"The richest nation on earth has never allocated enough of its abundant resources to build sufficient schools, to compensate adequately its teachers, and to surround them with the prestige their work justifies. We squander funds on highways and the frenetic pursuit of recreation, on the over abundance of overkill armaments, but we pauperized education," said Martin Luther King in his speech at UFT Spring Conference, 1964.
But, how is education pauperized, today?
"Just last week, 300 New Orleans school children were shut out of schools and denied an education they badly need because the city says it doesn't have enough space or teachers. So, instead of studying in classrooms, 300 students are sitting at home waiting for space to open up in schools," wrote James Parks of the American Federation of Labor in his January 30th Weblog.
"The first district is New Orleans, where the Bush US Department of Education and the Louisiana governor used the devastation caused by Katrina as an opportunity to dismantle the public school system. Like everything else that the Bush administration has done in post-Katrina New Orleans, the result was a man made catastrophe on top of the natural disaster," wrote Leo Casey on Edwize.
It is inconceivable to think that there are children in this great nation who are missing out on an education. And if something is not done very soon, history will repeat itself.
History teaches us that the students of Prince Edward County were denied the benefits of a public education in Prince Edward County from 1959 - 1964. For five years the public schools were closed . Hence, the black students who remained in Prince Edward County were not afforded the benefits of any formal education. Consequently, they have been variously dubbed "the lost generation" and "the crippled generation" by reporters and researchers studying the long-term effects of educational deprivation, according to Bagly; Longwood College, Virginia.
How are funds squandered on the frenetic pursuit of recreation, today?
It is ironic that the bridge which collapsed in Minneapolis caused a cancellation of a ground breaking ceremony for a new baseball stadium. Furthermore there is a proposal for another stadium under consideration on the University of Minnesota's campus estimated at $288 million. It is reported that this stadium would be funded with private and corporate contributions, as well as funds from the state of Minnesota.
How do we squander funds "on the over abundance of overkill armaments" today?
Case in point, the war in Iraq: "If we can spend 10 billion dollars on an unnecessary war, we can feed the minds of our kids." said Congressman Charles Rangel, Chair of the Ways and Means Committee."We cannot survive by losing one half of the brain power."
Therefore, I believe a basic education should not be a dream deferred but a dream realized. Our public schools must become structurally sufficient. Our public schools can no longer afford to produce youth who, like former slaves, are "partially educated sufficient to make their work efficient, but insufficient to raise them to equality," said Martin Luther King.
And finally, I believe it is necessary for all United States legislators who ran on a platform of educational equity and access must be summoned back to the legislature to map out a plan to get all disenfranchised students back in school. The bridges to nowhere can wait. Surely, the education of all children must be a national priority and not another national tragedy.
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