We can’t have a state where the ZIP code you’re born in dictates your future.
Margaret Spellings, News & Observer December 16, 2017
In her Saturday op-ed in The News & Observer UNC President Margaret Spellings pointed out something most of us all know to be true: where you live frequently dictates the type of future you have. Family breakdown, lack of economic opportunity, and failing schools have dimmed the futures of millions of North Carolinians. Spellings speaks of two North Carolina’s one where some cities are thriving and another where minorities, low income and many rural poor are left behind. Spellings says, “We can’t have two North Carolinas.”
We already have a state where a zip code determines your educational future. Since children are assigned to public schools based on where they live, students who live in areas with low performing or challenged schools do not have access to the same opportunities as students from better schools.
Policymakers recognized this truth years ago when they lifted the cap on charter schools and created the Opportunity Scholarship Program. These programs were designed to give students access to a better school and a better future. The tremendous growth and popularity associated with each of these programs attests to their success in meeting these goals.
Spellings is right, a zip code shouldn’t determine a child’s future. Efforts by UNC to enroll and graduate more students from low-income families and rural counties can be helpful in closing the gap between the haves and the have-notes. A more successful effort provides children access to quality educational opportunities throughout their K-12 years. Doing so would help to limit the achievement gap from ever developing and can better prepare students for college at UNC or elsewhere.
If we’re truly committed to one North Carolina, access to a quality education should start not in college, but in K-12.
‘We can’t have a state where the ZIP code you’re born in dictates your future’
Instead of tackling the topic of extremely high poverty rates in North Carolina, Bob uses this as another opportunity to market Charter Schools.
Apples are not oranges!
George and Scott,whats your answer for the poor.This is what we have done with no results. SUMMARY In his January 1964 State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed, “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” In the 50 years since that time, U.S. taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs. Adjusted for inflation, this spending (which does not include Social Security or Medicare) is three times the cost of all U.S. military wars since the American Revolution. Yet progress against poverty, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau, has been minimal, and in terms of President Johnson’s main goal of reducing the “causes” rather than the mere “consequences” of poverty, the War on Poverty has failed completely. In fact, a significant portion of the population is now less capable of self-sufficiency than it was when the War on Poverty began.
First Larry, do away with the corrupt 2-Party Corporate State. Second, remove money from Politics and hold Publicly Financed Elections. Third, overturn the ridiculous Judicial Activism by the Supreme Court that states Corporations are PEOPLE. They are not. They are Fictional Legal Entities.
Then we will have REAL debate on the issues that face ALL Americans.