic mobility gives some credence to a point I’ve tried to make to local political and education leaders for some time now. Until we fix our neighborhoods, we will not close our achievement, income and health gaps in this country. Instead of blindly pouring more money into schools and prisons, we have to fix our neighborhoods. Children growing up in poor neighborhoods are difficult to educate, even with the best teachers. The stress of poverty on their families can be daunting. The debilitating effects apparently linger into adulthood.

Obstructionists would kill the Golden Goose Charlotte

The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners cannot allow the forces that would destroy the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system to succeed in their strategy of “death by a thousand cuts.”

Those forces don’t include those suburban parents who rightfully desire adequate space and facilities at the now crowded schools attended by their children.

But it does include the movement, with lingering ties to the pro-segregation era of our region’s history, which believes public schools are no longer desirable or indeed necessary.

Whether opposing equitable school spending or complaining about the school system’s diversity, their ultimate underlying solution is an end to public schools and imposition of education vouchers.

Why else would a county commissioner propose ignoring the facilities needs of inner city children, while catering to the new children whose parents were drawn here, ironically in part, because of our diversity. Those opposing the $618 million bond issue do so for the express purpose of ensuring the break-up of CMS. They would oppose any equitable bond package. Remember, these are the same forces which opposed the last bond and it was even less than any of the proposals on the table today.

If we allow CMS’s destruction, if their mission is accomplished, such a victory would slit the throat of the Golden Goose Charlotte.

It was community diversity and a demonstration that Charlotte represents the South’s future that helped create this city’s many economic successes. Those successes have drawn so many new families to us. New schools are needed in the suburbs because their employers put down roots here.

We are home to two of the largest banks in the nation and world. There’s more money deposited in this town than in any other in the nation, save New York City.

IBM, Transamerica, Microsoft, TIAA-CREF…. There’s an endless list of Fortune 500, national and international corporations with headquarters or major facilities here.

Charlotte is home to NFL and NBA franchises, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, Discovery Place, Imaginon…

This is a place to raise a family, build a future.

Newcomers flock to our community. CMS is enrolling more than 4000 new students a year. This despite the “flight” everyone talks about these days.

This board must not allow opponents of an equitable bond package to kill the Golden Goose by neglecting the diverse communities for which Charlotte is known and respected.

 

Question of the Day

Can we close the educational achievement gap between black and white students and between poor and middle class students? Or, perhaps the better question, can we do so without fixing the troubled communities most of our failing students call home?

Question of the Day

Why are people poor?
Weigh in with your comments.

The African American Agenda Town Meeting

Like many in Mecklenburg County, I was a bit cynical about last weekend’s (Jan. 5-6) African American Agenda Town Meeting.
The event, organized by the Lee Institute at the behest of N.C. Sen. Malcolm Graham, a former Charlotte City Council member with one term in Raleigh under his belt.
Graham secured a state grant to organize a community discussion of the problems facing African Americans, and by extension Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, the state of North Carolina and our nation.
More than 1,200 people, twice expectations, attended the meeting at the Charlotte Convention Center. Whites and Hispanics were sprinkled among the gathering. A number of Charlotte business and organizations contributed, spearheaded by Wachovia Bank.
The day’s activites included an opening keynote by Juan Williams, an African American journalist, a full reception, a continental breakfast and boxed lunches.
Williams is best known for his chronicle of the Civil Rights Movement, Eyes on the Prize. His latest book is Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America — and What We Can Do About It.
But his talk Friday night was far from a Cosbyesque attack on the failings of black youth and their families. Instead Williams wove a historical narrative, with an imagined reincarnated Martin Luther King, to document the betrayal of the Civil Rights legacy evident the current state of a large slice of Black America.
Economist Julianne Malveaux spoke at Saturday’s luncheon.
The work was done in break out sessions where small group discussions illicited discussion on issues involving the legal system, economics and entrepreneuralship, education and neighborhoods.
Improving the education system was almost universally determined to be the No. 1 problem requiring immediate action. Economics followed close behind and legal issues was third.
Graham wanted the meeting to result in a set of clearly defined priorities and action steps which would have immediate impact. Those solutions will be determined in coming weeks. For now, the results of last week’s discussion will be posted on a website maintained by the local Urban League (www.urbanleaguecc.org). Individuals, groups and public officials are encouraged to read the material and get involved in solving the problems.
As Graham made clear, the work begins now, after the talking. It’s time for doing.
Will anything come of it all? Sure. Most of those attending were already involved in solving community problems and will be reinvigorated and inspired to do even more. Others will be inspired to contribute in some way, if no where else but in their own families and among their circle of friends and neighbors.
But it is possible that all the talking will lead to a focus on solving problems rather than complaining about what went wrong with King’s dream. African Americans, joined by others, broke the bonds of Jim Crow 50 years ago. They have the capacity, with support from the entire community, to close the class divide and the educational, economic and social achievement gaps.
Each of us must do our part, whether mentoring young children or coaching young entrepreneurs or counseling young mothers.
The time to act is now. Failure is not an option. Our nation can not long endure the present circumstance.
Will all the problems be solved immediately? No. But the inertia of inaction can be broken.
Our nation runs on the belief that anyone can be successful through hard work. This ideal cannot be achieved by everyone, but the mere attempt accomplishes much and fuels the world’s greatest economy. More African Americans need to join those of us trying to do better, trying to accomplish some good – for ourselves, our families and our communities.
The talk during the CM3A town meeting was enlightening, empowering and inspiring.
Now, we must act, in our homes, our neighborhoods, our communities. Tomorrow must always be better than yesterday.

To Fix Schools we must fix families and communities

We will not fix the educational system until we fix our troubled communities. It’s that simple.
Children from troubled families and neighborhoods will struggle in school. Some will do well. Others will graduate. But many – too many – will become illiterate adults unprepared to become taxpaying workers.
Our society wrings its hands and tries harder and harder to fix our educational system. New techniques and methods are tried. All to no avail.
Why? Because the problems have more to do with what happens to our children before and after school than what happens during the seven or so hours they spend at school.
If we want to fix schools we have to find more ways to help the families of their students. These families have no health insurance. They do not earn livable wages, even if they are able to find work. Mental health and substance abuse issues if diagnosed, often go untreated. Transportation to and from work, PTA meetings, and doctors are problematic. Houses are barely livable and in some cases unsafe and unhealthy. Crime is rampant around them and they are more likely than any of us to be victims of break-ins, robberies and assaults.
In such circumstances, immediate crises take precedence over the long-term goal of high school graduation.
It may not be a coincidence that the progress toward closing the achievement gap seen in the 70s and early 80s, slowed and was even reversed as conservatives succeeded in convincing the country that family aid programs were unnecessary, blaming families for abusing programs such as food stamps and income assistance. These same conservatives are working hard now to make it more difficult for minorities to attend college. The long term impact of such policies do not bode well for the nation.
Since family aid programs have been cut or eliminated, rising numbers of children from the poorest families have failed in school and many communities are witnessing an increase in youth crime and gang activity.
It is easier to blame teachers than ourselves.
Conservatives, eager to opt out of public schools with voucher programs, have used the education system’s failures as a wedge to gain support for a middle class escape clause.
That’s why President Bush champions No Child Left Behind but fails to fund it or even enforce its basic element – an effective, credentialed teacher in every classroom. It’s easy to say hire better teachers, but it’s hard to find them. And if students do opt out of failing inner city schools, where is there room for them in crowded suburban classrooms.
School systems will continue to fail until we succeed to fixing the problems of poor inner city families and communities.

Technology can help solve youth crime problems

Someday in Mecklenburg County:
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Charlotte Police Officer Jones picked 12-year-old James up outside a local mall about 11:30 a.m., a curfew violation. James is 50032-321 in the “database.” The 321 meant James’s mother abused drugs and was unmarried.
Officer Jones logged the contact with 50032-321, noting that a sister, age 16, opened the door when he took James home around midnight. She said his mother was working.
School counselor Smith got the “alert” on 50032.321 on her computer at 7 a.m. She pulled Officer Jones’ full report. She had had recent contact with James, who was among a group verbally abusing a new student in the cafeteria.
The counselor forwarded the “alert” to the assistant principal in charge of discipline and to James’ homeroom teacher. Later, about 9 a.m., the teacher e-mailed her that James was not at school yet.
The counselor e-mailed the police department’s Youth Task Force that James was not in school, referencing Officer Jones’ report and her own.
The task force assigned an officer to do a ‘ride-by’ of James’ address to see if he was home and if he was okay. If possible, the task force wanted to make face-to-face contact with James’ mother.
She was still in her work uniform when she answered the door to the officers, recognizing one from the ‘old days.’ They found James asleep in his closet. His mother dragged him out by his collar and gave him five minutes to be ready so she could take him to school. The officers said they would take him.
She thanked the officers and offered to bake them apple pies if they’d help her keep an eye on James. No pie was necessary, they told her, they would keep an eye on him.
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I don’t know how many troubled and endangered youngsters there are in Mecklenburg County, but I’m sure it’s a finite number, perhaps 10,000 or as many as 50,000. No one seems to know for sure. Computerized database servers can manage that number of individuals easily. We do it all the time to keep track of employees and customers. That’s why we all use Harris Teeter’s VIC and Food Lion’s MVP cards?
We can and should do the same with our children. Perhaps we could prevent the kinds of family and community breakdowns that spill so much violence and despair onto our streets.
We must realize – again – that children, even the violent ones, are more likely victims and should be treated as such. And, since we know that many of life’s early events influence behavior years later, we must do a better job of preventing juvenile delinquency by being pro-active in those early years.
Our children are not born as gun-toting miscreants. They sink to that level based on how they are treated by the adults in their lives. To save them we must find a way to keep better track of them.
Here’s how the system could work. Let’s call it something like “Comprehensive Youth Services Delivery System.”
First, the community determines that it has a duty to keep track of all children who become victims of abuse, neglect, lead paint, etc. As such, any time a police officer finds a child at the scene of a violent assault or homicide, or a social worker is called to deal with a case of abuse or a child is sexually or otherwise assaulted, that child goes into the “database.”
That information would be available, with appropriate security protections, to police officers, school counselors, social workers, and the health care system. Everyone would have information about troubled and endangered children. And, where appropriate, information could be added. In fact, the database could issue routine alerts, say annually or bi-annually, for social workers to check up on children in the system. Serious cases may require more frequent checks. In other cases, check ups could be less often.
Liberals and conservatives might oppose such a tracking system. Conservatives would simply rather cry “parental responsibility” than provide the initial funding required to set up the system. Liberals will probably oppose tracking children and cite the warehousing of information as a violation of their civil rights.
However, youth crime, poor school performance, teen pregnancies, and other negative youth behaviors are persistent problems with long-term detrimental effect on our community. What we do now is expensive. A pro-active plan could reduce costs and save lives and families.
Once we can count the number of troubled and endangered children, we can set reasonable goals for monitoring and treating them.