Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 17 March 1994 — Page 9

The Muncie Times, Thursday, 17 March, 1994, Page 9

Number of male black college students fell 5% in 1990-92

This nation is going to be in big trouble, and African Americans in even bigger trouble, unless the education crisis affecting young black males is resolved— and soon. A new study by the American Council on Education says there was a five percentage point decline in college attendance of young black men between 1990 and 1992. Only 30 percent of black men who have graduated from high school are in college. That means more young black men are in prison, jails, on parole or probation, than are in college. That’s the scariest statistic I know. It suggests that our efforts to restore black family strength and black economic independence are in jeopardy. Other minorities didn’t lost ground during the 19901992 study period. Hispanic men, for example, increased their college enrollment rate by six percent over that period. Forty-two percent of white men are in college. The study says there was also slippage in African American high school graduation rates, from 77 percent to 75 percent. The African American community’s future requires that we sharply boost both high school and college graduation rates. It’s critical for America, too. All decent jobs in the future will require a college education or, at the least, high school and some technical education.

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If less than a third of African American men have college educations that means over two-thirds will be effectively barred from the kinds of jobs that enable people to raise families and maintain decent living standards. With African Americans soon comprising a fifth of the workforce, it’s in America’s self-interest to act now. Unless we can immediately and comprehensively educate all African American youngsters there’s going to be massive workforce shortages in the future. Jobs will be available, but we won’t have the people with the schooling and skills to fill them. And that army of unemployed people swelling the ranks of the poor will harbor the anger and resentment that threatens social stability.

So the nation needs to act now to reverse the disastrous trends that show young African American men speeding toward marginality in a society that needs them in the mainstream. The public schools in poor, inner-city neighborhoods should be flooded with the quality teachers and social services that give our youngsters a fast start. It’s essential to have more and better African American teachers who can serve as role models. Parental involvement needs to be heightened, and communitybased organizations given a major role in working with young people and guiding them toward educational achievement. National education reform has to be based on the principle that every child is capable of learning whatever he or shee needs to know to meet college admissions requirements. And the colleges need to finally get serious about increasing the numbers of minorities in their student bodies, with effective outreach programs, scholarships, and aid. Once in college, students should be provided with the guidance and faculty concern that keep them in school and aimed at satisfying careers. The historically black colleges and universities provide that kind of concern, which is why they have seen their enrollments rise while other institutions have failed to attract and keep African American youth. If those financially strapped schools can do it, there’s no excuse for the institutions of higher learning that have failed to do it.

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uture history makers recognized OAK BROOK, ILL.—March 4, 1994—Ten of the nation’s top African American high school juniors recently enjoyed an all-expense paid trip to Chicago where they were honored as winners of “McDonald’s Black History Makers of Tomorrow” program. Through the Leadership Conference, held February 16-19, the students interacted with several prominent African Americans, including Sinbad, star of Fox network’s “The Sinbad Show,” who served as Black History Makers of Tomorrow (BHMOT) celebrity

spokesperson.

The highlights of this year’s conference included a satellite television program on leadership that aired on the Classroom Channel’s 12,000-school network. Taped before a 500student audience, the show offers Black History Makers of Tomorrow finalists an opportunity to share their views on what makes a good leader, with students from across the

country.

Their educational and fun-filled activities included a career seminar with Michel Brown, deputy general counsel of Washington, D.C.-based America's fund; Don Wycliff, editor of the editorial page for the Chicago Tribune and Dr. Ronald Brown, a San Francisco-based psychologist.

Pictured with the national “McDonald’s Black History Makers of Tomorrow” honorees, at the Leadership Conference, are celebrity spokesperson Sinbad and Ed Honesty, a McDonald’s corporate attorney. Students, (left to right): Andrew McCaskill, Anthony Young-Garner, Javona Braxton, Rozalynn Banks. Sinbad, Ed Honesty, Nekia Hackworth, William Hill, Rudyard Lance Moore Hilliard, Chanelle Matthews, Kelli Patterson.