Government

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November 29, 2011 | 11:27 AM | By

Achievement Gap Wider By Income Than By Race

Tom Woodward / Flickr

The academic achievement gap between low income and wealthy students is nearly double the gap in achievement between white and black students, a new study finds.

Standford University professor Sean Reardon compared average standardized test performances of students at the bottom of the income ladder to those at the top, and found the gap in achievement was nearly double the difference between black and white students.

About 50 years ago, the gap between white and black students’ performances was nearly double the income achievement gap, reports EdSource Extra:
FILED UNDER: Education, Race and Class
November 14, 2011 | 8:00 AM | By

Seven Food Desert Myths

WELS net / Flickr

In its efforts to combat disproportionately high obesity rates and poor health in low-income communities, the Obama administration has turned its focus to food deserts, defined as low-income communities lacking supermarkets or large grocery stores.

The idea is simple: if you don’t have cheap, nutritious food around, you’ll see health problems in your community. Hence the emphasis on bringing more supermarkets into neighborhoods. But improving a community’s health is more complicated than that, as other factors influence people’s health. Here are seven myths surrounding food deserts:

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FILED UNDER: Government, Class, Food Deserts
November 10, 2011 | 10:12 AM | By

Digital Divide: Cable Providers Discounting Broadband for Poor Families

Adikos / Flickr

Starting next summer, the nation’s major cable companies will offer broadband Internet at a discount price to certain low-income families. The service, part of a Federal Communications Commission initiative, will cost $9.95 a month for two years, The Chicago Tribune reports. The rate is available to families with children who qualify for free lunches, meaning households with yearly incomes of $29,055 or less.

Lowering the cost of broadband as a way of reducing the digital divide could be particularly effective in a city like D.C. where most communities have access to the cables required for high-speed Internet. D.C.’s digital divide “absolutely has to do with wealth,” says John Dunbar, who authored a study examining D.C.’s high-speed adoption rates. “If you have a low income, you just don’t subscribe.”

The D.C. region’s digital divide also breaks down along racial lines. Even when adjusted for income, Latinos in the area are less likely to subscribe to high-speed Internet than whites or African Americans. The reason isn’t entirely clear — it may be due to disparities in education or poor marketing to Latinos, Dunbar says.

An even more obvious reason lower-income families aren’t signing up for high-speed internet? Not having a computer. The FCC is trying to tackle the issue by getting companies such as Microsoft to sell computers for $250 or less. But whether such efforts will be enough to reduce the digital divide is yet to be seen.

FILED UNDER: Government, Digital Divide, Race and Class
November 7, 2011 | 9:17 AM | By

Bullying By Race: Which Teens Get Picked On Most

D. / Flickr

Asian American teens are bullied more than youths belonging to any other racial group, according to new data from the U.S. Justice and Education departments.

Teens aged 12 to 18 were interviewed for the study. More than half of the Asian American teens reported being bullied in classrooms, compared to almost one-third of white students. The disparity is even greater when it comes to cyber bullying; 62 percent of Asian Americans surveyed reported being harassed online once or twice monthly, while only 18.1 percent of whites were cyber bullied.

Classroom Bullying By Race

AFP reports on the findings:

Policymakers see a range of reasons for the harassment, including language barriers faced by some Asian American students and a spike in racial abuse following the September 11, 2001 attacks against children perceived as Muslim.

“This data is absolutely unacceptable and it must change. Our children have to be able to go to school free of fear,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday during a forum at the Center for American Progress think-tank.

Muslim Americans, many of whom are Asian American, are also facing increased institutionalized profiling by law enforcement since 9/11, recent reports indicate.

FILED UNDER: Education, Asian Americans, Race, Racial Profiling
October 19, 2011 | 2:35 PM | By

(Video) Deportations and Uncovering Hidden Abuses in Detention Centers

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray signed an executive order Wednesday prohibiting police officers from questioning the immigration status of those arrested. This comes the day after the U.S. government announced it deported a record number of undocumented immigrants in 2011.

But the District may have to eventually implement Secure Communities, a controversial federal program that requires law enforcement officials to share arrest information with immigration officials. A new Frontline series focuses on Secure Communities, the deportation process and hidden abuses in immigrant detention centers. The program, “Lost in Detention,” was the result of a collaboration with American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop

Reporter Maria Hinojosa recently spoke with PBS NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan about the possibility that more sexual abuse is taking place in detention centers than is reported.  “If you’re an immigrant who is detained in a detention center,” Hinojosa said, “and you’re an immigrant with papers or without, if you are sexually assaulted by a guard while you’re in a detention center, you may not have any legal right to hold anyone accountable.”

You can watch the first part of the Frontline series below:

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FILED UNDER: Government, The People, Frontline, ICE, Immigration
October 18, 2011 | 1:24 PM | By

Gray’s Motives to Lessen D.C.’s Disparities Questioned

DDOT DC / Flickr

Mayor Vincent Gray

Mayor Vincent Gray has been touting his “One City” mantra since his election last year. He said the economic successes west of the Anacostia River haven’t extended eastward, where most residents are black and poor. “My intention is not to pit one part of the city against another,” Gray said during his State of the District speech in March.

But some are skeptical, saying that “One City” efforts will be to the detriment of those west of the river. Harry Jaffe, in criticizing Gray’s leadership in a Monday Washington Examiner editorial, wrote:

… I suspect that “One City” really means Gray intends to move more services and government offices east of the Anacostia River, to Gray’s home turf, at the expense of the city’s white, western wards. There’s talk, for example, that Gray might close the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Georgetown, so residents living west of Rock Creek would have to renew their licenses and handle other chores downtown or at Penn Branch, east of the Anacostia. So — one city based in Ward 7? If “One City” is code for moving even more services east of the Anacostia, just say so.

To this, D.C. political guru Chuck Thies sent out this tongue-in-cheek tweet:

Shorter Harry Jaffe:Hey white people, Mayor Gray is gonna make you go to the ghetto to register your car. Be scared! http://t.co/dFnZtlAn
October 18, 2011 11:24 am via txtReplyRetweetFavorite
@ChuckThies
Chuck Thies

What’s your take: do you think efforts to lessen racial and economic disparities will be at the expense of west of the river folks?

FILED UNDER: Government, Harry Jaffe, One City
October 13, 2011 | 12:00 PM | By

DCentric Picks: MLK Memorial Dedication, ‘Dream City’ Discussion

Mladen Antonov / AFP/Getty Images

What: The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial dedication ceremony.

Where: West Potomac Park.

When: 9 a.m., Sunday.

Cost: Free.

Why you should go: The dedication of the memorial, the first on the National Mall to honor an African American, was initially scheduled for Aug. 28. But it was canceled due to Hurricane Irene. Although the memorial has been open to the public for more than a month now, the ceremony will feature remarks by members of King’s family and President Barack Obama.

Other events to consider: Greater Greater Washington is hosting a discussion between the authors of “Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.” In the 1990s, Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood wrote about the rise and fall of former Mayor Marion Barry in the context of D.C.’s political and racial struggles. D.C. is now going through a new round of changes. Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis will moderate the talk, which takes place at 7 p.m., Monday, at the Shaw Library. (Disclosure: Sherwood is a resident analyst on WAMU 88.5′s Kojo Nnamdi show).

FILED UNDER: Culture, Government, History, DCentric Picks, Martin Luther King Memorial
October 10, 2011 | 12:46 PM | By

Columbus Day: Should It Remain a Federal Holiday?

This is how some opponents view Columbus Day.


A number of folks in D.C. have the day off due to Columbus Day. But what exactly are we observing today?

Columbus Day became an official holiday after Italian immigrants lobbied for the recognition of Christopher Columbus, an Italian. In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt instituted the first federal-level recognition of the day. But in recent decades, Native American groups have pushed for the abolition of the holiday and for the creation of Indigenous People’s Day. Some say Columbus deserves little recognition as he “discovered” a land already inhabited by people. Others view the holiday as honoring a man who ushered in a mass genocide.

So, what’s your take on the issue? Cast your vote in our poll below:

FILED UNDER: Government, History, Columbus Day, Holidays, Indigenous People's Day
October 6, 2011 | 12:13 PM | By

Battling Unemployment Among D.C.’s Low-Income, Black Youth

Many of D.C.’s young people who live way below the poverty line, aren’t in school or looking for work are black, a new report finds.

Researchers at The Brookings Institution examined these disparities in an effort to propose some solutions. About 28,000 D.C. residents aged 16 to 24 lack a bachelor’s degree and live 200 percent below the poverty line. And 22,000 of those young people are black.

Low-income D.C. black youth lacking bachelor’s degrees

The Brookings folks propose a few solutions, and among them is abandoning the “college for all approach.” But, as they note, there is a history of discrimination when it comes to who has been deemed worthy of higher education (emphasis mine):

Integrating employment and occupational skills into the high school and post-secondary curricula is often disparaged, with career and technical education (previously known as vocational education) seen as a dumping ground for students not deemed “college-ready.” The legacy of tracking, segregation, and discrimination in the educational system certainly provides support for that view— education can be a vehicle for upward mobility but it can also perpetuate inequality based on race and class.

Here are a few more recommendations in the report:

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FILED UNDER: Education, The People, Race and Class, Unemployment
September 22, 2011 | 1:28 PM | By

The New D.C. Income Tax Hike: Your Take

Yesterday we asked you to weigh in on whether it was fair to raise the income tax for D.C.’s wealthier residents. In an admittedly unscientific poll, 47 percent of readers voted that it made sense to increase the income tax rate by 0.45 percent for people making more than $350,000 year. Check out the results below, and cast your vote if you haven’t already.

 

 

FILED UNDER: Government, Income disparity, Taxes