School Vouchers and School Districts

This week we have news that is challenging the orthodoxy of desegregation. On one hand we have Cory Booker in Newark silently pushing for school vouchers and in Omaha Nebraska we have a law passed that creates three school districts split among African-Americans, Latinos and Whites. What these two issues bring to the fore is desegregation. Many pundits have staked their space citing Dr. King and Brown v. Board as well as comments about how "segregated" schools do not prepare students for the real world. Lets look at the situation from a Pan-Africanist perspective. A Pan-Africanist is concerned first and foremost with self-determination for black people. Self-determination is based in the exercise of power. Self determination is a principle. Many people mistake Brown v. Board as principle. It is not. It has been used to make "desegregation" a principle, but that flies in the face of reality. Let me backtrack to one of my earliest Garvey's Ghost post where I wrote out the narrative of a portion of the Matrix Reloaded:


"The Question is, Do you know why you are here?.. The Keymaker, of course. But this is not a reason. This is not a why. The Keymaker himself in his nature is a means it is not an end. So, to look for him is to be looking for a means to..do..what?" says the Merovingian

"you know the answer to that question" Says Neo

"But do you? You think you do but you do not. You are here because you were sent here. You were told to come here, and then you obeyed. It is of course the way of all things. You see there is only one constant...one universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect. "

"Everything begins with choice." Says Morpheus.

"No. Wrong. Choice is an illusion created between those with power...and those without."

"... Casuality. There is no escape from it. We are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace, is to understand it, to understand the why. "why" us what separates us from them... you from me. "why is the only real source of power. without it, you are powerless. And this is how you come to me, without why, without power. Another link in the chain."

Matrix Reloaded
Scene 17: Taste of the Merovingian.


The scene pretty much sums up how most black people think on the subject. We've been told: believe this, do that, go here, ask this, sit down, sit here, you want to sit here, you want to live here, etc. Lets' dispel some myths. Everybody is separated from some group. If you live in a rich neighborhood, you are separated from middle class and poor neighborhoods. If you are a Pentecostal then you are separated from Baptists, etc. If you send your child to a private school, your are separate from those in public schools. The fact of the matter is that life is a separating event based on what people want to do with themselves and their families. Blacks in America, have historically been told to "live here" "Work there" and in that have been economically marginalized. Due to this marginalization a schools where blacks lived were commonly poorly equipped compared to their white counterparts. Blacks fought for better schools (and other things) by challenging the laws that marginalized them in public accommodations. Hence we got Brown V. Board which claimed that separate was inherently unequal and we bought that philosophy, hook, line and sinker. Let me ask you this: If separate is inherently unequal then why have three separate branches of government? The Executive, Judicial and Legislature of the US government are supposedly equal in power. No, the court really didn't mean what they said. It was really some text used to assuage themselves of guilt, but it was far more nefarious than that. Whether they knew it or not, the real issue of separate and equal is about self determination. If blacks were to rise economically they could no longer be exploited by whites, especially in the South. The Brown V. decision has this little piece in it stating how the minds of black children are harmed by being denied access to non-black (white) children. This little piece should have let us know what was in store for us. This is a great fallacy that is repeated today. We hear of it like this:

"Going to a black college will not prepare you for the 'real world.'" Read: "You won't understand how to act around white people." The "act around white people" insult aside, how can you explain the very well adjusted (many to a fault) of black College and University graduates? Anyone?

The purpose of black colleges was supposed to be the education of black people with a mind for the betterment of black people and not to mould new employees for white corporations, which many of these institutions have become. Black people see this fallacy and in their own warped sense of logic, come to the conclusion that if a black college is going to socialize (they say: "Prepare") their children to be bossed by white people, then a white college can do that much a better job by immersing said child in a sea of whiteness. And don't be mad because I said black people, in general, have a warped sense of logic, it's true.

Anyway, having dismissed the outlandish notion that black people cannot be "well adjusted" without being in daily contact with white children, we can address the Nebraska issue. Anyone who is familiar with public education, especially in urban environments knows that blacks (and poor non-blacks) make up the vast majority of students served by the public school systems. WHites who live in these urban areas either live in a rich area of urban centers where, due to how public schools are funded, The zoned schools are in good shape. Or these whites send their kids to private school. So the big joke is that regardless of Brown V. board, most public schools (and private schools) are in fact lawfully segregated. This is the big, hush, hush, don't say it secret in plain sight. Once it is admitted that the public school system is "segregated", the next question that has to be asked is what is bad about that? Your answer depends entirely on your ideology. if you are a white liberal odds are you believe in some rainbow, ringing mountaintops and hand holding negroes coalition. If you are a black integrationist you are aghast that young black boys and girls are not interacting on the daily with "good white folk." If you are a Pan-Africanist, you are saying, now that we got all our kids in one place, how do we get them educated. Note the difference, Pan-Africanists are not the least bit concerned that black kids are filling schools at 90 percentiles, we're concerned with what they are learning in the schools. Hence we get to Omaha's law. Omaha's law will be struck down as unconstitutional unless the justices intent to overturn Brown V. Board. That legal sideshow will still not address what the lone state senator brought up: Local control of schools.

The running joke that is the funding of public schools is how they are funded. Schools are funded by property taxes. Therefore; if you live somewhere where property values are worse than GM's credit rating or where companies with huge tax "incentives" are located or where there are way to many non-tax paying houses of worship, your schools are underfunded. This describes the situation in many black urban areas. If, however, you live in a location where houses are valued in the millions and there are tax paying local business driving up the value of property in that location, then your school is in much better shape. In addition, Schools in better off neighborhoods often have the luxury of stay-at-home moms who can donate time to the schools. Also the schools have alumni who are able and willing to give large donations (both cash and non-cash). Also, for the richety-rich, there are private schools that have yearly tuitions that are equal to the after tax income of many black people. So, in wealthier neighborhoods, the people who send their kids to private school out of their own pocket are also handing their tax dollars to the public schools thus underwriting a better education for those who cannot (or do not want to) attend private schools.

In poor neighborhoods this does not exist. There are no rich families underwriting the education of those students who cannot afford to go to private school. There is barely enough to keep the school running and to add insult to injury there are gangs and other social ills that drain resources (I won't even get into the monies that go into language programs for non-english speaking immigrant children) away from direct education. Now, Cory Booker and his ilk want you too believe that the state, which is already underserving urban schools should give money to parents to send their "talented" children to private or religious schools. The same state that has a problem properly funding public schools. The most amazing thing is that there are actually black people that believe this ( that warped logic thing). Now if a private foundation (like the Olatunji Foundation wants to pony up money to send more promising students to other schools then there's no problem. However, the diversion of public monies that is supposed to fund public education, to private and religious institutions is wrong. So what should be done:

It is the cruelest situation that this nation is so white supremacist that it will gladly spend billions and extend the debt to "bring democracy to Iraq" and to plan on going to war in Iran and will not equalize the educational spending in public schools. The answer to budget shortfalls in public education is that all tax revenue marked for public education should be put into one pot and distributed equitably among the schools in the state (Or county if that works out better). The Federal government should gladly extend it's debt, if necessary, to equalize the finances of public schools because it will pay dividends in the future (assuming the outsourcing of high skill knowledge jobs is brought to a halt, a whole OTHER conversation). That would kill the whole voucher movement because it would be unnecessary and it would kill the "segregation" argument because one could no longer stigmatize a predominantly black school because it is poor (which is THE reason it is stigmatized). Ultimately though, black folk are going to have to shake loose the whole "segregation" thing and start working with each other. Every group in America has gotten it's group power and respect that way, we are the only ones that spend an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid having our own t'ing.

Technorati Tags: Black Education, Blackanomics, Pan-Africanism