Education: Key To African-American Success

A tug of war over moral virtue is clouding the national conversation about how to improve the plight of African-Americans in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing and protests.  Instead of solutions, corporations, cities, politicians and black organizations are focused on symbolism over substance.

Statues are being hauled down in the name of racial injustice.  Cities are renaming streets Black Lives Matter.  Reporters at newspapers at walking out over disagreements over free speech about the riots. Police forces across the country have become the targets for vitriolic outrage and calls for defunding.

Not to be out done, Silicon Valley, one of the last bastions of white corporate America, is spending millions of dollars to fund Black Lives Matter and their causes to signal its support for conformity to the narrative of systemic racism.  Hollywood's glitterati has pledged to bail out looters and rioters.

This virtue signaling will not solve a single issue facing African Americans.  It may salve the egos of those who are staking a claim to the moral high ground, but these are empty gestures.  Those who want to do more than charm black activists need to do some research to understand the issues.

What ails the African American community is a cycle of failing inner city schools and high dropout rates, which lead to poverty and an increase in crime.  Most large majority black American cities lead the nation in crime, poverty, single-parent households and underperforming schools.

Those facts do not sit well with black activists who are quick to assign blame to systemic racism, a protest sign phrase that most cannot define.  Let's concede there are racial hurdles but most are created by the the learning gap between white and black students that no one wants to talk about.

Politicians who want to help lift African Americans out of poverty need to start by reforming inner city schools.  Those schools are in cities with mostly African-American mayors, police chiefs and school superintendents.  You never hear that fact talked about because it doesn't fit the narrative.

A list of America's most dangerous big cities, those with the highest violent crime rates, include Chicago, New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington D.C., St. Louis and Los Angeles.  Those same cities have some of the highest unemployment and poverty rates.

The poverty rates in the cities range between 18 to 29%.  The national average is 12.3%.  The unemployment rates (pre-pandemic) averaged 4.4 to 9.3%, compared to the national average of 3.7%.  These cities lead the nation in murder, manslaughter, robbery and aggravated assault.

This depressing data is the product of failure factories, an appropriate moniker for many inner city schools. The National Center for Education documented that 79% of African-American students graduate from high school, compared to 89% of white and 92% of Asian students.

But those are national statistics, not those for inner city schools.  Take New York City as an example.  At 32 city elementary and middle schools, the average English-math proficiency rates on state exams has not exceeded 10 percent of students for four years in a row.

For those who believe money is the problem, consider that Mayor Bill DeBlasio's signature Renewal Program, which pumped $582 million into teacher training and social service, has proven such a failure than four of 17 schools in the experiment were closed by the state Department of Education.

The graduation rate for 2017 in New York City schools was 72%, meaning 28% dropped out or did not graduate.  Nothing to brag about but that was actually a two-percentage point improvement over the previous year.

As bad as New York City's performance is, it still is better than Chicago.  Only 25% of students in Chicago's lowest-performing elementary schools meet state standards in the most recent survey.  Even worse, only five percent of high school students in these schools achieved the state standard.

Thirty-eight percent of students in Chicago's worst schools are considered chronically truant.  In other words, they never show up for school.  Not surprisingly, students in Chicago's failing schools drop out at nearly 12 times the rate of the average Illinois high school student.

Chicago schools had one of the worst dropout rates in the country: 51%.

In Baltimore, the same trend can be observed.  Despite the city spending $1.4 billion annually on education,  high school graduates finish their education with a reading proficiency of 11 percent and math proficiency of 12 percent. Baltimore's dropout rate was 24.9% in 2017.

At Frederick Douglas High School, the administration bragged about the 87 percent graduation rate.  However, out of a student graduating class of 185, just one student tested in the proficiency range in math.  In some inner city schools, no student achieved the state proficiency test.

So where does all that money for education go?  In city of fewer than 600,000 residents and declining school enrollment, thousands of individuals in the school system receive salaries in excess of $100,000 per year.  Most are not teachers, but consultants,  contractors and administrators.

Research has shown a direct connection between level of education and incarceration for criminal activity.  According to Bureau of Justice data, 68% of all state prison inmates did not receive a high school diploma or a GED equivalent.  Education, crime and poverty are inextricably linked.

Numerous social studies over the years also have uncovered a direct relationship between the number of parents in a household and educational achievement.  Census Data shows that 74.3% of white students under age 18 live in a two-parent household.  The figure for black children is only 38.7%.

In the period from 1960 to 2016, the number of single parent female black households nearly tripled.  The trend, well known and documented in many studies, has escaped any of the blame for what has happened with the education and incarceration of African-Americans.

No one wants to discuss the issue for fear of being labelled a racist.  But unless it is confronted, there is little hope for a turnaround in metropolitan cities.  Research shows that young people raised in one-parent homes complete fewer years of schooling and are less likely to receive a B.A. college degree.

Research by a Department of Labor Panel Study of Income Dynamics found that the education gap for minors living in two parent households has widened over the last few decades.  The study discovered children of single parents receive two-thirds the schooling of those with two parents.

These inconvenient truths are ignored because it shines a light on failures in the black community.  Instead of confronting the issues, do-gooders such as NFL players are vowing to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem at pro games this season.  And that will help, how?

Seventy percent of NFL players are African-American.  They could play an important role in urging cities, states and local politicians to tackle improving inner city schools.  Many know first hand the sorry state of education for blacks and are the product of single mothers as head of households.

That is not what black activists want from their African-American icons.  Symbolism is easier and attracts media attention.  Working in the communities is a long-term solution that requires more than just money.  If black lives matter, it is imperative that the real issues receive the priority they deserve.