May 30, 2021 - "The Scourge of Racism" - Week 1

Over the last three weeks we have been looking at Open Wide Our Hearts:  The Enduring Call to Love, a pastoral letter that Catholic Bishops of the United States issued in November 2018 in which they call all Catholics to acknowledge “the scourge of racism” that still exists in our hearts, words, actions, and institutions. The Bishops point out that racism can be individual, when people fail to recognize certain groups as being created in the image of God and equal in dignity.  Racism can also be systemic, where practices or policies treat certain groups of people unjustly.  One area of systemic racism is lack of access to quality education for persons of color.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have issued a very good background sheet on “Racism and Education” that will be my source of information for this column.  Here is the link for the backgrounder for those of you who would want to consult it directly:  Racism and Education | USCCB.
 
As children of God, all persons have a God-given right to flourish and develop their potential, so they may lead lives of dignity and contribute to the common good.  The right to education has been cited in Papal encyclicals for over a century.
 
Unfortunately, millions in the United States were denied that right.  Before Emancipation in 1863, teaching enslaved black people to read and write was illegal.  After slavery ended, for the next century, almost every school in the United States was segregated.  Further, public schools for minorities were given limited resources.  By the 1960s, the great majority of African-Americans, Native Americans, and Latino students, were educated in segregated and underfunded schools.  Most colleges had few, if any, minority students.
 
During the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and the 60s, school desegregations was a major issue, causing bitter, sometimes violent, struggles.  In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that all U.S. schools should be integrated.
 
Regrettably, recent studies have shown that after initial gains, schools are now as segregated as they were before the Brown decision.  Today in schools located in high-poverty areas, the majority of students are African American, Hispanic or Latino.  Because public schools chiefly depend on local real estate taxes for funding, schools in areas with high housing values can offer more to students, often leaving many minority students out of the equation.
 
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has studied the critical gaps of these unequitable funding structures.  The recent data from that office shows consistent problems for minority students, such as limited access to early learning, lack of teacher equity, limited access to courses and programs that lead to college and career readiness, and low rates of teacher retention.  Schools on Native-American reservations face a host of additional barriers to student success.
 Without quality pre-school programs, many minority students start grade school at a disadvantage.  Inexperienced teachers and teachers with limited professional development opportunities are twice as likely to teach in minority public schools.  Many African Americans and Latinos attend schools that do not offer the intensive writing classes and upper level math courses needed for college admission, and these schools do not offer adequate college and career counseling.  Without resources, consistent support and mentoring, minority students drop out of school at much higher rates than white students—recent statistics show that while 62% of white students get a college degree in 4-6 years, only 38% of Black students, 45% of Latino students and 13% of Native Americans do.
 
Catholic schools, in fulfillment of their mission on behalf of all children of God, must strive to increase enrollment of underserved populations, including Hispanic/Latino and African American students, in order to ensure that high-quality educational opportunity is available to all students.  We must work together as people of faith to improve educational opportunities for all our brothers and sisters in Christ.
 
Let me leave you with this closing thought, which is taken from Open Wide Our Hearts:
 
“The poverty experienced by many…communities has its roots in racist policies that continue to impede the ability of people to find affordable housing, meaningful work, adequate education, and social mobility.”
 
Until next week,
Fr. John