Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 February 2003 — Page 7

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2003

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

PAGE A7

The debale goes on over affirmalive adion

Black History Month is a great time to continue the debate on the necessity of affirmative action. After President Bush spoke out publicly against affirmative action on the birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., this controversy again gained more momentum. President Bush displayed a great deal of disrespect to the entire civil rights movement and all of those who support integration in America. On Jan. 15, President Bush, through the U.S. Justice Department, filed a brief supporting an end to affirmative action legislation, which allows minority students to gain entrance into state colleges and universities, based on the color of their skin. Dr. King, along with the president who introduced affirmative action, John F. Kennedy, were both in support of these kinds of “preferences.” President Kennedy first used the term, “affirmative action,” in the 1960s because he felt that the government should “take extra measures to ensure integration in federally funded jobs.” The idea was originally designed to encourage the participation and enrollment of underrepresented minorities, mainly Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Today, some say the focus has been lost, and suggest that white females and those with physical disabilities, have now become the largest

benefactors of the affirmative action legislation. This debate is now back on the table due to the University of Michigan Law School case, which is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Also, there is a current trend of many more universities ending the 25-year-old policy of using “race” as a determining factor for college admissions. The landmark decision, which favors “race-based college admissions,” dates back to 1978. This is when the Supreme Court ruled that universities could change their admissions policies and use an applicant’s race as a “plus factor” in determining admittance. The case, Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke, has now come full circle, with the state of California now shifting its gears in reverse. In 1996, California voters were the first to pass legislation, Proposition 209, which effectively banned affirmative action in university admissions. The University of California at Berkeley has

Charter schools loke millions from public schools

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - Indiana’s public schools will lose millions to charter schools this year. Not only does state money follow students who transfer from public to charter schools, but public schools must also find additional money for charter students in their districts who were not financed by the state because they previously were taught in private schools or at home. Indiana’s 11 charter schools have an enrollment of about 1,200 students. At least a quarter of those pupils did not attend class in the public school district where they lived in 2001-02, according to Indiana Department of Education records reviewed by The Journal Gazette. The schools - publicly financed, but free of some state regulations - are designed to be more innovative than traditional public schools. But the charter programs come at a price to public schools. For instance, Fort Wayne schools stand to lose about $600,000; Indianapolis schools will lose about $3 million; and the Allen County district will spend $459,000 on students who at-

Schools shuffle funds fo slay afloat

(AP) — Strapped school districts across the state arc using money intended for renovations or transportation to pay daily expenses as a result of cuts in state funding. Last year, state funding was cut for schools to help ease the state’s budget crisis. To make up for the $115 million in lost funding, schools were allowed to move money between accounts in two installments - half last year and the other half this year. School districts are expected to move about $57.5 million this year from capital, debt service and transportation funds to their general funds to pay for operating expenses. Lawmakers authorized account transfers only for the current two-year budget. But with the state still facing an $850 million budget deficit, it likely will be a topic of discussion in the current legislative session.

shown a 33 percent drop in Black undergraduate enrollment since Proposition 209. Other states, such as Texas, which ended affirmative action admissions in 1997, and Florida, which as of2000 no longer considers race in admissions, have followed suit. The trend that is upsetting whites is that of their inability to continue to dominate the halls of higher education. These numbers, which are discouraging to whites, are reasons for most minorities to celebrate. In 1976, whites made up 92 percent of all Americans who held professional degrees. During the same year, only 4 percent of Blacks, 2 percent of Hispanics and Asians, and 0.3 percent of Native Americans held a professional degree. In 1976, whites made up 87 percent of all Americans who were enrolled in a four-year school, but in 1999, they only made up 75 percent of that total enrollment. During the same years, minority students held onto 14.5 percent of these enrollment slots and in

tion and minorities (Blacks, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American) make up about 28 percent. Of the four-year enrollment in 1999, the numbers above were about the same, with white enrollment being at 75 percent and minority enrollment being at almost 25 percent. Which is why one poll suggests that approximately 75 percent of white Americans oppose affirmative action and “preferences” for Blacks and Hispanics. The 2002 national average for SAT scores for Asian high school students was 1070. For white students it was 1060, Native Americans 962, and Hispanics students averaged 910. Black students average SAT score were dead last, at 857 points. We will continue the debate on affirmative action next week, but for now, can we protest, picket, and march in an effort to raise the scores of our Black stu-

dents?

QUESTION: Shouldn’t we have a sidebar discussion on the importance of improving our own

White student enrollment in fouryear schools had decreased by 12 percent after the 1978 Supreme Court ruling, while minority enrollment had increased by 10.3

percent.

However, according to the 2000 Census, whites make up 71 percent of our country’s popula-

tend charter schools. Those figures are based on statewide enrollment for charter schools. The Journal Gazette calculated the cost to public schools by multiplying a district’s perpupil expenditures by the number of students in that district enrolled in a charter school. With the start of a new legislative session, education groups, including charter school advocates, are lobbying for a series of measures to take the burden off public schools. One idea, suggested by the Indiana State Teachers Association, would allow school districts to raise their tax rates to make up for the extra money charter schools cost. Another bill sponsored by Sen. Teresa Lubbers, R-Indianapolis, and favored by the state’s charter school alliance, would allow financing for charter schools to come from the state, not local taxpayers. “It would remove any concern that it’s creating a negative impact,” said Roger Thornton, executive director of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents. “It would remove the conflict.”

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Rep. William Crawford, D-In-dianapolis, chairman of the bud-get-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said transfers are not a priority for discussion. “At some point, we will have to address the issue of funding without transfers. I don’t think we are at that point yet,” Crawford said. While schools are not required to transfer funds, it is better than cutting staff and programs, said Roger Thornton, executive director of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents. But money transferred from accounts to the general fund would have to be replaced by local taxpayers, Thornton said. The transfers create a Catch22 for school districts, according to Mark Shoup of the Indiana State Teachers Association. “They don’t have a crystal ball,” Shoup said. “The cutbacks will mean local taxpayers will pay more.”

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