King: Educational inequality is ‘existential threat’
Educational inequality is an “existential threat” to goals of the advancement of society, former U.S. Secretary of Education John King said in Memphis on Tuesday.
King spoke during a panel at University of Memphis on “The Promise of Education” in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
That educational inequality, King said, is tied to the economic inequality that plagues cities like Memphis.
Joining King were Dorsey Hopson, Shelby County Schools superintendent, Karen Harrell, vice president of early childhood services at Porter-Leath, and Walter Kimbrough, Dillard University president.
In the 50 years since 1968 — when Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark ruling calling for the desegregation of schools, existed in law but rarely in practice — too little has changed in Memphis or across the country, the panelists said.
“We have seen real progress around high school graduation rates, which is encouraging, but too many of those children graduate without really being prepared for what’s next,” King said.
Hopson highlighted the poverty and trauma that plague so many Shelby County students. Of the 112,000 students in the school district, he said, about 40,000 live in homes that make less than $10,000 a year.
Hopson told the story of a 6-year-old boy who, within the last few weeks, was in his school’s office threatening to kill himself with a pencil because his brother had been shot the night before. Schools have to address that kind of trauma on a daily basis before learning can happen.
Students who live in poor neighborhoods, Hopson said, are more likely to attend school in a dilapidated building, with lower-rated teachers and overall fewer resources. It’s no coincidence, he said, those schools are in African American neighborhoods.
“I think it just continues to foster a second-class group of citizens,” Hopson said. “So I think until we’re able to have real equity in education, we’ll never fully realize the promise of Brown.”
Segregation is at the heart of the inequity, King, now the CEO of the Education Trust, said.
“Resources in American society follow white, middle class and affluent kids,” he said.
Hopson illustrated the point with the example of the Shelby County municipal school districts. Those districts, which broke away from SCS in 2014, receive county money but also support from their cities.
SCS, he said, receives only the county funds. The city of Memphis does not invest heavily in K-12 education, although city council members are considering a plan to contribute $6 million a year toward pre-kindergarten.
When asked whether there was the political or societal will in Memphis to make wholesale change that would integrate schools, Hopson said he doesn’t think it exists.
“If I’m honest, I don’t think we have the wholesale stomach for that in Memphis,” he said.
If changes aren’t made, ones that benefit all children, King said, the results will be predictable.
“We’re going to be right back here having the same conversation 50 years from now,” he said.
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.