Public Citizens Children and Youth (PCCY) recently reported for the period 2002 -2006, 78.4% of all juvenile arrests in Philadelphia were African American. It seems to have caught no ones attention.
In 2008 in Philadelphia, we can’t blame racism. We have elected three African American Mayors, we have had three African American Police Chiefs, and both Chairs of the School Reform Commission have been/are African American. Although most teachers are white, they overwhelmingly elected an African American as their Union President. We have come a long way from the time when an African American could not legally teach a white child. In Philadelphia Blacks have obtained equality and quite frankly, I believe our elected leaders are as angry about immoral activity as those fostering this ridiculous level of crime and ignorance upon our citizenry.
For this city to survive we must effectively educate all children, but special emphasis must be placed on African American children because the data suggests this is where the academic achievement gap is greatest, and this where the criminal disparities are greatest
We must start young. It is no longer a secret, it is no longer controversial, it is now widely accepted high quality early learning care is essential to helping those at risk avoid lives of crime and /or poverty.
Mayor Nutter is correct to take action fighting problems which are unique to Philadelphia such as the gun laws. In the spirit of Frederick Douglass who said “those who would be free must strike the blow,” we must take action to educate our youth. It’s not just the cities responsibility to do so, it is parents’ responsibility: But in our city, plagued by children having children, where one in every 39 young Black males are gunshot victims; we must take the lead in educating our young people on how to be good parents.
To fight this fight schools are not enough. Yes we can integrate child rearing practices into the curriculum if we choose to ignore NCLB. We can also increase funding so we can assure our young children of high quality early learning experiences, but our school district is broke and financially this is unlikely to happen soon.
Civil rights policies of the 60’s with financial incentives designed sustain single parent families in poverty have failed. In actuality they led to expansion of the single parent household so prevalent today, and that in turn has led to educational and societal difficulties we are now experiencing.
We can reverse those policies. As a teacher I know every parent loves their children and has high hopes for them. I’ve not dealt with a parent who did not want the best for their child. Many don’t have the education themselves and are unaware of how to help. So let’s start young. At my school last year, Morrison Elementary, 88% of first graders were in need of intervention to read at grade level. Schools do not have resources to effectively educate this 88%, yet at the same time with the emphasis on NCLB; the needs of the proficient 12% are ignored. Is it any wonder with this type of start, our drop out rates are so high, and our levels of proficiency in high school are so low?
To educate effectively, to reduce crime we must offer incentives to families to have their children arrive at school reading ready.
(While I have written about Individual College Accounts before, the section below explains how they pay for themselves).
Individual College Accounts is a plan creating incentives for reading readiness when a child arrives at school. When a child is born, $5000 is placed one time into an Individual College Account (ICA) in the child’s name. The ICA matures as a Roth IRA would. When the child enters first grade, assuming the child is reading ready, the parents receive $2000. If the child is not reading ready, the $2000 goes right to the district the child is enrolled in to help pay for the extra costs associated with enabling this child to be at grade level reading by grade 3.
The remaining money in the account continues to mature until the child enters college or technical school. At that time, a percentage of the matured funds based on grades, behavior, and parent involvement, ($14,000 – $18,000) are sent to the college or trade school the child will be attending.
Children who read at grade level are much more likely to finish high school and avoid prison. Assuming a 40 year working career at a conservative 20% income tax rate, the high school graduate will pay more than $320,000 in taxes to the federal government than a non high school graduate. The difference in earnings between a college graduate and a non-college graduate nationwide is approximately $1.1 million. Assuming the same conservative tax rate a college grad pays more than $80,000 in taxes over the course of a career than a high school graduate. This program pays for itself with out even taking into consideration the drop in crime and increased spending higher incomes generate.
