Fewer than half of black males receive high-school diplomas within four years and 60 percent of blacks holding bachelor's degrees are women, according to a recent report from the Scott Foundation on educational achievement of black males and the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
As NPR explains, Omega Psi Phi—a major black fraternity—is hoping to do something about this.
Since the civil-rights movement, many opportunities to advance have been made possible, but still, the battle in the trenches for educational parity appears to be uphill. Commentator Lester Spence, an assistant professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University and an Omega Psi Phi, wonders why every recognizable constituency in the United States lobbies the government for aid, yet blacks—especially in the topic of education—tend to "talk hard core—'we don't need the Man to solve our problems for us. We need to take responsibility for our own issues.' That and a dollar won't even get you on the subway."
Prompted by town meetings held by Omega Psi Phi, a couple of state legislators in Florida have proposed a bill that would encourage high-performing black-male students to take advanced-placement courses in high school, as well as create alternative teacher-certification programs for black men in community colleges. However, Spence argues that the bill doesn't deal with the structural hurdles that influence black education outcomes, stating that many blacks attend schools with significant resource deficits, where advanced-placement courses are not even offered.
Spence also points out that more than 500,000 members are involved in five of the major black fraternities, and many of them are in government at local, state and federal levels. He wonders why more black men are not lobbying their legislatures to increase educational funding. But don't tell that to the black men at Omega Psi Phi—they are using legislature to impact local, state and federal policies regarding education.
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Wednesday, November 30th 2005 at 7:42PM
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