5A
OPINIONS/q»rlotte
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Stand up for
rights of at-risk
CMS students
Post article puts spotlight on
manipulation of dropouts
By Richard Manners
SPECIAL TO THE POST
It is with great sadness that I write concerning the recent
article in the Charlotte Post concerning “Closing the books
on at-risk students” in highly regarded Myers Park High
School.
As a school psychologist in Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools, I along with thousands of others within the edu
cation profession, have worked tirelessly in order to upHft
the “at-risk” students in Mecklenburg County. According
to the Post article, the past principal, BUI Anderson, and
others at Myers Park have deliberately coerced students
into dropping out, prevented them from returning, and
then misused the very reporting system designed to pre
vent our students fi*om dropping out by falsely coding the
reasons for their leaving school.
There can be no doubt that the CMS system has provid
ed increasingly higher qualitative education to students
for the past several years. One can only wonder what
would provoke administrators and staff to pervert a
process in which others have toiled for so many years.
Indeed, many sacrifices have been made to uplift our chil
dren and protect their God-given rights to educated, pro
ductive lives.
There are stUl administrators of school that choose to do
the right thing and should be commended. That the docu
mented actions of Dr. Anderson and others were unethical,
immoral and probably criminal certainly goes without
argument, but we, as citizens and educators of
Mecklenburg Coionty, must search within ourselves for
other conclusions. What conditions contribute to the dark
er, self-serving part in some of us that this situation expos
es?
Survival comes to mind, as do monetary rewards (bonus
es for administrators and teachers are awarded for low
drop-out rates and high test scores with state and federal
funds.) Reputation and acclaim have long been motiva
tions among some to justify any means to attain them.
Perhaps there is no one answer and pre-existing condi
tions, such as stress, could never justify throwing our chil
dren away. Whatever causes exists, we as employees, citi
zens and students deserve better, more humane treatment
from our — educational leaders.
That there has been no outrage over or even reaction to
this article is puzzling and, in the mind of this writer, a
contributing cause itself Do we read about abuses such as
this and not care? Do other news organizations within our
great city not read each other’s journalistic reporting? Do
not our representatives on the school board read the front
page of our newspapers? We have a great paper. The
Observer, and television stations affiliated with media
giants that could benefit from reading from The Post, a
brave, privately owned paper, designed to reach out to the
African-American community within our metropolitan
area.
This article, in the opinion of this writer, reveals a pre
sent and continuing danger to all of our children and calls
out for social justice. What else needs to be said? Our “at-
risk” children have suffered life-long wounds with which
we aU should empathize as parents, educators and most
importantly, human beings. Why are we not wiUing to
react and protect our children from desperate people, who
ever they are, who do them harm?
Is it not time for our newspapers to show their greatness
and report to the people in Mecklenburg County and
throughout ’North Carolina what the Charlotte Post has
begun?
If not our journalists, then who?
Do not our schools exist for the success of our students
rather them the success and advancement of administra
tors?
RICHARD E. MANNERS, EdD.lives and works in Charlotte.
Our “at-risk” children
have suffered life-long
wounds with which we
all should empathize as
parents, educators and
most importantly, human
beings.
Happenstance forces
black America into
the mainstream
During America’s racial segregation era some black mothers
taught their sons the danger in having love affairs with white
females because once the interracial relationship became public
the black male could expect to get hung for rape to preserve the
public image of the white female.
On the other hand, today as the racial segregation psyche con
tinues to be displaced by racial integration an
imexpected consequence is that black females find
themselves in a very competitive market for the
available mainstream caliber black male spouses.
High black male incarceration rates coupled with
their low educational attainment and the U.S.
Supreme Court knocking down the miscegenation
laws decriminalizing interracial relationships
have helped to diminish the pool of marrying aged
black males for indigenous black families.
Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, offers a
prospectus on today’s growing white female pursuit of interracial
marriage with black males. “African American men are 2.5 times
■ more likely to be married to a white spouse and 3.3 times more
likely to be cohabitating with a white person, as compared to their
African American female counterparts.
Research yields that 7 percent of married African American men
are with white wives and 15 percent of African American men
cohabit with white women.”
We get a feel for the impact of this white female competitive
threat on high potential black males when we ponder the August
2005, Census 2000 Special Reports, “We the People: Blacks in the
United States” by Jesse D. Me Kinnon and Claudette E. Bennett
reporting on college graduate black males. “The proportion of black
men (13 percent) with a bachelor’s degree was one-half that of men
in the total population (26 percent). The proportion of black women
(15 percent) with a bachelor’s degree was two-thirds that of women
in the total population (23 percent).”
Me Kinnon and Bennett continue, “In 2000, a higher proportion
of black women (30 percent) than black men (20 percent) was in
management, professional, and related occupations. A higher pro
portion of black men (28 percent) than black women (10 percent)
was in production, transportation, and material moving jobs. The
highest concentrations of employed black men were in these two
occupation groups.”
Yet their black maniage statistics are troubling. 31.2 percent of
black females were married and 39.7 percent were never married.
41.5 percent of black males were married and 41.5 percent were
never married. Clearly marriage is an exception instead of the rule,
for black females. Hence, one might expect black females to
become very protective of their marriages or relationships.
In July 2006,1 chatted with six marrying aged professional black
women in western Alabama to understand thefr concept of mar
riage and relationships. These ladies made it clear that they found
male players to be totally unacceptable for partners or spouses.
These black ladies stunned me by giving vivid depictions of what
bodily harm they would do to a man attempting to be a player
while in a relationship or marriage with them. It was bone-chiU-
ing to listen to their proposed aggressive actions such as mutilat
ing players. Since the reputation for revengefulness of a scorned
woman is well known, I took these ladies’ comments very serious
ly and I worried about the foolish chaps who might underestimate
their resolve.
I asked one young lady who appeared to be in her late thirties or
early forties what she would do if her husband walked in on her in
a compromising position. She responded, “He should understand I
don’t want you anymore.” She ffid not expect this man to take
aggressive action similar to what they had been espousing during
much of the conversation. The other women quickly corrected her
by pointing out that she should expect a similar bodily harm from
her spouse or boyfriend as to what she had been espousing.
A young black fellow, in his early 30s, joined in the conversation.
When this young feUow attempted to offer the male prospectus on
relational deviance these black women turned hke a school of pira
nhas and they mercilessly tore into his positions. This young chap
was forced to retreat out of the conversation.
I stood my ground even when these ladies aggressively chal
lenged my every point. I decided to throw these black ladies a
curve to put a fissure in their strategy of unified female attacks on
male positions. I said, “I always loved nerdy girls. My wife of 42
years is a nerd. I needed someone that I can learn from in a con
versation. I abhor bimbos.”
They first attempted to question my spousal selection, and then
they told me they respected my ability to stand my groimd. These
ladies also said my wife was a very lucky lady to have someone to
love her for such a long time.
SHERMAN MILLER is a syndicated columnist.
Connect with $oslt
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Working poor:
Beware federal
minimum wage
hike proposal
Last month’s news of the U.S. House of
Representatives muUing a hike in the minimum
wage before they left for August recess filled me with
much hope.
Just two days earlier in my keynote
I address kicking off the National Urban
I League’s 2006 annual conference, I
I had called upon Congress to reuse the
I wage as a small but symbolic step to
I close the economic chasm that exists
I between whites and minorities in this
nation.
It was as if Congress was reading my
mind until I read the fine print. It was
not enough for U.S. House lawmakers
— with fall midterm elections on the horizon — to
approve a raise in the current minimum wage of
$5.15 an hour - or $10,712 a year for full-time work
ers, which is slightly above the poverty line for singles
but well below the roughly $20,000 threshold for a
family of four.
They had to sweeten the deal by incorporating a
hike to $7.25 an hour over three years into legislation
significantly scaling back the estate tax - the so-
called death tax - to 30 percent and shrinking the
pool of estates subject to it. The resulting measure
won approval by a vote of 230 to 180. It failed in the
Senate.
Under current law, estates are subject to an estate
tax of 46 percent above $2 million for individuals and
$4 million for couples. Under the House-passed bill,
they would be subject to a 30-percent tax above $5
million for individuals and $10 million for couples.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities, the U.S. Congress has enacted legislation
lowering the estate-tax burden in eight of nine past
years since last raising the minimum wage nearly a
decade ago. If this year’s proposal is enacted, it will
only benefit 8,200 very large estates, the center pre
dicts.
Even the second wealthiest man in the world — Bill
Gates — opposes the estate tax. Gates along with
philanthropist (jeorge Soros and nearly 2,200 mil
lionaires who are subject to the tax lent their signa
tures to a Call to Preserve the Estate Tax sponsored
by Responsible Wealth, a project of the Boston-based
nonprofit United for a Fair Economy, That group also
foimd in a survey of 910 registered voters conducted
earher this year that 57 percent opposed a repeal of
the estate tax.
Just what kind of toll a repeal of the estate tax will
exact upon the federal deficit runs the gamut. The
Joint Committee on Taxation projects that it will cost
$38.3 billion per year over seven years, while the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities sets it at $100
billion a year over 10 years.
There’s no doubt that a raise to $7.25 an hour will
Hft some of the working poor out of poverty. An
employee currently earning minimum wage 40 hours
a week wiU receive a nearly 50 percent annual raise
to $15,080, which is nearly $5,500 above the poverty
line for individuals and sHghtly above that for fami
lies of three.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly
1.9 mUlion Americans earn minimum wage or below.
The majority of them - 1.4 million - fall under.
Furthermore, another 4.1 million or making above
the current wage but below the proposed one stand to
benefit, according to the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities.
Where the most progress has been made on the
minimum wage is at the state level. Just recently, the
state legislature in Massachusetts raised the wage to
$8 an hour, the highest in the nation, in spite of a veto
by Gov. Mitt Romney that was overridden.
And, according to a recent New York 'Times report,
there are also more than a dozen states, including
Michigan, Arkansas and Missouri, that have already
raised their minimum wage above $5.15 an hour or
have ballot initiatives in the works for the upcoming
November elections.
Draining revenue from the U.S. treasury while at
the same time giving the working poor a raise sounds
like voodoo economics to me. 'This is just another
example of legislators’ inability to seriously address
. economic disparities between Whites and minorities
in this nation.
MARC H. MORIAL is president and CEO of the National
Urban League
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