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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Neighbors fight cell tower proposal near Ashland Gov. Kitzhaber steps down, federal investigation begins Successor Kate Brown must run for election in 2016 Mt. Ashland offers shuttle service Sadness, relief greet Kitzhaber resignation locally Education Levy supporters kick off campaign Bowling for knowledge Sharing black culture It's alive! SOU students create thought-provoking art Environment Mt. Ashland Ski Area celebrates snow GMO opponents can join Jackson County in defending ban Grant will help restore 'legacy' oak habitat in Southern Oregon and Northern California Mt. Ashland Ski Area crew dips to five Mt. Ashland Ski Area announces layoffs Business Ride & Drive: 2015 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack Silvio Calabi: Range Rover Sport, the off-road GT Where do Ashland’s top chefs go to dine? 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Ashland Calendar: Feb. 14 ... Workers need more power ... Neighbors fight cell tower proposal near Ashland ... Ashland Calendar: Feb. 14 ... Workers need more power ... COMMENTARY Chris Honoré: Public schools: separate, still unequal Comment By Chris Honoré DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré Posted Feb. 9, 2015 @ 12:01 am By Chris Honoré Posted Feb. 9, 2015 @ 12:01 am What do you think? --> Have an opinion on this topic? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter. » Read more X What do you think? Have an opinion on this topic? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter . » Social News   Part Two Our public schools are potentially the most potent and constructive platform available for impacting the lives of our children. Schools are where the vast majority of our children go each day and where they begin to learn a myriad of skills both academic and social. If we have the will, schools are where we can begin to salvage this and future generations, but not as currently organized and clearly not as financed (financing schools with local and state taxes is decidedly inequitable). Consider the following: According to a recent report by the Southern Education Foundation, for the first time in more than a half century, a majority of public school students (51 percent in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the 2012-2013 school year) come from low-income families and are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, which is a good barometer for poverty in America. There is an explosion of need that has been trending upward since the onset of the Great Recession. In 40 of 50 states, low-income students amount to no less than 40 percent of public school children. In 21 states, according to the report, children eligible for free or reduced-price lunches were a majority. Mississippi leads the nation with 71 percent of its school children eligible. More specifically, many children come to school hungry, from homes that are struggling or in chaos, parents working at minimum wage jobs (often two or three) that cannot support a family. In a recent article in the Washington Post, a veteran teacher in New Mexico, Sonya Romero-Smith, states, “When (my young students) first come in my door in the morning, the first thing I do is an inventory of immediate needs: ‘Did you eat? Are you clean?’ A big part of my job is making them safe.” She stocks a drawer with wipes and toothbrushes, clean socks, underwear, pants and shoes. Imagine. Romero-Smith, a teacher for 19 years, became a foster parent to two young sisters who attended her school. “They had been homeless, their father living on the streets and their mother in jail,” explained Romero-Smith. “Getting rid of bedbugs, that took a while. Night terrors, that took a while. Hoarding food, flushing toilets and washing hands, it took us a little while. These kids aren’t thinking, ‘Am I going to take a test today?’ They’re thinking, ‘Am I going to be OK?’” How do we, in good conscience, answer that question? So the simple but eloquent question, asked by those two girls, “Am I going to be OK?” is answered by proffering the rubric of standardized testing, a chimera for “accountability” (the go-to word). What we have done is fall into a testing trap, believing that we must, above all, measure the achievement of those children who arrive from the direst of circumstances. We compound that illusion by insisting that we can use their test scores to evaluate their teachers. Believing in standardized tests is the equivalent of believing in unicorns. It’s insidious, reductionistic, and creates a learning environment wherein teachers must devote an inordinate amount of time in test preparation, even at the expense of recess. Compounding one-test-fits-all is the de facto segregation of our schools due to poverty and a concomitant thin property tax base, resulting in deferred repairs, leaky roofs, lack of heat, shortages of textbooks and staff and even classrooms. An argument could be made that this, in the aggregate, is unconstitutional and violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment (1868). School financing, as presently structured, has become a contemporary iteration of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the egregious Supreme Court ruling that established the legality of “separate but equal,” finally overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Southern Education Foundation Vice President, Steve Switts, wrote: “No longer can we consider the problems and needs of low income students simply as a matter of fairness… Their success or failure in the public schools will determine the entire body of human capital and educational potential that the nation will possess in the future. Without improving the educational support that the nation provides its low income students – students with the largest needs and usually with the least support – the trends of the last decade will be prologue for a nation not at risk but a nation in decline …” Chris Honoré lives in Ashland. By Chris Honoré DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré Posted Feb. 9, 2015 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2015 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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