“Explaining the School-to-Prison Pipeline” – from change.org
by Megan Greenwell
Published January 31, 2010 @ 11:12AM PT
change.org - Poverty in America
It’s well-established that low-income students are much less likely than their more affluent counterparts to receive a challenging, fulfilling education. When one group of students is at a disadvantage from the beginning, they don’t perform as well on the standardized tests required to graduate from high school and they are more likely to have behavioral problems leading to punishment in school. But could those factors actually push low-income students toward prison?
A new report from the civil rights group Advancement Project concludes that high-stakes standardized tests and zero-tolerance policies in public schools have created a direct school-to-prison pipeline for many low-income students and students of color. These disadvantaged students are being forced out of their schools, whether by overly harsh punishments for their infractions or by being held back because they failed a standardized test. And when school is no longer an option, many of those disenfranchised teenagers turn to crime. High school dropouts are eight times more likely to be incarcerated than their peers who graduate.
The report documents the dramatic rise in police presence at schools over the past several years, calling students the most “policed” group in the country after actual inmates. Unsurprisingly, the schools with the heaviest police presence are the most “troubled” ones — in other words, inner-city schools where poor students of color often receive little more than a cursory education. “The results have been devastating,” the report’s authors write, “as across the country there have been dramatic increases in the use of lengthy out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, referrals to alternative schools, referrals to law enforcement and school-based arrests.”
Happy Birthday, Dr. King
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
The Prisoners’ Right-to-Read Statement – An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
The American Library Association is taking comments on ”The Prisoners’ Right-to-Read Statement: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights” through 1/24/2010. Comments and the document can be found here.
The Prisoners’ Right-to-Read Statement: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
When a society, living under the rule of law, decides to segregate certain of its members—for the safety of society, for the protection or treatment of the person, or to correct the behavior of the person—the right to read, to access knowledge and information, does not disappear on the institution’s doorstep. Prohibition of materials should only occur in order to ensure the safety and security of residents and staff and based on those restrictions required by law. While such reasonable limits may restrict the range of material available, the extent of limitation should be minimized by strict adherence to clear and universal guidelines.
Prison, jail, detention center, and mental health facility libraries may be required by the rules of parent agency rules or federal, state, or local laws to prohibit material that:
- instructs, incites, or advocates criminal action (bomb making or escape);
- instructs, incites, or advocates bodily harm (murder or suicide);
- or is itself a violation of law (obscenity or child pornography).
Prohibiting material for any other reason is censorship. Because material may depict or describe criminal activity, harm to persons, or violations of law should not be a reason to censor it. Because material may contain unpopular views or even repugnant content is not a reason to censor it. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that only when material advocates or promotes illegal behavior or activities should First Amendment rights be limited by the need for security, order, and rehabilitation.
Censorship is an exclusive process by which authority rejects specific points of view. Selection is an inclusive process. It is the search for the best of materials, regardless of medium, that present diversity and a broad spectrum of ideas. While accepting that we can not afford everything of value, our collection must reflect the needs of community and strive to meet those needs.
Unfettered access to information is essential those who wish to prosper within a democratic society. As unfettered as practical access to information is even more essential to persons held against their will, if they are to restore themselves whole to society. Suppression of ideas does not prepare the incarcerated for transition to freedom.
Even those who a lawful society chooses to exclude permanently deserve a role in the human struggle and that role requires access to information, to literature, and to a window on the world, no matter how narrow.
Byron Pitts Found Faith To ‘Step Out On Nothing’
from npr.org
November 16, 2009
When CBS correspondent Byron Pitts was 12 years old, he had a debilitating stutter and a terrible secret: he couldn’t read. In his new memoir, Step Out On Nothing, Pitts describes how, with faith and the help of family and friends, he overcame illiteracy to become an award-winning correspondent holding one of the top jobs in broadcast journalism.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120463986
Will “Precious” breathe life into the issue of adult literacy?
Go see it, and let us know what you think. It opens in limited release this Friday, November 6, 2009.
As I have written in previous posts on this site, I think the book on which the movie was based was amazing and a must read for every Adult Literacy tutor, especially those working with inmates. I was saddened yet invigorated by this remarkable book both times I read it – a kind of “the sea is so wide and my boat is so small” reaction.
I have worked in jails for many years, and have heard the story of Clarieece “Precious” Jones all too many times. I have high hopes that this movie, already pegged for Oscar honors, will motivate more to give some time to improving the literacy skills of someone, somewhere…
Why Johnny Still Can’t Read – from usatoday
U.S. illiteracy: Why Johnny still can’t read |
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
By the time he was 17, Antonio Rocha had bounced among 11 New York City schools and was reading at a first-grade level.It wasn’t until he told school officials “I want a lawyer!” that things began to change.
With the help of an advocacy group, Rocha pressured the city to pay for 480 hours of private tutoring, which eventually helped him read at a functional level. Now 20 and working for United Parcel Service, he’s one of three people profiled (and the only one comfortable with being identified) in WNYC Radio reporter Beth Fertig’s new book, Why Cant U Teach Me 2 Read?.
“Compensatory education” complaints are increasingly being used by parents who say school districts have a legal responsibility to educate children in spite of disabilities. The 2002 No Child Left Behind law dictated that schools must use “research-based” programs to teach these children to read, says Philadelphia-area attorney Dennis McAndrews. Reading comes naturally for many children, he says, but not for Rocha and others: “Putting print in front of them and hoping they’ll crack the code is useless.”
Labeled, by turns, learning-disabled, speech-impaired, emotionally disturbed and even mentally retarded, Rocha admits to Fertig, “I just gave up on myself.”
In an interview, he says he always felt odd sitting in class with students who could read: “I felt like I didn’t belong there.”
Administrators say they never “knowingly” placed him into inappropriate classes or schools. They say Rocha “had chosen to give up on his own education” by rarely showing up to classes, according to a transcript of the hearing included in Fertig’s book. But Fertig’s account indicates Rocha floundered for years in a system that was simply overwhelmed.
Hanging out in lower Manhattan one September morning in 2001, Rocha, then 12, witnessed the World Trade Center attacks from three blocks away and vowed to join the military. But five years later, he could still barely do simple work.
”I’m about to be 18 years old in seven months and, what, twenty-something days?” he told a hearing officer. “And I don’t want to turn 18 years old and not learn how to read. … I’m supposed to graduate high school. I’m supposed to go to the military. Where am I now? Where am I now?”
Later, as he left his last tutoring session clutching a paperback children’s biography of John F. Kennedy, Rocha rode the subway home with Fertig. He read the back cover aloud and tried to sum up his feelings: “It hurts,” he said. “But it hurts like in a good happiness. I feel like a regular kid now.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-14-illiteracy_N.htm
Update to State Budget Crisis
State budget to take about $84 million from Alameda County over next two years
by Chris Metinko
Oakland Tribune
With state officials ready to approve a budget to close a $26.3 billion shortfall in Sacramento, Alameda County leaders will have to head back to work to try to balance the budget on a local level.
The budget deal set to be approved in Sacramento calls for $4.3 billion to be diverted from local governments into the state’s finances. Alameda County will lose about $84 million in tax money over the next two years, said County Administrator Susan Muranishi.
The biggest hit will come from the state’s borrowing of nearly $2 billion in property tax money that goes to local governments. Alameda County will lose $40 million from that cut alone. In addition, the county stands to lose $35 million in gas tax money and $9 million in redevelopment money to the state over the next two years.
“There is no way we can look in to forecast and tell people we are not in for a rough ride,” said Supervisor Keith Carson at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting.
Carson added that some of the details of the new state budget deal still are not clear — likely even to those in Sacramento — but that it is clear local governments will lose out.
To that end, Alameda County supervisors agreed Tuesday to join what likely will be a joint lawsuit with many other counties against the governor and the state finance director to try to get back gas tax money, which funds the county’s public works department.
Despite the lawsuit, county officials know they will have to go without.
”We’re clearly at the bottom of the food chain,” Muranishi said. “Clearly we’re going to have a lot of work to do locally.”
Just last month the board of supervisors approved a $2.4 billion budget that closed a $178 million shortfall — the largest ever for the county — and included program cuts and layoffs.
The county budget cut 285 of the county’s 9,316 full-time-equivalent positions, including about 100 positions in the Sheriff’s Office. Many of the job cuts will come from positions already eliminated within the past year, as well as positions currently vacant. Less than half the job cuts will come via layoffs.
The cuts to the county’s Public Protection program, which includes the Sheriff’s Office, were the largest. The county’s Probation Department lost 49 positions, the District Attorney’s Office lost 14 attorney positions, and the Public Defender’s Office lost 15 jobs.
Public protection was not the only affected program area. The county’s health care services cut $30 million from their budgets but avoided layoffs.
The county’s public assistance programs weren’t as lucky, losing $45 million from their budgets and losing 10 vacant positions.
Cuts threaten classes that teach basic skills – from SFGate.com
Cuts threaten classes that teach basic skills
Barbara Baran,Vicky Lovell
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Barbara Baran is a senior fellow with the California Budget Project, a nonpartisan public policy research group. Vicky Lovell is a senior policy analyst with the California Budget Project. For more information, go to www.cbp.org
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/01/EDGV18GK9E.DTL&type=printable
This article appeared on page A – 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle
The CA State Budget and Library Funding
EFFECTS OF PROPOSITION 1A FUNDING LOSS
The California legislature is seriously considering borrowing 8% of library property taxes on 2009/2010. This will force the Library to cut hours, services and programs. This chart demonstrates the significance of the loss of these revenues.
$1.2 Million Loss |
|
|
Librarian |
32,597 hours |
|
Library Clerk |
42,826 hours |
|
Page |
56,127 hours |
|
|
|
|
Books |
34,158 |
|
CDs |
60,000 |
|
DVDs |
39,695 |
|
|
|
|
Children’s Programs |
2,400 programs |
|
Teen Programs |
2,492 programs |
|
Literacy Training |
3,692 programs |
“Libraries are more essential than ever. Reading is still the most basic survival skill in today’s information driven world.” William Ecenbarger
| How can you help? |
Please support your library by asking the State Legislature to exempt libraries from the Proposition 1A property tax shift.
Time is of the essence, so phone calls and faxes are preferred; letters are also welcomed.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/asm-addresses.html
Thank you for your help!
Best Book for Prospective Jail Tutors
I just (re) read Push by Sapphire, and came away even more profoundly moved than I was when I read it in 1997 (original year of release).
“Push” is the story of Clarice Precious Jones, a spiritually and physically abused sixteen year old who cannot read. But when Precious meets Miz Rain, her determined adult literacy instructor, she finds that her words, and her life, matter.
“Push” is getting new life because of the upcoming movie, Precious, produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, based on the book.
Why is this a good book for adult literacy tutors who work in jail? Because, as painful as Precious’ life is, it unfortunately closely mirrors many of the stories we hear in jail. I found Miz Rain’s interactions with her class incredibly instructive as we search for ways to use words to bring meaning to the lives of our students.
Push is not for the faint of heart (in fact, my heart hurt after I read it) but it is incredibly inspirational and definitely worth the read!
