Let’s agree
that Black children in Hempstead don’t matter. Then we can stop the charade and
the futile efforts to change and improve schools under the guise of caring about
children.
I find it
extremely troubling that too many people have accepted, through their actions,
that Black children do not matter. I am not one of them.
The purpose
of this message is to focus on ways residents of Hempstead can change from accepting
an education culture of dysfunction, corruption, and incompetence to promoting
and supporting a culture of community, care, and competence. This can best be demonstrated by strategically
and conscientiously investing in our children’s education.
A
responsive and accountable school governance structure is essential to a good
educational system. Hempstead’s current public-school governance (its school
board) is dysfunctional and corrupt, which makes it impossible for children in
Hempstead to receive a quality education. What is required to change the school
board’s unaccountable, nonresponsive, and irreverent culture? First, let’s
explore how we got here. Then we can focus on how to change.
People
remember where they were when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. They
remember when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by an assassin’s bullet.
As longtime
Hempstead residents, where were you when the hope of public school children of
Hempstead was assassinated? When did the despicable and deplorable acts of
corruption begin? Why does this continual cycle of corruption and incompetence persist,
with apparent acceptance from community stakeholders, including politicians,
clergy, residents, parents, teachers, and school officials?
By any
reasonable measure, the Hempstead Public School Board is depressingly dysfunctional.
Sadly, this reality is likely to continue unless the community residents awake
from the deep and depressing disposition of believing and accepting that things
won’t change.
Too many people
in Hempstead appear to accept the current school system and are convinced that
things will never change because that’s the way it has been, that’s the way it
is, and that’s way it will always be.
When I
speak to residents of Hempstead about public schools, they speak of the school
system with such dispassion and disconnection. Educators whisper for fear of
retribution, especially if they live in Hempstead. Some quietly argue that too
many people who work in the system got their jobs through corruption—this
reminds me of the Machiavellian notion of the ends justifying the means.
Here’s what
I know. We cannot blame children. Among all stakeholders, children are the most
resilient. They are geniuses and deserve a fertile foundation from which to learn
and excel.
We cannot
blame parents because they have limited to no options other than what the
public school system has to offer, which is not much considering the
overcrowding conditions and outdated infrastructure of school facilities, not
to mention the poor quality of instruction and the limited course offerings.
I will not
accept that Hempstead is hopeless, as many longtime residents seem to believe.
I offer the
following immediate steps to begin to address the dysfunctional, corrupt, and
incompetent school board. However, you should know that any effort to improve
the public school system must be based on common individual and community beliefs
and values.
We must:
·
Invest in our children. Address the education
crisis as if it were a life-threatening virus. Repurpose our current spending
patterns to maximize available funding.
·
Value family. Organize weekly and monthly
activities to bring families together.
·
Value community. Organize weekly and monthly
activities to bring residents together.
·
Organize local clergy to strategize on how to
support and empower parents to participate meaningfully in the educational
process.
·
Convene a planning summit of local government, grassroots
organizations, clergy, and public school officials to devise a plan to replace
the current dysfunctional school board. Establish criteria for school board
membership, including selection and removal.
·
Create five- and ten-year capital plans to
upgrade, renovate, and construct state-of-the-art school facilities. Devise a short-term
plan to remove trailers.
·
Partner with businesses, colleges and
universities, and grassroots community-based organizations to embrace and value
education as a community obligation.
In 1955,
the Montgomery Improvement Association played a pivotal role in a bus boycott
that lasted for 381 days. How long are you prepared to plan and promulgate policies
and programs to improve opportunities for a sound education for children living
in Hempstead?
