Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 January 2002 — Page 5

FRIDAY, JANUARY 18,2002

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

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Black legislators release study to improve education in urban schools

By MASHAUN D. SIMON Special to the NNPA From www.atlantadailyworld.com ATLANTA — Education is still separate and unequal in too many urban school districts across the nation, according to “Closing the Achievement Gap: Improving Educational Outcomes for African American Children,” a study released by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. Created in 1977, the group is comprised of more than 600 Black elected officials representing an estimated 45 states. The group recently held its annual conference in Atlanta. According to the report, compiled and released by NBCSL’s Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education, its goals are to focus national attention on balancing achievement levels between Black and white students. If children are to succeed they must be strong in math, English and science, said committee chair. Sen. C. J. Prentiss (Ohio). “However, according to 1999 statistics from the United States Department of Education, the math skills of an average African-American 17-year-old are equivalent to a Caucasian 13-year-old,” she said.

There are a variety of conditions that can be attributed to African Americans’ lack of skills, according to the NBCSL report. They include limited financial resources, overcrowded classes and a shortage of qualified teachers in urban school systems. “For the past 25 years we have concentrated on building our legacy and charting a course of action for the future,” said NBCSL president Rep. James L. Thomas (Ala). “There is a growing disparity in the way children of poor and colored communities in this nation are being educated. It is our responsibility as state representatives to step forward as an organization and issue our findings to influence some form of change and equality.” And don’t count on vouchers to solve the problem, says the NBCSL, who oppose the practice because of the “brain-drain” it has on urban school systems when bright African-American students are bused out of their respective home schools to other districts. The NBCSL suggests that those who support vouchers create legislation that would mandate: • Open access for all students and an array of effective programs to serve the needs of all students. • The same accountability standards for

voucher schools as for public schools, including fiscal responsibility • Vouchers schools are cost effective. ' The NBCSL also recommends a limit on federal and state money given to charter schools until more comprehensive data is collected on charter school operations. A newly allowed practice in Georgia and other states, charter schools are not subject to the same standards as traditional public schools and in some cases, are able to fashion their own curriculum independent of their respective state’s while reaping state and private dollars. Other NBCSL recommendations for urban school systems include generating funds to make class sizes smaller, improving teacher quality, funding preventionintervention programs and putting more money into low-income public schools. “If we solidify high quality education for African-American students, we will surely affect the direction of change,” said Prentiss. “W.E.B. DuBois once said the problem with America is the colored problem. Forty-seven years after Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., we now face similar inequities faced then. We must address these challenges.”

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By HAZEL TRICE EDNEY NNPA Washington Correspondent African-American leaders, many of whom are likely to be critical of Attorney General John Ashcroft’s attack on civil liberties, are victims of a media blackout, Jesse Jackson Sr. charges. “A lot of people are speaking and can’t be heard,” the civil rights leader said in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “You get on CNN and NBC by invitation.” Instead of inviting African-Ameri-can leaders and commentators. Jackson says television networks and major newspapers “are now reading government press releases as if they were researched, independent stories.” Jackson’s criticism of the media comes at a time when some Blacks, including other civil rights leaders, are questioning whether the civil rights establishment has been vocal enough on the Bush administration's crackdown cfn civil liberties. The legislative package, titled the Patriot Act of 2001, was pushed by President Bush and Ashcroft and received final passage in the Senate on Oct. 25. Earlier this month at the “State of the Black World” conference in Atlanta, organized by veteran activist Ron Daniels, activist A1 Sharpton told a forum audience that traditional Democrats and civil liberties groups appear to have responded to the anti-terrorist laws with “impeccable laryngitis.” University of Maryland Professor Ron Walters, a widely respected political analyst and NNPA columnist, agrees. “There is a conspiracy of silence.” he said. “It says to us that we are overly timid. It is a betrayal of the legacy of leadership in a time of crisis... Courageous Black leadership stands up and speaks truth to power. We have a truth that needs to be told.” Kweisi Mfume, NAACP president and chief executive of the NAACP, said the organization has continued one of its most powerful, but quiet strategies. That is lobbying lawmakers behind the scenes, encouraging House and Senate members to act as watchdogs over Ashcroft's use of the anti-terrorist laws. Mfume, a former congressman, said the NAACP was instrumental in assuring that the anti-terrorist laws “get sunset provisions,” making sure the laws become moot after five years. “People have a right in this country to have their opinions. But with

a respect to civil rights and civil liberties, we don’t take a back seat to anybody,” Mfume says. “We were there, we weren’t pontificating, we didn’t have laryngitis and we weren’t in some other city casting aspersions. We were on the Hill working the corridors of Congress every day.” Jackson, founder and president of the Chicago-based Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition, contends the blackout is no fault of civil rights leaders. The Bush administration has succeeded in an attempt to “control the flow of information,” he said. Traditional civil rights leaders have been squeezed off the national television circuit by “right wing and almost all white” military generals, former and current CIA officials, Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Ashcroft, whom Jackson calls, “the most dangerous man in civil rights in half a century.” Ashcroft repeatedly defended his aggressive tactics during a Senate hearing this month. He accused his critics of “fear-mongering” that “only aid terrorists” by scaring “peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty.” The anti-terrorist laws allow federal agents to break into homes of designated suspects, download computer records and e-mails and then leave without ever notifying the owner of their entrance. They also allow the indefinite detainment of immigrants without charging them with a crime and wiretaps that would follow suspects to every phone he or she uses. Ashcroft also invoked executive privilege to eavesdrop on at-torney-client conversations in jails and to hold secret military trials that could order the death penalty. Unlike civilian courts, a unanimous vote is not required for conviction National Urban League President Hugh Price says, “We’ve been doing radio commentary and columns and interviews. Whether people are keeping track of what we’re saying is different from whether we’ve been heard on the subject.” Price said the Urban League has taken exception to the military trials as “deeply offensive and deeply regrettable ’Given the increase in racial profiling by security forces and hate crimes against Arab Americans and Muslims because of the backgrounds of the Sept. 11 highjackers. Price said the Urban League has been consistent in its campaign against racial profiling.

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