nd
to
ud
m
ncan
n
• Ov r75
• 01 trlc wh r mo t
African-Am ric n tud nt tt nd
chool w r 11 perc nt� ,pain
blow th chi v m nt I v I for th
tat.
• In th 30 dl trlct
high t P rc ntag of
Afrlcan-Amerlc n tudent , the
av rag tax ba e to upport. ach
tud nt wa 56,006 Ie than the
tate av rage.
•
IA I, L-Florida tands
on th verge of ending i first
BI c to the U.S. Congre
ince 1876. Last week tate
enator Carrie Mee won the
Democratic nom in tion to the
U.S. Hou e of Repre
sentative . Since he face no
republican ch llenger in the
November general election,
Meek i ured of taking a
seat in Congre in January.
Meanwhile, Alcee L. Hast
ings won October 1 runoff
against white state legislator
Lois Frankel. .
Jack on
. to II get-out-
the-vote II
An.ANTA, GA-Aftercom
plaining recently that' he had
been "excluded" from the Bill
Clinton pre idential cam
paign, the Rev. Je e Jackson
agreed last week to head a
voter mobilization drive for
tlw Democratic candidate.
The agreement was worked
out between Jackson and
Democratic party chairman
Ronald H. Brown. Jackson
bad complalDcd hat n 1d ._
to woo white voters Clinton
had in effect been running "a
colorless campaign' that ex
cluded Blacks and other
minority groups.
But after the negotiation,
Jackson said he was now
prepared to begin "working
hard to elect Bill Clinton and
AI Gore." Meanwhile, Jack
son and Clinton met and talked
last week in Atlanta where
Clinton addressed the
predominately Black National
Baptist Convention.
• CarJacklligs li
The work of
bored, jobless
Inner city youth
NEWARK, NJ- The cur
rently popular urban crime-
. "carjacking"-is being
perpetuated disproportionate
ly by young inner-city males,
many between the ages of 13
and 17.
"Young, bored and jobless"
was the description given by
one Washington, D.C. official
trying to describe those who
brazenly steal cars, which es
sentially involves walking up
to someone just getting into or
out of a car, sticking a gun in
their face and demanding the
keys to their vehicle.
A recent National In
surance Crime Bureau report
dubbed Newark, NJ. "the car
theft capital" of the nation. In
Newark, police spokesman
Tom DeCastro described the
young men as engaging in a
"perverted right of passage"
b stealing cars which are not·
stripped for parts but normally
abandoned when they run of
gas.
'Highland Park re Ident
receive award
mGBLAND PARK - Hi�and
Park resident, Marian Kramer
received the Sojourner Truth
Award from the Detroit Chapter
of the National Organization for
Women. She was a key speaker at
the NOW convention in Chicago
in June .
"THE INDICATORS ARE that
unle thin change, these students
are going to be academically crip-
pled," Simpkins aid. DARDEN SAID AITER ex-
Simpkins said that with the eon- periencing this disparity over time,
tinuing disparitie evidenced in the people feel there i no hope and
THE REPORT CO· study, those . students affected will respond in many ways that reflect
CENTRA TES on aspects of life for carry their cademic inadequacies how they feel incl uding acts of anger
African-Americans in Michigan af- into tlle year 2050. and sometime crime.
fected byunemployment, residential Joe T. Darden, dean of MSU's Simpkins offered recommends-
and school segregation, Black- Urban Affairs Programs and profe _ tions, including immediately in-
White health disparities and funding sor of eo h , a that the tegrating public education tax bases
patterns, and reading outcomes in D vi eer-�p.�����f!!����
cle� s.ch districts. lth the factors we looked a pond
Fourteen intermediate school dis-: we find tlto1lNt'1i .... ·,. __ ,WIIUI_5lA.I ..... yearpe very aggre lve VI y to ese
tricts (ISD) were elected for study gap, whichmeamconditionsareget- and hiring more minority profes- problems. They don't deny the
in Simpkin's article. ISDs serve stu- ting worse for Blacks In the state," sional into both primary and secon- situation is getting worse; they real-
dents who attend school In local dis· Darden aid. dary education. ize that, but they still take no action.
tricts compromising the ISO. The specific factors include how Simpkins said the key is to frame "It's up to the policy makers to
Thisselectioninclude 97 percent -, the Black student population in the this education debate around quan- take the research and make policy,"
of the total African-American stu- 14 ISDs tudied fared in the state's tifiable, measurable is ues such as he said.
dents enrolled in the state's Kinder- early reading instructional program' immediately addressing the fiscal in-
equalities between chool systems. Some do not agree with Darden's
garten-grade 12 districts. (Kindergarten through grade 3), as views.
Simpkins compared funding pat- measured by the MEAP reading test. At this time, both Simpkins and
Darden said they do notthink this is "We Blacks have been fighting
terns and reading outcomes in forjustice so long that we oftentimes
selected school districts and con- OUT OF THE ZIZ SCHOOL being done. confuse what has been done to us by
eluded: DISTRICTS within the 14 ISDs "There is a lack of honesty in this whites as opposed to what we are
·In 1989-90, more than 75 per- who provided MEAP test data, 20 direction," Simpkins said. "There is doing for ourselves,' said Lansing's
cent of Michigan'S African- outofthe 30 districts with the highest an attempt to fool people, and people Stuart Plgler, who is organizing a
American students attended school African-American populations by' don't believe they're being given a private citizens group called the
in central city school districts that percentage in the state had satisfac- straight-forward agenda." Community Input Committee of
received at least half their operating 'tory 1989-90 MEAP scores that Lansing.
revenue from the state. ranked in the bottom quarterpercen- DARDEN SAID he has not seen
-These school districts tended to tile. any action on the report's recom-
have high tax rates and declining tax Highland Park City Schools mendations since its inception, al-
bases, a combination conducive to placed last with only 8.6 percent of though he remains hopeful.
increased local assessments, further its students achieving the "satisfac- "We think we know.what needs to
eroding revenue-raising capability. , tory score" of 300 or above on the be done as researchers," Darden said .
eport on Michigan'
African-
r v nu
Coqulllard
By Nichol
• Average chlevement on the tory ection nd 300 or bove on the
Michigan Educational sment information ection of th te 1.
Program (MEAP) grade 4 t t River Rou City Schoo (9.1
"very low" in the districts erving percent),O Par City School Di .
the e tudent, compared ith trict (14 percent), Beecher Com
achievement in the wealthier subur- munlty School Di trict (14.4
ban school di tric . percent) and Buen Vi ta School
-The di tricts here mo t District (14.8 percent) followed
African-American tuden attended Highland Par in cending MEAP
school in 1989-90 were 11 percent- reading te t rankin of distric with
age points below the achievement the top-30 Black student popul - .
mean for the tate. tions.
-In the 30 di tric enrolling the The combination of the cornpara-
highe t percentages of African- tively poor t t core and the fund
American student, the· df trlct ing disparity figure such as the high
average tax b to upport each stu- tax rates and declining tax bas for
dent(S39,177)wasS56,0061 than many majority Black chool con
the tate average tax base (98,183). vince researchers that more attention
Simpkins s,aid those findings in- . must be paid to Black communities.
dicate many tudents 'will uffer' "I see certain dangers when (state
from an inadequate education. government) doesn't act," Darden
said: "There i the potential for orne
people to give up on the system be
cause there's no action."
"AS A BlACK MAN, I'm con
vinced it is time for a revol ution in
our thinking, " he said.
Piglersaid views that state Blacks
I .! • .J�1 J .......
phouId 1001(; to the state to ' olve I
'Bla 1> J 'the real n
why things have not improved for
Black America.
Bob Harris, communications
director for the State Board of
Education, aid the goals of the
board include providing an equitable
education for all tudent and
strengthening diversity.
Harris aid there is always room
for improvement in those areas and
the board always looks carefully at
the education reports it receives.
Simpkins said he retains hope
things will improve for Blacks.
"I think that as people get more of
thi information, they're going to k
some of the hard questions that n cd
to be asked," Simpkim said. "(The
problems are) there and they're
going to be with us."
lections hang on
state's 'Edge· cites'
them. They are worried about their
futures, they're worried about their
kid's futures."
Edge city dwellers have pushed
the almighty dollar over to make
room for environmental and educa
tional values, and it is these new
values that make them receptive to
change, Garreau said.
With their concern for the future,
Garreau said surburbani may be
open to Ro Perot's appeal to red�
the national deficit. He said Perot
virtually no chance of winning, but
the could force the man who does
become pre ident to deal with the
deficit. I
"If be doe that and j t disap
pears, he will be a great American,·
he aid. t.
Garreau aid the ubur have
emerged as the largest voting block
in the country, replacing the
metropolitan centers which today
contain only 12 percent of tbe
population. Once the center 0 .
society, the great cities are no on the
fringe. :.
"WHAT'S NORMAL IS t�
Southfield," he id. "That' tand:
ard, that's what America 100 like:�
In fact, the term suburb itself is�
mi nomer, be said.
See ELECTIONS 810
LAN lNG-Eighty percent of
graduating high chool tudents will
not be adequately prepared for their
job into the year 2000, a Wayne
State University profes or y in a
recent tudy.
Edward Simpkins, a WSU educa
tion profe or, based that conclusion
in part on findings published in "The
State of Black Michigan: 1992."
The Michign State University
sponsored report, published annual
ly ince 1984, tries to as es
inequalities between the Black and
white populations and Simpkins'
findings show that, based on popula
tion percentage , more African
Americans will be inadequately
prepared than whites.
Indicators from this year's report
reflect increasing inequalities be
tween the races as well as declining
competency levels of all state stu
dents, Simpkins said.
The ten-time NBA All-Star Los Angeles Laker Earvin ·Magic· Johnson warmly receives Democrat!c
Presidential candidate Bill Clinton during the Congressional Black Caucus in Washlngton,�. Th�
us 0 lc Basketball Dream Team player endorsed Clinton. Joined by Earl Graves, Black
Enterp�i�:�ublisher Johnson said, ·I'm not just t�lking about HIV and �I�S, (I'm talking about) the
whole economy I the whole thing,· said Johnson. We all need change.
By ANDY HALLDORSON
c.pIt!' N.w. S.rvlce
EAST lANSING- The national
elections may hang on the votes from
Michigan suburbs, a national expert
on social geography says.
Joel Garreau, a enior writer for
the The Washingtol) Post and author
of "Edge City: Life on the New Fron
tier," said the election hinge on ix
key heart-of-America tates includ
ing Michigan, which will be deter
mined by the uburbs.
"You look at the historic patterns
of presidential elections and this is
where it gets won or lost, between
Flint and Detroit," he said. "Show
me what happens here and I'll tell you
how the state goes."
Oarreau said be wasn't making
predictions about the outcome in
Michigan because this year' election
has confounded experts all year. But
he said he is fascinated with the chan
ges happening in Reagan-Democrat
areas like Macomb County.
-"THESE ARE middle-class tax
payers who own and operate these
places, 0 you would think that a
Republican who yells 'no new taxes,
no new taxe , no new taxes' would
have tactical advantage. Yet what
you're eeing this year i that there
are some things more important to