I Believe the Children are Our Future...

There was a time when democracy meant to serve the best interests of the general community, but these times have since passed. The song “The Greatest Love of All,” initially recorded by George Benson and further popularized by Whitney Houston, began with the lyrics; “I believe the children are our future, teach them well, and let them lead the way,” however, modern times have seen this statement not apply to all children. There has been a gap in education since the inception of this “great” nation and while the Supreme Court decisions Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, have made tremendous steps to remedy this problem, all things education, unfortunately, are not created equal. Furthermore, the government of Louisiana, at both the state and municipal levels does not seem interested in increasing the state’s rank of 49/50 in education. If we truly desire to teach children well and let them lead the way, then it is up to us, the citizens of Louisiana, to do so.The governor of the State of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, has not been looking out for the best interests of the children in our state.

Although Jindal tends to state that he is for the children and higher education standards in the state, his actions prove otherwise. Initially, Jindal started a voucher program that allowed students in low-income areas to attend private schools that offered a more competitive curriculum and boasted of higher educational standards than many of the state’s public schools. However, educational reform throughout the state seemed to be something that was far on the back end of his policy regarding education. How exactly is no child to be left behind when the head of the State considers sending a select number of students to better schools when the general education standard throughout the state is in dire need of repair? Jindal’s actions seem to cover up the actual problem and focus on a quick fix that would not help the general public, only a select few. And when solutions only account for a percentage of the whole, how can it be ensured that the selection process is one of honesty and integrity, or only one designed to further the educational divide benefitting only people who think as the governor does or are firm supporters of his policies? It seems like Jindal cannot be depended upon to help our children.

The end of my tenure at Benjamin Franklin Senior Magnet High School here in New Orleans, saw the nationally recognized magnet school title be done away with in favor of a new city-wide access system. This system, while designed to affect not only Franklin but the four other magnet high schools in the city, increased the average student’s chances of receiving a better public school education, yet did little to prepare students for the rigors of a magnet school curriculum. This, in my opinion, did little to address the real issue. It wasn’t that students weren’t presented with the opportunity to receive a magnet school education or that the test was unfairly biased, but that these students weren’t adequately prepared for such a curriculum. While I thought the best solution was to improve the middle and junior high schools that fed the public high school population of New Orleans, I knew that results would not come instantaneously. I’ll also admit that the city-wide access solution was the easiest solution in the name of being “fair,” it did little for the actual issue. Yes, bottom-up approaches require much more time and effort than a quick fix, but aren’t our children worth it?

There was the time when the Louisiana Legislation and Jindal established the Tucker Commission to remediate the Louisiana higher education system, which only served to further the education divide. According to the Tucker Commission, having universities in the same city that offer the same degrees is a waste of money. The Commission planned to downgrade many universities within the state to junior colleges, community colleges or trade schools that give out two-year Associate Degrees as opposed to four-year Bachelor Degrees. The Tucker Commission told us that they were merely trying to help out Louisiana college students by lowering the costs for enrollment at these schools and the colleges by improving their attrition rates. However, there is always the fine print, and the fine print is where these politicians get you. The State of Louisiana reportedly has 30,000 graduates combined yearly from its institutes of higher education while only having the employment field to accommodate only 13,000. In addition there are another 11,000 jobs that go unapplied for. Most of these college graduates leave Louisiana because they consider themselves too good for those 11,000 jobs I have mentioned. So instead of trying to promote opportunities that would increase the job market, the state of Louisiana would rather that its higher learning centers produce the people who can hold these positions. If education reform were left to these people, gone would be the times where we tell children they can be anything they want to be, but they can only be what is available to be.

In closing, the efforts of the educational reformists who have started the charter school movement here in New Orleans must be commended. These people have taken it upon themselves to improve the conditions inside the classroom and give our children what so many have failed to do; a chance to improve their situation and dictate their future endeavors. Leaving our children’s future up to the government and democracy would be disastrous to say the least. How can we expect today’s children to become tomorrow’s leaders if the children themselves do not know which way is up. Again, the actions of these reformists should be commended and we should do all we can to help them, our children and their future, as well as ours, depends on it.