Kids, Schools, and Cities Part I

Public schools work. Public schools that have 90% of their kids above the poverty line do just fine. When public schools have over 40% of their kids from households below the poverty line, performance tanks.

To fix the problem, it takes a three-pronged strategy: money, parental involvement and a sound faculty. Public Education: Resources Matter, as Does Context - Milwaukee is NOT South Dakota

Here are some of the critical elements that are too often ignored:

• Low income kids are more likely to be from a single parent household.
• Low income kids are less likely to have a working computer and printer at home.
• Low income kids are more likely to have chronic health problems resulting in frequent absences.
• Low income kids are less likely to have a parent involved in their education because:
  • Their parents may not have a high school education.
  • Their parents had lousy educational experiences and consequently do not want to go to the school.
  • English is a second language for the parent (and perhaps the child).
  • Transportation to after-school conferences and evening activities is difficult, or even impossible.
• Low income kids are less likely to have access to after-school or summer recreation programs which would enhance their skills.

Thirty years ago, many school districts said, "We have the kids from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm, after that, they are not our concern."  Most districts now realize that if there is going to be academic achievement, the child is of concern 24 hours a day. 

Add to that the fact that there is hardly a force in the universe as strong as peer group pressure, especially among teenagers. The child's peers, as most families discover, have a greater influence on valuing an education than does the parents.

Then there is the plague of crime in many low income neighborhoods. This was not always the case in the United States.  Many poor neighborhoods used to be safe; even middle income neighborhoods have fallen when confronted by lawlessness.  In trying to figure out a solution to this problem, adding more law enforcement is not nearly as effective as adding the right type of law enforcement, which, you guessed it, is more expensive.

Lets start with safe neighborhoods.

Most neighborhoods, rich or poor, urban, rural or suburban, regardless of racial complexion, coastal or heartland, have the same shared values.

• We admire educators, doctors, people who work hard for a living; not bums or neer-do-wells, drug dealers, and pimps.
• We want a safe, clean environment for our children.
• We have some sort of religious or philosophical value system that guides us away from being self-centered.
• We deplore excessive materialism.
• We want good schools, and have high expectations for our public institutions.
• We are charitable and value kindness and generosity.

These are common values, but some neighborhoods still crumble in the face of crime and violence. The answer is complex, but when all is said and done, the good values must be accompanied by the will to fight and the faith that evil can be overcome.  If the will is gone, those who can do so, flee, and those who remain, make do as best they can.  If the faith is not there, many will succumb to the evil.

Community Resources and John McKnight

No one individual or institution can stand alone, but a neighborhood strategy designed to draw on the resources of the community will prevail.  That is why law enforcement alone cannot win the battle.  There must be support for law enforcement from the community; there must be community policing.

The police, public health nurses, social workers, and all of the other government professionals that serve our neighborhoods must be a resource, not agents of control.  This view must be shared by the neighborhood as well as the public servants. Too often you hear, "I called the police, now it is their problem."   If life were only that simple.

John L. McKnight, Professor of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University knows this as well as anyone. He co-authored a book on the subject, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets with John P Kretzman. The following is from the Introduction:

No one can doubt that most American cities these days are deeply troubled places...   

...In response to this desperate situation, well-intended people are seeking solutions by taking one of two divergent paths. The first, which begins by focusing on a community's needs, deficiencies and problems, is still by far the most traveled, and commands the vast majority of our financial and human resources. By comparison with the second path, which insists on beginning with a clear commitment to discovering a community's capacities and assets, and which is the direction this guide recommends, the first and more traditional path is more like an eight-lane superhighway...

...First, all the historic evidence indicates that significant community development takes place only when local community people are committed to investing themselves and their resources in the effort. This observation explains why communities are never built from the top down, or from the outside in. (Clearly, however, valuable outside assistance can be provided to communities that are actively developing their own assets, a topic explored further in Chapter Six.)

The second reason for emphasizing the development of the internal assets of local urban neighborhoods is that the prospect for outside help is bleak indeed. Even in areas designated as Enterprise Zones, the odds are long that large-scale, job-providing industrial or service corporations will be locating in these neighborhoods. Nor is it likely, in the light of continuing budget constraints, that significant new inputs of federal money will be forthcoming soon. It is increasingly futile to wait for significant help to arrive from outside the community. The hard truth is that development must start from within the community and, in most of our urban neighborhoods, there is no other choice...

To be continued...