We can hardly pick up a paper these days without reading that a child has been wounded or killed on a school playground or in the halls -- often by another child.
Dear President-elect Clinton,
I wrote a couple of weeks ago to urge that you continue supporting the education goals because doing so is the best way of raising the achievement of all our students. This is something that needs to be done over the long run. But there are problems that cry out for immediate solutions. I'm talking about the terrible difficulties that face many of our urban school districts -- violence, crumbling schools, an influx of immigrant children who need extra resources at a time when budgets are shrinking. And I'm hoping that when you map out your economic priorities, you'll find a way to help these urban schools. For some children, it's a matter of survival.
• Violence. Schools, which should be havens for children living in dangerous neighborhoods, are no longer safe. We can hardly pick up a paper these days without reading that some child has been wounded or killed on a school playground or in the halls -- often by another child. Last winter, two youngsters were shot dead in a Brooklyn high school where, three months earlier, another youngster had been killed and a teacher shot. Just last week, a young boy whose mother said she was careful to take him to school every day was killed -- in school. She asked, in agony, what she could have done to keep him safe. Psychologists tell us these children resemble kids from Beirut or Northern Ireland -- other war zones. Teachers suffer from stress that is almost beyond endurance.
I know you are aware of this problem because you have spoken of hiring 100,000 extra policemen to make our neighborhoods safe. Please give priority to urban schools so that teachers can concentrate on teaching and youngsters can feel the sense of security they need if they are to learn -- or even to grow up healthy and sane.
• Crumbling schools. In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes urban schools that we'd be shocked to find in poor third-world countries. In East St. Louis, Illinois, a junior high and a high school had to be closed twice in one week because sewage from backed-up toilets flooded the buildings. In New York, Kozol visited a school where the staircase became a waterfall when it rained and where blackboards were so badly damaged that teachers feared kids would cut their hands if they did board work.
Studies tell us that one U.S. school in eight is in bad enough shape to impede student learning. Taking care of each of these schools is a long-term proposition. But I hope that when you are planning the infrastructure repair you have mentioned, you will remember these crumbling schools. Children shouldn't have to suffer from conditions like these.
• The influx of immigrant children. We've always been proud of the role our schools have played in helping transform immigrant children into citizens. But the recent flood of immigrants has taxed urban school systems to the limit. Immigrant families often have problems connected with being strangers in a new country. They are likely to live in poor housing and work at poorly paid jobs. If the parents don't speak English, they probably have a hard time getting access to health care. And the children have their own problems trying to get accustomed to American ways. To help these children and their families get on their feet, the schools offer many extra and specialized services. Right now, urban school districts are serving numerous -- and extremely diverse -- immigrant children. In New York City, 36 percent of the student body are form non-English-speaking families, and students come from 167 different countries. In Dade County, 25 percent of students were born outside the U.S., and come from 132 countries. And they keep coming: During the last 3 years, over 1,000 additional immigrant children have enrolled in Dade County schools each month.
The special problems of school districts with students who are recent immigrants are well known. But it's one thing to have a handful of students who need special help and another when a very substantial proportion of student does -- as is the case in New York City, Dade County and also Los Angeles, to name only three. Then, problems mount geometrically rather than arithmetically; and school districts that have this kind of responsibility are sinking under it.
Some United States Peace Corps volunteers bound for developing countries are getting on-the-job training right here in the U.S. -- in Camden, N.J. But Camden is not the only place where they could see poor children going to school in third-world condition. All these children deserve much, much better than that, and they are looking with hope to your administration.
Sincerely, Al Shanker