Today's New York Times has a long article about the problems facing Community Coleges of New York. Almost all of the students are unable to do even simple college work. Remediation is taking money away from the primary focus of the college - college education. Many students continously try to raise their game to college but don't succeed. Were I not from an urban poor background I would assume laziness. So much of my post high school life was spent learning things everyone else learns in high school. Recently, I was exposed to special ed student grads. Most are functionally illiterate. My own experience shows it is not intelligence or dedication that is the factor. Society appears to wake up at the college level.
If public schools were forced to measure up, if teachers were not granted tenure, these students could learn when it is age appropriate. Too many pass without doing the work. My high school offered a group of us French IV on our transcripts if we repeated French III. We all declined and were hurt and insulted. Posh students not only learned French IV but most of my classmates placed out of French completely through the Advanced Placement portion of the SATs.
Race appears to be a crude marker for economic disadvantage. It may have served utility in my generation but witness the rise of the black middle class and Obama's election. I only attended elite schools on merit and financial aid scholarships. Strangely, my Ivy League ed cost less than a state teachers college. Not everyone is so lucky. Most people I know will do anything to have their children receive the best education. My mother was very supporitve. My father, however, tried to pull me out of high school on a Witness belief used to punish. I faced foster care. B/c of the Witnesses, I stumbled upon education. Indeed, I picked my college based on an article in a teen fashion magazine and its location in Manhattan.
I worked for a large Wall St. law firm. It was an interesting snapshot of race in America. NY firms are split between Christian and Jewish firms. My prospects were better at a Jewish firm b/c I'd be a token. I chose being comfortable. So my firm was all WASP male partners, except for two women and one ethnic White. My name would not fit in with the tradition. He kept his name without Anglicizing it the way many Jews do. His name was like a flashing neon sign. This culture dominated. Not a single partner was racist overtly. They genuinely wanted women and blacks. There were only so many to pass around. I was one of the first women lawyers in corporate law. There was no legal bar but a cultural one. Fortunately, a whole bunch of us were assimilated. We watched new employment offers like hawks for women and minorities and met for support. Without this support, the uncomfortableness would have claimed me.
I see the larger unfairness to a separate but equal de facto track. People discount black achievement. Back in the 1950s, a black who succeeded was acknowledged as brighter and more dedicated than a white counterpart. Statistics don't lie, however. I was exposed to mountain people in West Virginia. Their illiteracy rate is higher than among urban or rural blacks. Any system born of slavery will be a huge mess. Why aren't Native Americans entitled to reparations?
Sophisticated diversity programs offer hope. Class discussions are more interesting when exposed to peoplel who don't share your culture. We had one moderate Republican in law school, a former Marine. He brought up so many gems that enriched us. We could not longer be smug. He was worth forty or fifty average students. Anway, the Supreme Court has proven that race only scholarships are unconstitutinal unless to remedy actual past discrimination. This is a narrow segment of education. What power did African-Americans have or Jews when they were victims of express discrimination? It may not be unfair but it is hardly a level playing field of injustice.
