Education in this country has taken a back seat to other less important things. Now that those who dictate the curriculum in our schools have recognized that, there is a new method being adopted. Some school boards, in Florida for example, have passed a new plan that sets targets for learning throughout the different ethnic groups. It breaks down as such by 2018 the school board wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanic and 74 percent of Black students to be reading at or above grade level. In addition, for math proficiency these numbers are about the same.

Now when will we become more outraged at the miseducation of our youth than who has beef with this or that entertainer. The problem lies within our own community; we put more importance on dancing and having the new sneakers than education. To the point that the educators have decided that it is not important that our next generation has an equal opportunity to succeed. How can we sit by and just let the lower expectations of our youth become the norm. More and more of the youth today do not value an education. Also more and more of the adults think even less about education than the children do. This new form of genocide has gotten completely out of hand.

The poverty we face plays a very large part in how things generally work within the Black community. When one or both parents are working to keep a roof over their families heads and food on the table, sometimes education is put on the back burner so to speak. Then there is the situation of some parents who are addicts and there is no support for the child. We cannot continue to think that our children will find a way to make it when the system is just cancelling them out from the start. If you keep people under educated that spirals into the most dire situation possible. We are now are being hit in the face with these examples. The violence that has taken over our community is one of the ramifications of this under education.

If we the Black community does not get it together this will only be the beginning. We have to do more and want more for the next generation. The days are gone of thinking that you can just get by on a marginal education as in the days of our grandparents. So much has changed in the world we live in today and much more will be expected of this next generation. But how will they ever be successful if they are being “dumbed down” from the starting line.

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