Posted on 02/08/2003 2:07:43 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CHICAGO - You see them in many parts of the city, hanging out on frigid street corners, skylarking at the malls or bowling alleys, hustling for money wherever they can, drifting in some cases into the devastating clutches of drug-selling, gang membership, prostitution and worse.
In Chicago there are nearly 100,000 young people, ages 16 to 24, who are out of work, out of school and all but out of hope. In New York City there are more than 200,000. Nationwide, according to a new study by a team from Northeastern University in Boston, the figure is a staggering 5.5 million and growing.
This army of undereducated, jobless young people, disconnected in most instances from society's mainstream, is restless and unhappy, and poses a severe long-term threat to the nation's well-being on many fronts.
Audrey Roberts, a 17-year-old who just recently landed a job at a fast-food restaurant on Chicago's West Side, talked to me about some of the experiences she and her out-of-work friends have had to endure.
"The stuff you hear about on the news," she said, "that's our everyday life. I've seen girls get raped, beaten up. I saw a boy get his head blown away. That happened right in front of me. I said, 'Oh my God!' I just stood there."
The shooting was over a dice game that was being played one afternoon by boys who had nothing better to do with their time, she said.
It's an article of faith among politicians and members of the media that the recession we continue to experience is a mild one. But it has hit broad sections of the nation's young people with a ferocity that has left many of them stunned.
"I don't think I can take it much longer," said Angjell Brackins, a 19-year-old South Side resident. "I get up in the morning. I take a bath. I put on my clothes. I go outside."
She has tried for months to find a job, she said, filling out application after application, to no avail. "I'll do any kind of work if they'll just hire me. It doesn't matter, as long as it's a job."
The report from Northeastern, titled "Left Behind in the Labor Market," found that joblessness among out-of-school youths between 16 and 24 had surged by 12 percent since the year 2000. Washington's mindless response to this burgeoning crisis has been to slash - and in some cases eliminate - the few struggling programs aimed at bolstering youth employment and training.
Education and career decisions made during the late teens and early 20's are crucial to the lifetime employment and earnings prospects of an individual. Those who do not do well during this period seldom catch up to the rest of the population.
"Our ability to generate family stability and safe communities is strongly influenced by this," said Dr. Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern and the lead author of the study.
When you have 5 1/2 million young people wandering around without diplomas, without jobs and without prospects, you might as well hand them T-shirts to wear that say "We're Trouble."
Without help, they will not become part of a skilled work force. And they will become a drain on the nation's resources. One way or another, the rest of us will end up supporting them.
"It's just heartbreaking," said Jack Wuest, who runs the Alternative Schools Network in Chicago, which commissioned the study. "These kids need a fair shake and they're not getting it."
The Bush administration, committed to a war with Iraq and obsessed with tax cuts for the wealthy, has no interest in these youngsters. And very few others in a position to help are willing to go to bat for them.
In a long series of conversations with young unemployed and undereducated Chicagoans, I did not hear much of anything in the way of aspirations. Whether boys or girls, men or women, those who were interviewed seemed for the most part already defeated. They did not talk about finding the perfect job. They did not talk about being in love and eventually marrying and raising a family. They did not express a desire to someday own their own home.
There was, to tell the truth, a remarkable absence of positive comments and emotions of any kind. There was a widespread sense of frustration, and some anger. But mostly there was just sadness.
Court upholds English-only instruction in California*** A federal appeals court has ruled that California voters acted constitutionally when they scrapped bilingual education and ordered that children be "taught English by being taught in English."
"The record contains no evidence that Proposition 227 was motivated by racial animus," the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday.
The appeals court ruled that the 1998 voter initiative was an educational issue intended to change "a pedagogically flawed educational system" - the 30-year practice of bilingual instruction - and was not an effort to discriminate against Hispanics, who make up 41 percent of California's student body and 82 percent of its "limited English proficient students."
"We are overjoyed that the court has recognized Proposition 227 as the lawful, nondiscriminatory solution to a broken-down system that provided nothing more than a disservice to California's English-learning students," said Sharon Browne, attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation whose nominal client was Sarina Frias, a parent of a student.***
__________________________________________________________________
September 4, 2000 - Report Card On English-Only Schooling -Students Test Scores Going Up In California -
***OCEANSIDE, CALIF., SEPT. 3, 2000 (CBS News) - As the new school year begins, educators around the country are debating whether bilingual education is necessary.
Voters in Arizona this year may follow those in California, who virtually outlawed bilingual education under proposition 227 two years ago, reports CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes.
According to California standardized test scores, over the past two years reading test scores for English-learners have increased nine percent, and math scores 14 percent.
Last year, Christian Dominguez could not speak a word of English. In just a few months, he mastered his new language - in an English-only class.
Now starting the secondgrade, Christian says, "My friend Jonathan said, 'Wow! You can talk a lot of English!'"
For 30 years Oceanside, Calif., school superintendent Ken Noonan believed in bilingual education. But after the English-only law passed he watched in amazement as students test scores soared.***
We have no leaders to save our black men*** In his column, "Off the Vine," which appears on the front page, Clayborne has taken on the journalism fight of his life:
"Young black men have . . . bought into what apparently is a universal "dumbing down' syndrome where it's in style to be stupid -- with rap lyrics like "Where are my niggas at?' more memorable than their ABCs. Now, give or take a few token whites, our prison system is filled to capacity with young black men -- young men who will leave behind a trail of fatherless babies, single mothers and the untold carnage from the crimes they've committed.
"I was astonished recently when I read a study about a city's school system where out of nearly 6,000 African-American males in its high school, only 135 earned a B average or higher. Yet, we black people seem paralyzed to act, to mobilize -- to be outraged! We have failed miserably in addressing, for lack of a better description, "self-destruction of the black man.' Today . . . women head 70 percent of black households! Now you tell me, how are young black boys going to learn how to be men? Folks, what we have . . . is a national crisis -- demanding the highest attention of civic, business and government leaders. I am proposing that communities across the country initiate and start a "Save the Black Man Project.'
...and then he had to throw in this class-warfare bilge cheap shot at the President. Hey, Bob, socialism doesn't work ! Did your boy Clinton do a damn thing about solving any problems, either ?
Bump!
Designed as a blunt legal instrument to force urban districts to integrate decades ago, the Racial Imbalance Law has in recent years come into play in more affluent communities that have seen dramatic demographic changes.
Today, Milton is about 85 percent white, 10 percent black, and 5 percent other minority. Over the past 10 years, demographers have noted a trend that some call black flight, in which minority families move to the suburbs to seek better educational opportunities for their children.
Among these black families, the clustering in one neighborhood or one side of town can be a matter of choice, said University of Massachusetts demographer Bob Gaudet. He calls Milton's 119 percent increase in the number of blacks over the past decade ''the Blue Hill Ave. syndrome,'' referring to the street that cuts through Mattapan, a predominantly black Boston neighborhood, and then into Milton and, eventually, Randolph, which has also seen a huge influx of minorities over the past decade.
''These patterns follow the roadways,'' Gaudet said. ''And people perceive these suburban schools as good and safe.''
But while some town officials explain the concentration of minority families in one part of town as a housing pattern, some Milton residents wonder if a history of housing discrimination could also be a factor.
In 1984, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination charged eight Milton real estate agencies with steering prospective black buyers to specific neighborhoods, some near the Tucker school. A settlement required the realtors to promote housing opportunities for minority groups.***
________________________________________________________
The Left never quits. They promote race and class hatred. It is their life's blood.
You can say that again. The great society programs created incentives to not work, have babies out of wedlock, and keep the father out of the home. Liberal teachers were going to change the world by showing how "wrong" America's capitalistic system was. In the meantime they forgot what school was for. To provide the tools for learning and tools for building productive lives.
Good for them! Speaking and writing English is an important life-skill for all of us who live here in the US. I also hear there is a war on. The military is always looking for able people and they even offer training that might be applicable to future employment.
This is a result of the service economy where fewer and fewer can earn a decent living in their early years. You can't pay for a college education flipping hamburgers when the cost of tutition is more than your annual salary. Today students take out education loans and due not begin to see a profit on their sacrifices and efforts for a decade or better. The elites in their infinte wisdom have taken away the incentive for millions of Americans to drive for success, with globalization, the service economy, taxes, and other nonsense.
I never took out an eduction loan because I could sock away $20 grand at a summer manufacturing job. These kinds of opportunities do not exist today. The inner cities have become cesspools of, "Dope for Hope."
Sure. Right. Gotcha.
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics........."
How can so many arabs, asians, and latins find so many jobs and americans cannot find jobs?
I know that businesses owned by arabs(gas stations, dollar stores, etc.) generally do not hire americans, but those are the minority of businesses.
Even more foreigners are brought in each week under the H1-B visa program because there is such a shortage of americans people wanting a job.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.