9/28/05
NEBRASKA'S RACIAL GRADUATION GAP:
ANOTHER REASON TO DOWNSIZE OPS
Nine out of 10 white teenagers in
Nebraska graduate from high school on time, but only five out of 10
African-Americans do, according to a study on the nation's graduation rates by the
Manhattan Institute, http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_08.htm
Solution: since the majority of
Nebraska's black students are in the Omaha Public Schools, and since minority
private-school students have higher academic achievement than minority
public-school students, the best chance for academic success for Omaha's
minority kids appears to be in Omaha's private schools.
We should offer private-sector
scholarships for low-income and minority students in OPS who would rather go to
private schools – and we should have started yesterday.
Donors of these scholarships,
either corporations or individuals, should receive tax credits. What's
happening in other states is that the cost of those tax credits works out to be
far lower than continuing to fund the public-school bureaucracy which has
created this racial graduation gap that has persisted for decades.
Best of all, this move would
downsize OPS naturally, forcing the state's largest school district to copy the
superior curriculum and instruction methods used in the private schools. And
that would improve education for all those who remain in OPS.
Nebraska's overall graduation
rate is sixth in the country, averaging 83%. But when whites only are
calculated, the graduation rate rises to 87%. Only 50% of African-Americans
graduate, the study showed, plummeting Nebraska's ranking to 28th
place for black graduates.
While the Hispanic graduation
rate in the Cornhusker State ranks third in the nation, behind only Louisiana
and Maryland, it should be noted that the 60% Hispanic graduation rate is still
far beneath the 87% rate for whites.
According to 2004-05 data from
the Nebraska Department of Education, OPS enrolls 28% of the state's Hispanic
students, but 65% of its African-Americans.
You can get the breakdown on
student population by race and gender on http://ess.nde.state.ne.us/DataCenter/DataInformation/Downloads/0405/MembGrade.pdf
So here's the bottom line:
minority students have better achievement and graduate at a much higher rate
when they attend private schools, than when they are in public schools. So
let's do what it takes to get them there.
Find out more from the National
Center for Education Statistics 2002 report, "Private Schools: A Brief
Portrait," on http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002013.pdf
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9/28/05
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