It is not so much astounding as appalling: Here we are, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day — and the state Legislature is poised to turn the clock back on educational opportunity for minority New Yorkers. This is lawmakers’ answer to President Obama’s challenge to improve our schools?
In a 1947 article for the Morehouse College student newspaper, Dr. King noted, “Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.”
Nowhere in our nation is this need greater than in the life of a young black man. For people of color, education may be the most important civil right.
This philosophy surely was President Obama’s inspiration in creating the federal “Race to the Top.” Under this initiative, New York state could win up to $700 million to help educate our neediest children. The only “catch”: State leaders must first enact reforms that will themselves improve the education of our students.
That is, to win the money, New York state need only institute policies that benefit our children. Those reforms would include:
* Expand the number of charter schools in our state. Recent studies show that these institutions are raising the levels of academic achievement of those New York City students lucky enough to attend them — 92 percent of them African-American or Latino.
* Ensure that the proven ability to educate students is a factor used in determining whether a teacher is granted tenure.
* Help districts reform or close historically underachieving public schools that have failed children for too long.
Such reforms would not only improve education, but empower local communities to take control of their public schools — the kind of empowerment that the Rev. King eloquently demanded. Race to the Top has win-win written all over it: New York can secure millions for public education by embracing reforms that will also improve our schools. Who could oppose that?
Outrageously, leaders in our Legislature seem poised to rigidly resist the president’s call to reform — in deference to the education establishment.
Rather than expand public education opportunities and improve teacher performance, these lawmakers proposed legislation that would make it harder to open and operate charter schools. They would also make it virtually impossible for these public-school children to access a public-school building, and all but eliminate the ability of one of the best charter-school authorizers in the nation — the State University of New York — to select and support these schools in the future.
Make no mistake: President Obama is demanding reforms to an education system that has for far too long failed our children — particularly poor and minority children, like some who attend my church. I promise you, my parishioners won’t be fooled by “reforms” that reduce their children’s opportunities.
No alliance of any politician, no demand of any special interest, can justify enacting legislation that reverses the gains of recent years. Bad enough that these lawmakers would jeopardizes New York’s chance at $700 million — how dare they condemn to failing schools those students who need help the most?
In contrast to the Legislature’s plans, Gov. Paterson has proposed a bill that would maximize New York’s ability to win Race to the Top funding by embracing the reforms the president has called for. His horse is the one to ride in this race, not the Trojan horse being jockeyed by the Legislature.
Our state can’t afford to let this cause be hijacked.
More important — neither can our children.
The Rev. A.R. Bernard, the founder and CEO of the Chris tian Cultural Center in Brook lyn, is part of a group applying for a NY charter to open the Cultural Arts Academy Charter School at Spring Creek this Sep tember.