Thursday, July 18, 2013

Preparing African-American Males for the New Jim Crow

                There are some things schools are no longer capable of teaching.  One of the things schools can no longer teach is how to prepare African-American males deal with racism and profiling.

In this post Civil Rights, desegregation era, schools have lost the ability to teach young African-American males how to handle and navigate racism and profiling.  Racial profiling has become this generations “Jim Crow.”  Unfortunately, unlike their Civil Rights elders, many of today’s administrators, teachers and other school based staff do not have the skill set or the desire to become involved in teaching beyond the classroom. 

Since most administrators and teachers do not share the life experiences of their students on a daily basis as it was during the Civil Rights era, many cannot relate to plight of young African-American males.  Additionally, the absence of a strong community, inconsistent parent engagement and a fragmented faith-based community also contributes to the lack of preparation of young African-American males.  If young African-American males cannot count on community, family and faith-based institutions to prepare them to deal with the new Jim Crow, why would they look to school for help?  The question becomes:  what can be done to prepare young African-American males to deal with the new Jim Crow?

There is no easy solution to this question.  However, a crucial piece to the solution are parents, schools, the community and schools coming together to determine how to prepare young African-American males.  Once our communities have to come together, the process of preparing young African-American males can begin.  Parents, schools and faith-based institutions must educate, model, and be on watch for threats that could trip up young African-American males.  At the same time, parents, schools and faith-based institutions need to work on the local and federal level to develop legislation that protects young African-American males from racial profiling and eliminate legislation that directly and indirectly supports racial profiling. 


If our communities come together, we can prevent young African-American males from being victims of new Jim Crow legislation that allows for the sanctioned murder of young African-American males without punishment.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Making College Affordable: Pay it Forward

            The rising costs of tuition is a concern that has threatened our core belief in education being the bridge to the American Dream.  As the number of college graduates and those applying to college has decreased over past couple of years, we now have to consider how to make college an attractive investment in the attainment of the American Dream. 

Unfortunately, the slow recovery from the global economic recession, the high unemployment rate of college graduates and fear of excessive debt from student loans has also contributed to the apprehension to apply or to attend college. 

While it appears the costs of attending college will widen the educational divide and earnings potential between college and non-college graduates, the fear that the earning potential of college graduates will be nullified due to the paying off of student loans.  At a time when a college degree is essential to entrance into the global workforce and to our future leadership in the global economy, we need solutions to make college attractive and affordable.  A potential solution may be found in Oregon.

The Oregon state legislature has unanimously approved a bill that would allow future philosophy and art history majors to attend the State’s Public Universities tuition free.  The pilot program called “Pay it Forward” would begin in 2015.  Students who participate in the Pay it Forward would upon graduation have a certain percentage of their paycheck deducted and placed in a fund for future Pay it Forward participants[i].

What is attractive about Pay it Forward is that graduates are not burdened with deductions they cannot afford.  Pay it Forward graduates will have a 1.5% to 3% deduction from their paycheck based on their gross income.  If a student does not graduate, they will have pro-rated deductions from their paychecks.  Finally, if a Pay it Forward graduate does not earn enough, no deductions will be taken from their check[ii].

If Oregon can successfully develop their Pay it Forward program, many other states will look to develop similar programs.  It has been reported that legislators from Washington, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have expressed interest exploring a Pay it Forward program.  One of the main obstacles facing Oregon’s program is the initial cost to start up the program which is estimated at 9 billion dollars[iii]

It is this type of out of the box thinking that could get many high school graduates to reconsider attending college.  More importantly, for minorities and youth living in economically distressed communities, a Pay it Forward type of program could make college a viable option and remove the fear exorbitant debt in a recovering global economy.  Lastly, generations of students will be able to benefit from a Pay it Forward program as the number of Pay it Forward alumni grow, the program will pay for itself.




[i] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/pay-it-forward-oregon-tuition-free_n_3543827.html?utm_hp_ref=@education123
[ii] ibid
[iii] ibid