"History is not everything" John Henrik Clarke once wrote, "but it is the starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be."
As educators we know what must happen to change history. And one by one we try in our classrooms. However, the failure of local and state governments to provide funding to economically poor citizens will compromise our efforts and the future of this great nation. "Recently, more economists are drawing the conclusions that a good education is one of the gateways to wealth creation for individuals as well as for nations," writes Education Trust. Yet, benign neglect seems to be the mantra of many in political office who turn their backs on the ones who need quality education the most.
If the Governor balances the budgets on the backs of our needy students, freezing funding to inner city schools, our New York State and New York City Legislators cannot do enough to ensure that adequate funding to NYC Public Schools becomes a day to day reality in our public schools. And as educators, we know that the resources needed to implement new programs designed by the city are already inadequate. Thus, we should not be surprised to learn that "New York also stands out for neglecting to fairly fund poor and minority school districts. In 2005 we learned that New York was spending $2,280 less per student in its poorest districts than it was spending on students educated in its wealthiest school districts. Even after New York was ordered to deal with these funding gaps, policy makers have failed to take action." (Education Trust Report 2005)
Educators are aware that economic poverty does not have to mean intellectual poverty. There are gifted and talented students among the economically poor and minority students. Therefore, many resourceful educators continue to teach without adequate funding. They use their own personal resources to compensate this deficit in spending. And these truly dedicated educators have seen miracles happen daily for years as their students' dreams are realized. Fortunately, this is not a new phenomenon throughout the nation. Good teachers have always made a difference in the lives of their students. Case in point:
Directly after the Emancipation Proclamation "the exceptionally gifted rose above the staggering obstacle of quasi-freedom," said Martin Luther King at the UFT Spring Conference in 1964. "It is precisely because education is a road to equality and citizenship that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The warding off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second-class status." And today we can see this happening as the rich-poor gap is allowed to widen in NYC, New Orleans, Alabama, Mississippi, and even Washington, D.C., the nation's capital.
King reminded UFTers in 1964 that: "education for all Americans, white and black, has always been inadequate. 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." Therefore, when we read the report "Rich-Poor Gap Widens not only for individuals but for schools in general," we cannot be surprised.
Yes, history is a clock. It tells us where we are, but more importantly, what we must be. If we are a union of professionals, we must continue to fight for equity for all. We must press on to City Hall, Albany and Washington, D.C. in a quest to secure public schools that reflect a democratic nation. Because the children are waiting. They are waiting for a chance to be the best that they can be, and a good education combined with an ethic of hard work are the keys to their quest.
