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QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, August 26, 2021 Page 8
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Students deserve better by Naeisha Rose
51 percent were passing English and 49 percent were passing math for the Regents exam. In June, the pair held a rally in Hollis outThe Student Improvement Association, led by community activists Raymond Dugué and side PS 35. “We are charging the DOE with the misedMichael Duncan, is prepared to sue the city and state education departments for their ucation of our children, and brothers and sisalleged failure in providing quality education ters, we are ready to go to court,” said Duncan to students in School District 29 some time at the rally. The city DOE said it is working to improve later this year. Duncan and Dugué held several rallies over schools. “We’re supporting our District 29 families, the summer and have started a petition that they hope will get 20,000 signatures to raise teachers, and staff and firmly commit to awareness about the city schools in Southeast expanding on the improvements we’ve seen so and Eastern Queens, which have students every child and family has a positive, rigorous struggling to pass mathematics and English and high-quality experience,” said Sarah Casanovas, a DOE spokeswoman to the Chronicle language arts state exams. “The strategy is to piggyback off of Brown via email earlier this year. Over the summer, the city offered the Sumv. Education,” said Dugué in a Zoom meeting. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions mer Rising program, a free K-to-12 academic, in 1954 and 1955 in Brown v. Board of Educa- arts and recreation initiative, which was open tion of Topeka, which also included Briggs v. to over 200,000 kids, added Casanovas on an Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince email on Aug. 23. The city schools will continEdward County (Va.), Bolling v. Sharpe, and ue to partner with community-based organizaGebhart v. Ethel, declared that segregation in tions for fall afterschool programs. During additional rallies throughout Eastern public schools was unconstitutional and later said that all states had to create ways to deseg- Queens in July, Duncan collected over 1,000 signatures. regate their public schools, The lead attorney on the according uscourts.gov. case against the city and It was Chief Justice Earl state’s education departWarren who pushed for the ments will be Courtney other justices to make a Smith, a trial attorney. unanimous decision on the “We want Black students case. to have an education that “‘We conclude that in the will allow them to compete field of public education the with kids in other communiDream Chasers doctrine of ‘separate but ties,” said Smith. “I forget equal’ has no place. Sepaprogram how many specialized high rate educational facilities schools are in New York, but are inherently unequal,’” it is as if our kids are not said Warren in 1954. And in given the opportunities to 1955, he asked for states to submit their desegregation plans with “‘all get into these schools.” There are eight specialized high schools, deliberate speed.’” The case was argued before the Supreme considered among the best in the city, with Court by Thurgood Marshall, who would later performance on one test used for admissions. become an associate justice in 1967, with the Black and Latino students are wildly unreprehelp of the National Association for the sented in these schools. This year eight Black students were admitAdvancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Education Fund. The case went ted to Stuyvesant High School, there is one stuto the Supreme Court in 1952 after a three- dent in the Staten Island Technical High judge panel ruled in favor of the school boards School, 12 at the High School for Mathematics, prompting an appeal. In 1953, War ren Science, and Engineering at City College, 14 at replaced Chief Justice Fred Vinson who had the High School of American Studies at Lehman College, 64 at Brooklyn Technical High died earlier that year. Queens activists argue that predominantly School, 21 at Bronx High School of Science, 23 Black schools dramatically underperform at The Brooklyn Latin School and 10 at the compared to schools that are predominantly Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, according to data from the city non-Black. “Every state is required to provide an educa- Department of Education. The 153 offers to tion to its citizens,” said Dugué. “The state is Black students accounted for 3.6 percent of going to argue that it did provide an education. admissions. “Black parents are not told about this,” said I don’t think anyone can look at the results and Smith. “I had a neighbor who came from India tell us that there was an attempt to educate.” In a community forum on May 19, the pair who already knew how to get their kids into the presented information virtually to parents in specialized high schools,” said Smith. Smith believes that Black students are being Laurelton, Rosedale and Springfield Gardens, which depicted only 37 percent of Black ele- ushered into a school-to-prison pipeline. “When you look at the prison population, mentary and middle school students being proficient in ELA and 28 being proficient in math you hear that 70 percent of the people on Rikbased on 2019 data. During the meeting, ers Island cannot read above a sixth-grade Dugué said that high schools were not faring reading level and that some inmates are funcbetter as 65 was considered passing, but only tionally illiterate,” said the trial attorney. Associate Editor
Raymond Dugué at a rally in Hollis outside PS 35.
PHOTO BY NAEISHA ROSE
“When you look at the numbers that show an City Council in District 27. “It’s tragic that where a child’s ZIP code is overwhelming majority of inmates in New York State prison system come from New York can be the sole determinant to a child’s sucCity with poor reading scores and poor math cess,” said Clark. “If we are committed to scores, it seems they are here to feed the prison make a difference, if we are committed to making sure they have a real shot, we have to system.” Education is the best cure for crime, added do a better job to make sure they have access to programs, access to classes and access to Smith. “We are going to have to show an example enrichment that they are entitled to.” In 2017, Clark put his money where his of a curriculum and a system where 70 percent of the kids can read and write and are doing mouth is by co-founding Dream Chasers, an great,” said Smith. “There may be some afterschool program that offers free tutoring requirement that where we present this to the and mentorship on Fridays and Saturdays for DOE and show them what can work, what has more than 300 hours over the course of the worked, present it to them, give them the year. The program is geared toward getting preopportunity to implement it, but if they don’t we have the right to take them to federal court.” dominantly Black and other minority children In a Correctional Association of New York into specialized high schools and other top2019 report, data from the state’s Department notch schools in New York City, and one of the partners is the SUNY of Corrections and ComQ u e e n s E d u c a t io n a l m u n i t y S u p e r v i s io n Opportunity Center. depicted that prisoners “We match the kids were 97 percent male and with mentors who were 49.5 percent Black, and able to be successful and 48.5 percent came from that look like them so that the Big Apple among an the they can see that and overall prison population do the same to achieve of 48,000 in 54 facilities. their dreams,” said Clark. Nearly 85 percent of In its initial year one juveniles in the cour t of the 10 Dream Chasers system a re illiterate, students was accepted at according to Stuyvesant High School, literacynewyork.org. which is considered the “The numbers say that top specialized h ig h if you can’t read by the — JASON CLARK, ESQ. school of the elite eight. fourth grade, you can’t be “This year only 21 students were accepted saved,” said Smith. “I’m amazed as a trial attorney how many defendants I get who can’t in Bronx Science; two of those students came read if you put them on a witness stand who are from our program,” said Clark of his current from the city public education system. They 25 students. “Our students also got into will be destroyed by a prosecutor with the Eng- Brooklyn Tech, Townsend Harris and other great schools.” lish language.” To learn more about Dream Chasers visit Volunteering on the case is lawyer Jason Q Clark, one of a dozen candidates who ran for dreamchasersnyc.com.
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It’s tragic that where a child’s ZIP code is can be the sole determinant to a child’s success.
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