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God Bless the Child




 “Them that's got shall have
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own”
                                    God Bless the Child
                                    Arthur Herzog Jr.  and Billie Holiday

           

           As I read about the current state of education for minority students in the United States, this song kept running through my mind.  Statistics show that the fastest-growing school age population are minority students.  Specifically, the Hispanic population has grown dramatically.  As a long-time, former resident of California, I can attest to the flourishing Hispanic community.  Almost 10% of this Hispanic population are English learners.  While approximately 88% Non-Hispanic white adults have a high school diploma, only 63% of Hispanics graduated from high school.  Similarly, about 30% of non-Hispanic white adults have college degrees compared to about 14% of Hispanic adults.

            I know, I know.  Blah, blah, statistics, blah, statistics, blah.  The data is colorless and dull, but the meaning behind these numbers is considerable:  We are failing to properly educate a significant and rapidly expanding population of school-aged children.  Minority children are more likely to live in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, have access to fewer educational resources, have less parental involvement with the school, all of which leads to poorer prospects at attaining an effective education.  So, we have a voluminous population of school children who enter the school at a disadvantage and who eventually leave the school system still disadvantaged and who continue to live in disadvantaged circumstances as adults.  

I do know that there is no easy solution to this cycle of hardship, but I think that we owe it to our children and to our nation’s future to try better to address it.  Let’s give our schools more support.  Let’s give our teacher’s more assistance.  Let’s give our students more resources.  Let’s make our future better.

Chapter 8 

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