FORUM
Private schools and public lies
George '
Curry
i
Guest i
Columnist
The recent U.S. Supreme
Couit ruling supporting the use of !
public dollars for vouchers to pri
vate and parochial schools has J
been a cause for gloating by some
conservatives. But their excite
ment cannot gloss over several
important facts that show, when
all is said and done, most black
students will be no better off by
the ruling than they were before.
First, let's deal with the
money. The Cleveland vouchers
at the center to the court's ruling f
pay a maximum of $2,250 a year
to fewer than 5,000 families. j
African Americans should not be
duped into thinking that in the ,
aftermath of the Supreme Court's ,
mling, black students will sudden- \
ly be attending classes with
wealthy white students and.
according to their reasoning,
receive a superior education.
That's not going to happen.
Let's look at George W.
Bush's alma mater. Phillips Acad- '
emy (also known as Andover) in
Massachusetts. It charged board- (
ing students $26,900 this past
school year. So. if one of those v
Cleveland students wants to
attend Phillips Academy and can
manage to transfer a voucher to
there, he or she will still need to
:ome up with another $24,650.
Second, when African Ameri
:ans leave the public school sys
tem for private schools, they
snroll in schools that are more
racially isolated than many of the
public schools from which they
lave tied. A recent report issued
ay the Civil Rights Project at Har
vard University titled "Private
school Racial Enrollments and
Segregation" concluded. "Black
ivhite segregation is greater
tmong private schools than
tmong public schools."
The report, which is available
in the project's Web site, notes
hat 78 percent of the private
school students in the nation arc
?vhite. But during the 1997-98
school year, the average black pri
vate-school student attended a
school that was only 34 percent
vhite.
By comparison, whites make
jp 64 percent of public-school
students. Even with that lower
lercentage, the average African
American public-school student
tttends a school w ith 33 percent
white enrollment.
Among private schools,
Catholic institutions - where
almost all of the black students go
- represent racial segregation at its
worst. The Harvard study says.
"Black Catholic school students
attend schools that are, on aver
age. 31 percent white; black stu
dents in non-Catholic religious
school-, attend schools that aver
age 35 percent white; and black
students in secular private schools
attend schools that average 41
percent white."
The report does not suggest
that the racial segregation among
Catholic schools is by design. To
the contrary, the authors point out
that many of the Catholic schools
are still located in central cities
where housing discrimination is
still a fact of life. Catholic schools
enroll about half of all private
schools students, followed by
evangelical Christian schools w ith
about a third of the pupils and the
rest,- attending secular private
schools.
Interestingly, most of the pri
vate-school racial segregation in
grades K through 12 does not
occur in the South, where "white
flight" was common during the
early days of school desegregation
in the 1960s. In fact, white enroll
ment in private schools in the
South is at 11 percent, which is I
percent lower than the national
average. This is at the same time
that the South has the highest pro
portion of black students in public
schools with whites.
That does not mean the end of
white flight, especially in major
cities. The report observes. "In
school districts and metropolitan
areas with higher shares of black
students in the population, a high
er proportion of w hites attend pri
vate schools In all of our mod
els, the strongest predictor of
white private enrollment is the
proportion of black students in the
area"
What is often overlooked in
the discussion about vouchers in
Cleveland is that part of the plan
calls for inner-city students
enrolling in cooperative suburban
school districts. However, no sub
urban district agreed to take any of
the students.
As the debate rages over
vouchers and private schools, the
reality is that private and parochial
schools enroll only 10 percent of
all students. That means 90 per
cent of all students, whether they
like it or not. will remain enrolled
in public schools. The challenge is
how to improve those schools, not
find ways to rob public schools of
their most motivated students and
concerned parents.
George E. Curry is editor-in
chief of the NNPA News Sen ice
and BlackPressUSA.com.
Republicans stumble with outreach, again
Armstrong
Williams
Guest .
| Columnist
The Republican Party's rela
tionship with the black voting
populace has been tenuous at best
over the last 40 years - a fact that
found perfect expression in the
2000 election, when 90 percent of
the black voting populace cast
their ballots for Democratic chal
lenger Al Gore. Even in Bush's
home state of Texas, 95 percent of
black voters supported Gore,
despite the fact that Bush pursued
American blacks with more avidi
ty than any Republican candidate
of recent memory.
Plainly, minorities continue to
have difficulty trusting Republi
can candidates - hangover from
the party's opposition to retain
civil-rights initiatives and affirma
tive action. As America grows
ever more diverse. Republican
national leaders realize that unless
they actively woo a larger percent
age of the African-American and
Hispanic vote, they will have dif
ficulty remaining a stable govern
ing party.
President Bush has tried to lay
the groundwork for a genuine
give-and-take between the GOP
and the ethnic community. In
practice, however, these outreach
efforts continue to be muddled by
party leaders who are constrained
by their own insular traditions.
Exhibit A: the party's recent fail
ure to support Minister Conrad
Muhammad of New York.
Some brief background: In his
angry youth, Muhammad aligned
himself with Rev. Louis Far
rakhan and the Nation of Islam,
where he proceeded to pump his
fists at the powers that be. Now, as
a calm, articulate 37-year-old. he
desperately wants to be a part of
the power structure he once
denounced. To this end, Muham
mad has openly courted the
Republican Party leadership to
back his bid to represent New
York's 15th Congressional Dis
trict in Harlem - an area that
Muhammad feels is ripe for
change.
As for his past, he says he has
shed the vitriol of his youth and
now seems prepared to change the
dominant power structure by join
ing ir. He cites Congressman
Bobby Rush (D-lll.) as an exam
ple. "(Rush) used to say. 'Off the
pig.' meaning kill police officers.
That was the language of the
times, but I'm sure that Congress
man Rush does not feel that way
today about our police. He is still
fighting for his people, but he is
doing it through the system. I have
made a similar transition.'
Dubbed the "hip-hop minis
ter" by the citizens of Harlem for
his rousing sermons and commu
nity service. Muhammad serves as
the executive director of
CHHANGE (Conscious Hip-Hop
Activism Necessary for Global
Empowerment), an organization
dedicated to correcting negative
stereotypes in the new s media and
pop culture. If elected, he could
use that grass-roots credibility to
build bridges between the Repub
licans and the African-American
voting populace.
So why has the Republican
leadership balked at the idea of
supporting Muhammad, opting
instead to back Independent Party
veteran Dr. Jesse Fields?
The official party line is that
Muhammad needs to build his
resume and atone for past com
ments made during his tenure with
the Nation of Islam.
"That's absurd." snorted
Muhammad, noting that the
Republican Party didn't hesitate to
seek his support in getting other
white. Republican candidates
elected. "When I was running
around here campaigning for
Mike Bloomberg, and I was at the
Republican convention during the
last presidential race, when I
endorsed Gov. (George) Pataki
while there was an African-Amer
ican Democrat in the office, no
one said anything about me need
ing to atone. And while the party
said they wouldn't support me as a
candidate, they wanted me to go
out and get the governor elected
and build the party. So I think it is
hypocrisy."
And indeed, after conducting
some research and polling, the
GOP's national leaders concluded
that there would likely be hell to
pay if they backed a black man
with strong views and a personal
history that did not mesh with
their own ideals. It is also worth
noting that the Republican Party
consists largely of those Southern
politicians who in the past would
have been opposed to civil-rights
legislation. Plainly, they have dif
ficulty looking beyond their own
tradition.
This is sad because Muham
mad supports traditional Republi
can values of empowering small
businesses and injecting market
dynamics into the public school
system. It is sad because he repre
sents the Republican Party's best
chance at supplanting Rep.
Charles Rangel.
It is sad because President
Bush has made a genuine effort to
huild bridges to the ethnic com
munity. to increase ethnic diversi
ty within the GOP. and to earn the
like and trust of the African
American community. Most of all.
it is sad because as America grow s
ever more diverse, the GOP's
national leadership appears ever
more insular and stodgy. That
means minorities will continue to
reflexively vote for Democrats -
making them the easiest group for
both parties to take for granted.
www.armstnmgwilliams.com
1 V KRT PHOTO BY DAVID TURNLEY/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Conrad Muhammad, 33, (left), and Malik Shabazz, 22, reflect during a news conference in
1998 after the city of New York refused to issue a permit for their Million Youth March.
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