August 26 – September 1, 2010 | FREE
Volume 79 Number 44
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Houston health survey underway The Institute for Health Policy at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is hoping to get at least 12,000 households in the Greater Houston area to participate in the Health of Houston Survey 2010. “A comprehensive survey of health conditions, access to care and service needs of Greater Houston residents has not previously been done,” said Stephen Linder, Ph.D., associate director of the Institute for Health Policy and professor at The University of Texas School of Public Health, part of UTHealth. “By collecting this inform a t i o n For information d i r e c t l y from the Health of public, we Houston Survey will have a 713-500-9411 timely and or visit accurate www.hhs2010.net. picture of health care needs that will make a difference in improving health services and programs in communities.” The survey will examine residents’ health status, chronic health conditions, mental and behavioral health, social and neighborhood conditions, insurance coverage and access to health care. Data collected will permit comparisons to national health benchmarks and will also provide a baseline for assessing the impact of healthcare reform in subsequent surveys. “We hope the data collected will help with program and service planning through identification of needs and recognition of vulnerable populations by location,” said Linder. Survey results will be used to support the efforts of health agencies, service providers and community organizations, giving them more accurate and up-to-date health information on Greater Houston residents. For example if there is a high concentration of residents affected by diabetes in an area that lacks adequate health care services, local organizations can use this information to apply for grants and assistance to establish clinics and prevention programs.
Nationwide marches expose inequities By Hazel Trice Edney NNPA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ReShonda Tate Billingsley DEFENDER
I
t’s a nationwide problem - the shortage of Black male teachers. Only two percent of the nation’s nearly five million teachers are African American. “That’s one in 50 teachers. Something is wrong with that picture,” says U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “As a country, we have a huge challenge to make sure many more of our young Black boys are successful. Our graduation rates have to go up dramatically, our dropout rates have to go down. To get there, I’m convinced we have to have more men of color teaching, being role models, being mentors and doing so not just in high school but on the elementary level.” Duncan is leading the challenge to get more Black males in the classroom – either on the elemenREPORT: tary or secondary level. But he admits that it’s a Less than 50% huge challenge that of Black males may be an uphill battle, especially in the Lone graduate high Star State. In Texas, there are school more than 333,090 see page 7 public school teachers, and less than one percent are Black men. Two out of three Texas teachers in the past school year were white, and the state projects that minority students will make up around 62 percent of the student body in the 2011-12 school year, up more than 10 percent from a decade ago. In the Houston Independent School District, the country’s second largest school district, of the 12,829 teachers, only 1,043 are Black males – despite the fact that the district is 26.5 percent African American. In Fort Bend, the seventh largest district in Texas, 31.42 percent of students are Black, and there are only 265 Black male teachers. The lack of Black males in the classroom ultimately, education officials say, hurts everyone. “The research shows that if you can match the ethnicity and race of teachers and students, teachers tend to be more effective,” said Ed Fuller, associate director of the University Council for Educational Administration at the University of Texas at Austin. “It’s important for role modeling and pushing those students to go to college. Of course, you want to make sure teachers are well-qualified and not just thrown into a classroom because of race or ethnicity.” Why the disparity? The national epidemic is brought on by a myriad of factors – from low salaries, to declining Black graduation rates, to changing perceptions about education. Texas school districts hire about 30,000 to 35,000 new
teachers every year, but the pool of minorities interested in the profession is small, local officials said. The shortage is particularly acute in early-childhood and lower grades, and is partly pay-related. “Teachers in elementary school typically don’t make as much money as teachers in high school do,” says Reginald Weaver, president of the National Education Agency. “More than 50 percent of male teachers are at the high school level.” In HISD, teachers with a Bachelor’s degree start at roughly $45,000 a year. “For a man trying to support a family, that’s simply not enough,” says businessman Lewis Anderson, who left his teaching job with HISD after two years to make more money. “I would’ve loved to teach on the elementary level, but I had a family to support and as the breadwinner of the family, I needed more money. So I took a job in a high school because I could subsidize my income with coaching. Ultimately, I had to leave to ★WANTED BLACK MALES, Page 8
INTERVIEW
On the Q.T. with T.I. By Kam Williams CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Tip “T.I.” Harris is one of his generation’s most captivating speakers and one of the biggest hip-hop artists of all time. Whether they see him conversing with a room full of young people about staying in school and following their dreams, or moving tens of thousands at one of his concerts, audiences are always engrossed by the words of the “King of the South.” In 2008, T.I. delivered his most potent and important LP to date, “Paper Trail,” and his highly-anticipated, seventh studio album, “King Uncaged,” is set to be released this fall. T.I.’s second professional love is acting in films, and in this arena he has taken major steps forward in recent years. He made his motion picture debut in 2006 in the Warner Bros. film “ATL.” He also appeared in the hit Universal film “American Gangster” opposite Denzel
Washington, and guest-starred on HBO’s hit series “Entourage” in 2008. T.I. recently signed a three-picture deal with Screen Gems that will have him both acting in and producing movies. Music and movies are just the leading edge of T.I.’s entertainment conglomerate. He’s also expanding into comedy tours, the nightclub and restaurant scene, talent management, and record producing. Plus, he has launched his own fashion line, Akoo. Here, he talks about his new movie, “Takers,” a crime caper about a gang of bank robbers who decide to pull off one last heist before retiring. The film co-stars Zoe Saldana, Chris Brown, Idris Elba, Paul Walker, Michael Ealy and Hayden Christensen. Kam Williams: Hey, T.I., thanks for the time. TI: No problem, how you doing? KW: I’m great. The last time we spoke was for the pre★T.I., Page 2
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How Can We Sit Back?
WASHINGTON (NNPA) According to civil rights veteran the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., an estimated 23,000 people were arrested in civil rights protests across America between Feb. 1, 1960 and Aug. 28, 1963. On that day, 47 years ago, people not only marched on Washington, but in cities and towns around the nation. “That day a Jesse Jackson thousand marches took place around the country at the same time, marches for justice and jobs,” Jackson recalled. As a result of those marches and Ben Jealous the publicity they got, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed by a U. S. Congress that was hard-pressed to say no to hundreds of thousands of voters chanting in the streets. This appears to be the strategy being employed once again as at least four major marches and rallies, starting Aug. 28th, will hit sidewalks and parks across the nation for the purposes of calling attention to social ills and prevailing inequities mainly in America’s Black and Latino communities. “We’ve never lost a battle we’ve had mass marches for,” says Jackson. “Mass marches laid the ground work for mass registration. And forces immediately respond to the cry of the masses.” Details for the four marches are as follows: • Saturday, Aug. 28, Detroit, Mich.: “Rebuild America: Jobs, Justice, Peace” march, led by Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. ★RACIAL INEQUITIES, Page 7