Reply #170: This is an important concern. [View All]

[LWolf]

Let's back up and look at the bigger picture, here.

It is not public schools that are failing minority communities of this nation. By "minority communities," I may be making an erroneous assumption here; in my experience, middle-class ethnic minorities aren't having trouble in the school system. The poorer the community, the lower the ed level of the community, the more trouble the kids have finding success in school. And, to our shame as a nation, "minorities" seem to make up the majority of these communities.

It is this nation itself that is failing it's own citizens. Public education is a key piece to providing social and economic justice, but it doesn't operate in a vacuum. The setting makes a difference. Kids who have been nurtured in safe, stimulating, enriching environments create more neural connections birth - age 5, and start school lightyears ahead of kids who have not had those advantages.

Look at what we are facing. "Down on the street," people don't make a living wage. There are numerous factors affecting communities; crime, drugs, unemployment, broken families, and many other factors that public education has no control over. We don't control the circumstances our kids are born into or the environment they are raised in before they get to school. And those things have a bigger effect on academic advancement than anything a school does.

Start with economic and social justice in the community itself. Then public education can be part of that. But we can't do the whole thing, and we are not responsible for results when we don't control all the input. We are just a piece of the puzzle.