California Teachers Happy over Loss of 'Race To The Top' Money

California Teachers Happy over Loss of 'Race To The Top' Money

California Teachers Happy over Loss of 'Race To The Top' Money

WEDNESDAY, 10 MARCH 2010 21:15

Hardy L. Brown

The state of California was denied federal funding on “Race to the Top” in education and as usual the teachers association and some professional educators are saying that is alright. We have Black students lagging at the bottom of every category of every indicator of a successful education and they say that is alright that we did not get funding. Now when it comes to their salaries they scream that it is the money that counts. In doing a quick survey of Black publishers in California they are fed up with these associations wanting more money with our support with no accountability for educating our kids.

In a front page article by reporter Chris Levister, she quotes the head of the California Federation of Teachers Association Marty Hittelman as saying; “I won’t say that I’m in sorrow of California losing it. There wasn’t a great deal of support. The teachers union had opposed for example, basing teachers evaluations on standardized test they say are flawed”. Now mind you last year when these same teachers got lay off notices and President Barack Obama sent federal stimulus money to save their jobs not one peep came from them about lack of support.

As a matter of fact these teachers were out stirring up the community that our children would be harmed if teachers were impacted.

Let us take a look at who is impacted. The staffing of teachers in California is 70.1%white with only 27.9%ofthe students being white. You can see who gets the money but what about accountability and what is happening in our schools when it comes to African American students.

Black students make up 7.3% of the student population with 4.3%of us as teachers. According to the Department of Education African American students score (674) at the bottom of the Accountability Progress Reporting, Performance Index Report. The California High School Exit Exam places Blacks at 23% passing Math and 33% passing English Language Arts. They list our adjusted dropout rate at 32.9%which is 10%higher than the closest group. In some districts the dropout rate for Blacks is greater than 50 percent. Then when you look at over20,700 are expelled and over 770,000 are suspended each year, the question is who is in school to teach?