Via NewsOne:
Recently, President Barack Obama pledged his efforts as well as $900 million to stop the national high school drop out crisis. The efforts of one leader and money are not enough to stop the problem, but it is a start.
The current education system offers no skills or career opportunities to the many minority students who occupy our inner city schools. While some may blame it on the “culture” of African Americans and our inner city, it is a problem created by the American educational students, not African American children.
We’ve seen the example of the British twins who set records on the National exam that led them to be the first children of their age admitted to high school. Their father gave the credit to a program that helps inner city children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and not to some sort of genius gene that allowed them to exceed academically. Surely if the U.S. had more programs like the ones in England, more African American students would have the chance to meet their academic accolades.
The urban education crisis is hardly a new one for years the American government has neglected the educational needs of the poor African Americans and Latinos who occupy many of our city centers.
It is no coincidence that the cities with the highest drop out rates also have the highest crime rates and highest murder rates. Students who are unable to obtain quality educations find opportunities in the world of drugs and crime. The cycle continues from one generation to another, in poor neighborhoods with poor schools plagued by by crime and no opportunity gives birth to another generation with the same problem.
Bailing out the urban educational system is not just a money problem. For too many years Americans have fought against things, communism, drugs poverty isn’t it time to fight for something? If Americans are to solve this problem first we must realize what a major problem it is and realize that the future of our country is at stake. As in most problems the solution must come from hard work, innovation as well as funding.
By baling out the urban education system we would not only reduce the crime rate, relieve our overcrowded jails and provide jobs for inner cities, we will also be breaking the cycle that keeps poor people of color in the same neighborhoods, repeating the same cycles of violence, drugs and poverty.
