I majored in criminal justice as an undergraduate, and I learned that the rate of incarceration is higher for people living in poverty, especially minorities, than for any other group. After I graduated college, I became a fourth grade teacher and learned about some of the reasons for this. I became aware that there is a pipeline that makes it possible for people living in poverty to seem destined from birth to go on to commit or be accused of committing crimes and enter prison.
Here’s a statistic I shared with my fourth graders: 2/3 of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Everyday, my students and I fought against this statistic. After all, the stakes are high for kids living in poverty.
Photo by Christina Xu (Via Wikicommons).
Here are the 3 causes I see for the pipeline that funnels students from low income backgrounds into the criminal justice system:
In 2008, I joined the Houston corps and taught 6th grade reading at a predominantly Latino school. At that point, I knew little about the culture of the immigrant families living and working in Houston. Although my mom’s house was less than two miles from my school, my world and those of my students seemed disconnected and distant. Over the course of two years, I heard countless stories about families struggling to realize their own American dreams on this side of the border. For most parents, that meant working multiple low-wage hard labor jobs with little to no health benefits.
Of course, I encouraged my students to work hard, stay in school, stay out of trouble, and go to college so they could get higher-paying jobs with better benefits. But I soon learned that for the vast majority of my students, college was not an easy option. Take Jonathan: because he lacks documentation, the high cost of college will almost definitely prevent him from enrolling. Although Texas is one of 12 states that offers in-state tuition to undocumented students who meet qualifications, Jonathan still cannot apply for federal financial aid. He once told me that he wants to be an engineer. I felt like a liar telling him that all he had to do to get into college was work hard and get good grades. It would take far more work than that.
Graphic from the National Immigration Law Center.
The Huffington Post recently reported that cash-strapped states are having trouble enacting President Obama’s call to raise the high school dropout age to eighteen. Despite political will for the initiative, its high cost has made it a non-starter in legislatures across the country.
Reuters–US
This lack of action is hardly surprising from states and municipalities that are still struggling economically, despite the fact that dozens of studies have shown that kids who dropout are at much higher risk of incarceration, teen pregnancy, and drug use. Yet it strikes me that whatever financial hit raising the dropout age to 18 would have on state coffers, it surely pales in comparison to the $320 billion of economic potential that is lost each year as a result of students dropping out.
So why the short-sightedness?
My mom and I graduated from the same high school—Northwestern Senior High School in Baltimore City. She graduated in 1980. At the time, the school gym had nice paneling and the fields were immaculate with fresh grass, which bolstered school pride. The school also had new textbooks and classroom materials for students to use to get a strong, competitive education. But 23 years later, at my own graduation in 2003, there were cracks throughout the gym floor, textbooks from the 1960s-80s, and muddy grass for a field.
Janiceia and mom at Janiceia's graduation. Photo courtsey of Janiceia Adams.
How did this decay happen? Was it solely due to a lack of funding for upgrades, or was it due to the belief that kids going to school in low-income communities do not need good facilities to learn?
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. To commemorate it, President Obama screened the film at the White House, USA played the movie with limited commercial interruption, and most importantly, I tattooed a mockingbird on my wrist to remind myself of the social injustice we are still fighting, all these years later.
Photo courtsey of Erin Teater
Last week I went to Alabama on a Teach For America leadership journey. On our second day, we visited the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, which provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system. In otherwords, these are the real life Atticus Finches.
Anne Mahle lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daughters, the oldest of whom is already an avid US Women’s Soccer team fan at the age of 3
This week we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX. As a woman who will turn 42 later this year and who grew up wearing pins on my overalls in elementary school that said “ERA YES!” or “59¢” (because at that time a woman earned 59¢ for every dollar a man earned; today it’s 77¢ for every dollar a man earns), I probably took Title IX for granted, all while reaping many of its benefits throughout my educational journey.
Photo by Dakota County Technical College (via WikiCommons).
As Title IX hits the 40-year mark, it feels right to reflect on what it did for women’s equality and the role it still must play in ensuring equal access. When Congress passed the massive 1972 omnibus education bill and President Nixon signed it into law, I think that few recognized the importance of these 37 words nestled within the bill’s many provisions:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
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