2
Black Caucus Chair: Charter School Bills Overlook Too Many Crucial Questions By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media Three charter school bills the Assembly Education Committee cleared last week leave too many unanswered questions, says Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego). She is the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and a member of the Assembly Education Committee. The set of legislation, according to Weber, does not consider the full impact of charter schools in California – particularly in disadvantaged communities - and the bills do not go far enough to detail how the changes they propose would work. “I judge everything that comes in on its merits and whether or not it’s beneficial to children,” said Weber. “Clearly, it brings me great concern to see a significant number of Black and Brown people here talking about wanting something different for their children. It’s unfortunate that the critical question is not being asked and that is ‘what is best for our children?” “Charter school reform is long overdue,” says Patrick O’Donnell (D-Long Beach) who co-authored AB 1505. “These bills will provide school districts the ability to make responsible and informed decisions regarding authorization and renewal of charter schools, which are critical for student success and taxpayer accountability.”
The San Diego Monitor The Assembly Education Committee voted 4-1 in favor of AB 1505, AB 1506 and AB 1507. Weber, who is an educator, abstained after stating that four of the six committee members who cast the first votes in favor of the bills were also co-authors of the legislations. “I don’t feel like there is a whole lot of room for persuasion,” Weber told her Education Committee colleagues, accepting that the bills were on track to pass. After listening to the comments from students, teachers and advocates supporting or opposing the bill, Weber says she did not have enough information to cast a yay or nay vote in good conscience. If they pass the legislature, the three bills would set off drastic changes to California’s Charter school law which was signed in 1992. Supporters say the main intentions of the bills are to increase accountability and strengthen oversight of charter schools. Important concerns overlooked by the charter school legislation, Weber told the co-authors of the bills, include very little consideration given to the fact that Gov. Gavin Newsom has already commissioned a task force to investigate how charter schools affect communities and budgets. That report is scheduled to be released July 1.
3
The San Diego Monitor Also, she says, the bills do not ask why parents who live near traditional public schools still opt to send their children to charter schools. On top of that, no formula or guidance is given in the legislation to determine what is a reasonable cap on charter schools in each school district. Neither do they propose or outline penalties for districts that abuse their authority when renewing or repealing charters.
site from being established outside of its authorizing district. Margaret Fortune, CEO and founder of Fortune Schools, a network of six charter schools in Sacramento and one in San Bernardino with a focus on closing the African-American achievement gap, is confident that the bills are a way to eradicate charter schools should school districts have their way.
The California State National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is also supporting the bills to the surprise of some like Al Sharpton’s National Action Network California chapters and the Rev. K.W. Tulloss, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Los Angeles and Southern California. “Schools across California are profoundly separate and unequal based on race and class,” said Julian Vasquez-Heilig, Education Chairperson for the California State NAACP at a press conference before the hearing. “These issues are being amplified, in fact, made worse by the privatization and private control movement.” Vasquez Heilig said charter schools “promote segregation.” Opponents say the bills are designed to eventually eliminate charter schools. “Today, we could not be more clear: This package of bills sponsored by CTA is poison,” Myrna Castrejón, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, told CBM before the hearing. “This package of bills doesn’t just threaten potential schools that may not yet exist to direct or divert attention to other schools. It actually threatens every single existing charter school.” For more than 50 years now, California’s public school districts have largely failed African-American students, creating a glaring achievement gap between White and Black students, especially those from disadvantaged neighborhoods. The Department of Education earlier this year released a list of California’s lowest performing schools. Many of of the 481 schools cited in the report are located in areas of the state where there are large concentrations of Black and Hispanic residents. Only 34 or them were charter schools. AB 1505, authored by Assemblymembers O’Donnell and Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) would eliminate the charter school appeals process and allow school districts broad discretion in denying or approving a new or renewing charter. AB 1506, authored by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), would impose a cap on new charter schools. AB 1507, authored by Assemblywoman Christy Smith (DClarita), would prevent any charter school
Black People Are More Likely Than Whites to Die of Heart Disease. Here’s One Reason Why. Part 2 It’s not just diet and lifestyle that determine your risk for heart disease—race matters, too. About 37 percent of white men and 32 percent of white women develop heart disease, versus 44 percent of black men and 49 percent of black women. Overall, the average life expectancy for African Americans is 3.4 years shorter than it is for white Americans, and researchers attribute most of that disparity to the differences in heart disease rates. The reasons black Americans have higher rates of cardiovascular problems are complicated—among them, as researchers have pointed to, elevated levels of stress as a result of poverty and racism. But a study published today in the journal JAMA Cardiology sheds light on another possible explanation: African Americans are slightly less likely than Caucasians to be given drugs to control their cholesterol levels—and they’re far less likely to be prescribed the correct doses. A team of researchers from Duke University Medical Center followed the progress of 5,689 patients who were eligible for treatment with statins, a class of cholesterol drug. About 75 percent of the white patients were prescribed statins, compared with 71 percent of African Americans. But when the team looked at dosages, the disparity was starker: About 44 percent of white patients received therapy that followed the guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, compared to 33 percent of black patients. Continued on pg.6
4
The San Diego Monitor
A New Leadership, A New History April 2, 2019 will go down in history as a day that transformed Chicago and the nation. The city elected Lori Lightfoot, its first African American woman mayor. Not only is Lightfoot the first openly gay woman to hold the office, she
The San Diego Monitor is in an interracial marriage and has an adopted daughter. Lightfoot managed to win every single of Chicago’s fifty wards in a smashing victory against a veteran politician — another African American woman — named Toni Preckwinkle. At just over five feet tall, Lightfoot is brown skinned with a short afro. She is a very successful prosecutor and unlikely politician. Indeed, she has never held an elected office. In her acceptance speech, Lightfoot mentioned my greatgrandmother Ida B. Wells, who also stood around five feet tall: "One day, you will stand on my shoulders, as I stand on the shoulders of so many. The shoulders of strong, black women, like Ida B. Wells, Gwendolyn Brooks and Annie Ruth Lowery." Lori Lightfoot embodies the boldness of my great-grandmother, who pushed the boundaries of what was possible for Black women. Ida B. Wells was born into slavery in 1862 and became a formidable journalist, civil rights activist, suffragist, community organizer, social worker, and founder of many organizations including the NAACP. Despite her numerous contributions to this country, Wells is often omitted from the cannon of social justice and women’s rights icons. Last year she was featured in the New York Times “Overlooked” obituary and the city of Chicago recently honored her by renaming a major downtown street into Ida B. Wells Drive. The path to Lightfoot’s win was partly laid in 1913 by Wells, who founded the Alpha Suffrage Club — the first all-African American group in Illinois to focus on voting rights. That same year she joined thousands in the Washington D.C. suffrage parade and was bold enough to insert herself in the front of the parade with her white counterparts after they asked the Black women to march in the back of the parade. A few years later, in 1915, the organization canvassed the Bronzeville neighborhood on behalf of Oscar DePriest, and helped him become the first African American alderman in Chicago in 1915. In addition to helping men get elected, just ten years after women got the right to vote, Wells herself ran for Illinois state senate in 1930.
5
Chicago is a racially diverse city. But it is also among the most segregated cities in the country. Despite the fact that it is an economic engine of the Midwest, the city has a major pension deficit, as well as palpable tension between the police department and the African American community. One major concern for many voters is the vast inequities between neighborhoods. Many feel that the development of the downtown area and the North side of the city, which is where most affluent white residents live, has come as a result of disinvestment and neglect of the city’s South and West sides which is where the majority of Black and Latinx residents live. A few years ago there were massive school closures and the shuttering of mental health clinics which disproportionally affected the South and West sides. In addition, many residents feel that they are being excessively taxed and fined with red light cameras and tickets in order to make up for financial shortages that the city faces. Several thousand people became so frustrated with Chicago and its myriad problems that they left, so the city is experiencing a shrinking population. Pivot points in history have shown us, time and again, unlikely heroes emerge when the air is ripe for change. Continued on Pg.7
6
Heart Disease continued In the study, the researchers found, clinicians who saw the black patients were less likely to use the current guidelines in determining a statin dose. “We really looked deeply into the reasons for the disparity, and what we found were a lot of subtle but important differences,” says lead author Michael Nanna, a cardiology fellow at Duke University, Another key point: African American patients were less likely than white patients to believe that statins were safe and effective, and they also reported significantly less trust in the drugs than their white counterparts. Doctors whose patients express skepticism about the drugs may be less likely to prescribe them, Nanna says. Experts in the field of cardiovascular health hailed the new research as an important contribution. “It confirms disparities in the use of potentially life-saving medications, and it isolates that the disparities are related to factors that clinicians don’t often consider or measure,” says Keith C. Ferdinand, a professor of medicine at Tulane University who has written about health disparities. He adds, “The overall disparity is real. It directly impacts longevity.” Craig Umscheid, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman
The San Diego Monitor School of Medicine, suggested that future studies might look more closely at black Americans’ mistrust of statins. “Is this a general belief about medications, or is it specific?” he asks. “You can imagine, given the history of medicine, why that might be.” He believes researchers should ask people the same questions about their trust in clinicians. Duke’s Nanna points out that doctors are under increasing pressure to see more patients in less time, and shorter appointments won’t do much to make sure clinicians are prescribing appropriately or building trust with their patients. “We need to set up health systems where all patients who need treatment get treated,” he says. “If we raise the quality of care for everyone, then everyone benefits, and maybe we can close these treatment gaps.” as researchers have pointed to, elevated levels of stress as a result of poverty and racism. But a study published today in the journal JAMA Cardiology sheds light on another possible explanation: African Americans are slightly less likely than Caucasians to be given drugs to control their cholesterol levels—and they’re far less likely to be prescribed the correct doses. -
Mother Jones.com
7
The San Diego Monitor There is a lot riding on Lightfoot’s shoulders. As the next mayor she will need to bridge the gaps between the haves and the have nots in Chicago. This comes in many forms from economic to educational opportunities to homeownership to city services to trust with the police.
The 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winners Are Brimming With Black Excellence—and a Posthumous Appearance by Aretha Franklin
Over 70% of the voters seem to think she has the skill set and vision to take the city in a new direction. The City of Big Shoulders is resting on the shoulders of Lightfoot as she stands on the shoulders of pioneering Black women like my great-grandmother Ida B. Wells.
As the most prestigious award in American journalism, literature and music, it’s not quite a BET Hip-Hop Award (word to Iggy Azalea), but it sure as hell warrants an update to your Twitter bio—and your annual salary.
Michelle Duster is an author, speaker, public historian, and writing professor at Columbia College Chicago. She is currently working on a biography of Ida B. Wells for Signal Press. You can follow her on Twitter @michelleduster. Views expressed are her own.
A Pulitzer Prize is kind of a big deal.
Since its auspicious arrival in 1917, this distinction—named after legendary newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer—has bestowed the illustrious title of “Pulitzer Prize winner” to only the best and the brightest, as the rest of us mere mortals can only watch in admiration and awe until our own time comes. On Monday, Prize administrator Dana Canedy announced the latest collection of recipients at Columbia University in New York City. And though I regret to inform you that I failed to take home the prize this year (feel free to suspend your belief long enough to pretend that I was even nominated), those who did are among elite company—as there was plenty of black excellence to be found. Read more sdmonitornews.com
