WASHINGTON (AP) — Black students are suspended from school, expelled and referred to law enforcement much more frequently than their white peers, according to a federal report released Tuesday.
The report released by the Education Department is likely to add to an already tense national debate about what causes such racial disparities. Civil rights groups believe that racial bias is at play and insist that federal protections are necessary. Some experts counter that forcing schools to adopt milder disciplinary practices makes classrooms unsafe.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is considering scrapping Obama-era rules that were meant to counter those disparities and urge schools to adopt softer discipline approaches. She met with supporters and opponents of that policy this month.
The data show that while black boys represented 8 percent of all enrolled students in 2015-16, they accounted for 25 percent of suspensions and 23 percent of expulsions. Black girls made up 8 percent of all students but accounted for 14 percent of suspensions and 10 percent of expulsions.
By comparison, white boys represented 25 percent of all students and 24 percent of those who got suspended. White girls represented 24 percent of all students and 8 percent of those suspended.
The contrast was even starker with police referrals. Black students made up 15 percent of total student enrollment but represented 31 percent of students who were referred to law enforcement or arrested. White students made up 49 percent of all students but represented 36 percent of students who were referred to the police.
“This should cause alarm for all of us,” said Catherine Lhamon, chairwoman of the Commission on Civil Rights, who previously served as the top civil rights official at the Education Department under the Obama administration. “Students were and are treated in very different ways. The reality is that those students experience discrimination.”
The guidance issued during Lhamon’s tenure instructed schools to move away from harsh punishments and instead favor positive behavior interventions such as counseling. It also told schools to examine their discipline data and fix racial disparities if there are any.
Mike Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, has been calling for scrapping the 2014 guidance. He argues that it has made educators reluctant to punish bad behavior and has led to disorder in classrooms. While he agrees that racial bias does play a role, he said that children who are subjected to poverty and trauma are more likely to act out at school.
“The numbers are the symptom, not the disease. The disease is about ineffective schools, it’s about unequal life circumstances,” Petrilli said. “We’ve got to address the underlying causes of these disparities. Some of them may be racial bias in the way that discipline is doled out, but it’s also differences in student behavior that relate to differences in the challenges groups are facing.”
DeVos hailed the release of the report and urged federal and local education leaders to take note.
“Protecting all students’ civil rights is at the core of the Department’s mission,” she said in a statement.
That seems true, as far as it goes.
I fail to see how cracking down on these kids – kicking them while they’re down – can make a positive impact on the trajectories of their lives. I would think that rehabilitation would lead to better outcomes than punishment.
On the other hand, poverty leading to behavioral problems leading to worse employment and earnings leading to poverty… locking up poor black kids seems like an effective way to keep minorities down.
If they ever come out with a remake of Airplane, Betsy DeVos would be perfect for the role made famous by Barbara Billingsly in the original.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=190iqepL-G4Along similar lines just so saddening to read a black cop talking about having the talk with his kids.WTF over 150 years after ending slavery and almost 150 years after making voting descrimination due to race illegal…wtf
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-davis-black-police_us_5adf4328e4b061c0bfa22ef8
The quote below from the article is important because you have a spokesperson for a conservative group admitting what conservatives try at all costs deny or ignore: that there is a link between class and race.
What must be shouted every time “Race” is discussed is that Race has nothing to do with ability. Therefore, admitting that there is a link between Class and Race in addition to admitting anytime class is discussed race is also being discussed, is also saying that many people are poor through the fault of society and not their own fault. Current Republican politics is dependent on denying any causation between Class and Race but rather blaming the poor for being poor. Therefore, anytime a spokesman for a “conservative think tank” for political expediency admits the link between class and race, it needs to be thrown back in their face for what it is, an admission that current so called conservative politics is to great extent dependent on racism.
I would like to point to the same paragraph:
So Mile Petrilli does conflate Class and Race as people like to do, BUT, his argument runs counter to his position. If he really believes that 1) Black kids are more getting into more trouble and more serious trouble than their White peers and 2) it’s because they are victims of disparities, why does he argue for tougher punishment?
First, let’s call bullshit on his entire argument. It’s about as stereotypical and racist as he can get. All Black kids are not from poor families and living in hard circumstances. That’s just him pushing the idea of poor, angry, out-of-control minority kids that need to be taught discipline.
Second, the report was getting at the disparities in treatment for similar infractions. That’s important because it gets at the core of disparate treatment. If Kid A doesn’t do his homework and Kid B punches out a teacher, then yes, Kid B should be arrested. If both kids commit the same infraction, they should get the same punishment, but too often that’s not the case, and that’s the point of the report and Obama-era guidance.
Third, the School-to-prison pipeline is real, and children like mine are the primary target. Our schools have gotten too quick to have kids arrested by SROs for infractions that were handled in school in previous generations. In some states, Republicans have criminalized classroom disruptions, and are turning kids over to the criminal justice system for acting out in class. That’s insane, and it does nothing to help these kids better handle their problems. Instead of counseling, we are giving them probation.
Fifth, this guy admits that racial bias exists and plays a role in punishment, then admits that some kids are more prone to act out, while calling schools ineffective, but stops short of offering a solution beyond going back to making stiff, unjust punishments the prevailing policy again.
Lastly, fuck these folks. I very much doubt they would act like this if it were their kids being mistreated by school administrators. They would probably burn down the school, and yet they expect others to accept their mistreatment and/or support of mistreatment based on race. Betsey I-never-attended-public-school DeVos is busy tearing down attempts to address disparity and claiming to protect all kids, even in the face of doing the exact opposite.