Political Alternatives: The Green Rainbow & Libertarian Parties

The current political deadlock over the debt ceiling has many frustrated with both the Republican and Democratic parties and disillusioned with the American political system. While U. S. politics is  essentially dominated by a two-party system, there other political parties that often produce candidates for a variety of local and state elections. 

Green Rainbow Party (MA; known as Green Party nationally)

Taxes & the Economy

• Supports an ecological approach to economic security in which economic enterprises are a compatible, integrated part of local communities with increases emphasis on local cycles of production, consumption, and recycling
• Calls for tax fairness measures to be implemented to address the unfair tax burden in which lower income people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes and fees than do wealthier citizens and corporations
• Supports the repeal of the constitutional constraint that forbids providing tax relief by taxing lower income residents at a lower rate than higher income residents
• Supports legislation that would return any state-owned land deemed surplus to local communities to be used for affordable housing, local agriculture, public open space or enhanced community sustainability
• Supports programs to create community-based green jobs such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, public transportation and recycling
• Supports the pursuit of food security by increasing the fraction of food that is locally grown
• Opposes increased reliance on regressive forms of revenue production such as the sales tax, gambling casinos, the state lottery and fees

Health care

• Support moving to a single-payer health care
• Calls for the elimination of any penalties upon people who do not purchase private health care coverage 
• Demands that steps be taken to ensure that people do not lose their health coverage when their employment situation changes

Education

• Calls for a value-oriented public school system that emphasizes the importance of literacy, good citizenship, civic participation and healthy self-realization
• Opposes the privatization of public education 
• Supports access to quality, free public education at all levels and support significant rollbacks of tuition and fees at public colleges and universities
• Supports real commitments to eliminate disparities in education and prohibit using standardized tests to punish students

Source: www.massgreens.org

Libertarian Party

Taxes & the Budget

• Supports cutting taxes 
• Supports reducing a defense budget it believes a large percentage of is spent defending "wealthy countries like Germany and Japan"
• Also supports ending or reducing foreign aid which it calls "welfare for nations"
• Opposes bailing out private industries

Health care

• Supports establishing Medical Savings Accounts
• Supports deregulating the health care industry
• Supports removing barriers to safe, affordable medicines

Poverty & Welfare

• Supports ending welfare; believes that the government should "get out of the charity business" and allow private charities and groups, who it believes to be more efficient, to help the truly needy
• Supports establishing a dollar for dollar tax credit for contributions to a private charity; believes this will help to facilitate a transfer from government welfare to private charity
• Supports eliminating barriers to economic growth such as the minimum wage and mandates benefits
• Believes that poverty cannot be solved without addressing public education system; supports school choice and a free marketplace in education

Source: www.lp.org

Education and the U. S. Supreme Court

Here's a look at some important education-related Supreme Court cases:

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in private businesses under the doctrine of "separate but equal" contending that laws separating the races were not in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and were a matter of public policy. Plessy v. Ferguson not only cemented the legal foundation for the 'separate but equal' doctrine, but paved the way for the Jim Crow system.  While the court found no difference in quality in things such as whites-only and blacks-only railway cars (the issue that started the initial case), the same could not be said for public education where facilities designed for blacks were wholly inferior. Southern states, however, refused to provide African Americans with equal facilities or funding after the Plessy decision. Racial differences in educational funding would persist well into the 20th century.



Lum v. Rice (1927):  held that the exclusion on account of race of a child of Chinese ancestry did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This decision approved the exclusion of minority students from schools reserved for whites.

The case was filed after 9-year old Martha Lum was prohibited from attending the Rosedale Consolidated High School in Bolivar, Mississippi because she was of Chinese descent. There was no school in the district reserved for Chinese students and she was forced by compulsory attendance laws to attend school. A lower court granted a request to force members of the Board of Trustees to admit Martha Lum; her father Gong Lum's case argued not that discrimination was illegal but that his daughter, being Chinese (not black) was incorrectly labeled 'colored' by authorities. After losing the case, the Board of Trustees brought it before the state Supreme Court which reversed the lower court's decision and allowed for the exclusion of Martha from schools reserved for whites. Gong Lum then brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court, however, affirmed the state Supreme Court's ruling. In an unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice William Howard Taft, the Court found that "a child of Chinese blood, born in and a citizen of the United States is not denied the equal protection of the law by being classed by the state among the colored races who assigned to public schools separate from those provided for the whites when equal facilities for education are afforded to both classes."



Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954): initially filed in 1951 by 13 Topeka, KS parents on behalf of their 20 children, Brown called for the Topeka school district to end its policy of racial segregation.  The plaintiffs in Brown asserted that the system of racial separation allowed under Plessy perpetuated inferior accommodations, services and treatment for black Americans. The District Court disagreed and ruled on behalf of the Board of Education citing the precedent set by Plessy and stating that  while segregation had a negative effect on African American children, it denied integration would resolve this issue. The reason: that black and white schools in Topeka were equal with regard to facilities, transportation, curricular and education qualifications of teachers.

Later taken to the Supreme Court, the case as it was heard combined five other cases: Brown itself, Briggs v. Elliot (South Carolina), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virgina), Gebhart v. Belton  (Delaware), and Bolling v. Sharpe (Washington, D.C.). Decided on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court's unanimous decision held that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," thereby declaring segregation unconstitutional. Specifically, racial segregation was ruled in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, paving the way for integration. As a result of the Brown decision, all Topeka elementary schools were changed to neighborhood attendance centers in January 1956. This case also overturned the decision in Lum v. Rice. While the fight for desegregation continued long after Brown, this was a landmark decision in the civil rights movement.

Engel v. Vitale (1962): challenged public school prayer calling it an unconstitutional state establishment of religion in violation of the First Amendment. Plaintiffs in this case were families of public school students in New Hyde, NY that the voluntary prayer to "Almighty God" contradicted their religious beliefs. They argued that opening the school day with a prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment  which says in part "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."  The governments of 22 states signed a brief urging affirmation of the New York Court of Appeals decision that upheld school prayer as constitutional. The American Ethical Union, the American Jewish Committee, and the Synagogue Council of America also submitted briefs, but called for a reversal of the decision and asked that school prayer be deemed unconstitutional. The Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs in a 6-1 decision, finding that government directed prayer in schools violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment even if the prayer is denominationally neutral and students may remain silent or be excused from the classroom during its recitation.

San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973): held that "reliance on property taxes to fund public schools does not violate the Equal Protection Clause even if it causes inter-district expenditure disparities. Absolute equality of education funding is not required and a state system that encourages local control over schools bears a rational relationship to a legitimate state interest."  The majority opinion in this case found that education was not a fundamental right that existed within the U. S. Constitution and was not subject to strict scrutiny. 

In 1968, the Edgewood Concerned Parents Association sued San Antonio ISD, Alamo Heights ISD and five other district schools, the Bexar County School Trustees and the State of Texas contending that the Texas  method of school financing violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The lawsuit claimed that education was a fundamental right and that wealth-based discrimination in education, created in the poor a constitutionally suspect class that was protected from discrimination. Particularly,  the schools in San Antonio has a long history of financial inequity such that the primarily white areas of town were able to contribute more per child than Edgewood, a low income, minority area. The case advanced through the court system with the Edgewood parents as the victors until 1972. In a 5-4 decision, the court found that education "neither implicitly or explicitly protected in the Constitution" and that Texas had not created a suspect class related to poverty. 

Plyler v. Doe (1982): held that a Texas statute denying free public education to illegal aliens violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because discrimination on the basis of immigration status did not further a substantial state interest. In Texas, revisions to states laws in 1975 withheld state funds for educating children who had not been legally admitted to the United States and authorized local school boards to deny enrollment to undocumented children. A 5-4 majority decision found that this policy was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment as illegal immigrant children are people "in any ordinary sense of the term" and therefore had protection from discrimination a substantial state interest could be shown to justify it. It also found that the Texas law was "directed against children and imposed its discriminatory burden on the basis of a legal characterization over which children can have little control" and that denying the children in question an education would likely contribute to "the creation and perpetuation of a subclass of illiterates within our boundaries, surely adding to the costs of unemployment, welfare and crime." This case was decided together with Texas v. Certain Named and Unnamed Alien Children 

Source: www.justia.com

This Day in History: July 24

-Antoine de la Monthe Cadillac  founds the trading post at Fort Pontchatrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit, MI, 1701

-Slavery is abolished in Chile, 1823

-Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City, 1847

-Zelda Fitzgerald, American artist, is born, 1900

-The Treaty of Lausanne is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in World War I settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, 1923

-The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy goes into effect after being signed in Paris in a year earlier, 1929

-Alabama drops rape charges against 4 of the 9 Scottsboro boys (Willie Roberson, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams & Roy Wright) after they had spent 6 years in prison, 1937

-End of the four day long Libyan-Egyptian War, 1977

-Holiday: Simon Bolivar Day (Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia & Bolivia)

Dropout Rates by Selected Population II: Lynn

In my last post, I discussed the 4 year cohort dropout rates for selected populations in low-income communities (see here). Cohort drop out rates indicate the percentage of students in the same graduating class that dropped out over a 4 year period before receiving a diploma. As a native of Lynn, MA, the particularly high dropout rates for Limited English Proficiency, special education, Hispanic and African American students bothered me. This information also led to me questions. How significant is it really that 31.9% of special education students in Lynn will drop out at some point during high school? If the special education population is for example, 100 students then the number of special ed students dropping out would be about 30; if this population is much larger (say 1,000), the number of drop outs from this group would be substantial.

Here is a comparison between the demographics of the 3 Lynn high schools as a whole (not just graduating students) (top) with the cohort dropout rates of the same populations (bottom) for 2010; all numbers are percentages except 'total student population':

	Lynn Classical	Lynn English	Lynn Tech
Total Student Population	1,401	1,739	809
Limited English Proficiency	13.3	10.2	19.9
Special Education	11.9	11.2	23.6
Low Income	76.9	73.5	87.1
African American/Black	14.6	13.7	11.6
Asian	13.3	9.9	8.8
Hispanic	40.1	46.7	57.4
White	29.6	26.1	19.5
Male	51.4	52	59.2
Female	48.6	48	40.8

	Lynn Classical	Lynn English	Lynn Tech
All Students	10.8	9.8	27.1
Limited English Proficiency	30.6	14.9	32.6
Special Education	27.3	22	32.2
Low Income	11.1	10.3	25.2
African American/Black	12.8	14.7	33.3
Asian	2.3	10	36.8
Hispanic	16.5	10	29.8
White	8.3	8.5	19.1
Male	11.7	12.8	24.7
Female	9.8	7.1	30.7

EDIT: There seems to have been some confusion about what the percentages mean. The top table indicates the percentage of in each of the selected populations. The nature of these categories is such that one student could be counted in more than one population (i.e. African American AND low-income; Caucasian AND special education). The only percentages that should/do add up to 100% are male/female; the minority labels do not add up to 100% exactly because there are other, small categories (bi-racial, multi-racial, Native American/Pacific Islander).


The bottom table represents the percentage of each population that drops out. For example, 32.6% of Limited English proficiency students at Lynn Tech dropped out of school during 2009-10. The percentages here will not add up to 100% because these are dropout rates for individual categories that are not mutually exclusive. In other words, just because someone is counted as African American does not mean that he or she will not show up in any other categories. Thus putting numbers here as opposed to percentages would not make much sense and also would not add up to the number indicated in the 'total student population' box.


Sadly, from this we see that Lynn has over 200 students dropping out of school each year. More importantly the answer to the initial question becomes more clear. A substantial number of students in Lynn are Limited English Proficiency, special education and/or low income students; there the significant dropout rates for these communities are a problem that needs to be actively addressed. While the Lynn Public School system has a number of issues to work on including overcrowding and poor MCAS scores, the dropout rate is an important aspect of the educational system that requires attention.

*Part III (Coming July 25): Dropout Rates by Selected Population: SES: See how Lynn compares to its North Shore neighbors

All data taken from: www.doe.mass.edu

Dropout Rates by Selected Population

In a previous post, I broke down high school graduation rates by state (see here). Here we will look out the dropout rates of selected populations in low income communities in Massachusetts.

As of 2010, the 4 year dropout rate in Massachusetts for all students was 8.2%. In looking specifically at different populations, however, we see that the dropout rate often varies and, in some cases, is much higher than MA state statistics. Below is a table indicating the 4 year cohort dropout rate for a few select populations in Massachusetts. All numbers are percentages.

	MA
Limited English Proficiency	21.5
Special Education	14.7
Low Income	15.3
African American/Black	13.8
Asian	4.9
Hispanic	20.2
White	5.4
Male	9.5
Female	6.9

From this we see that limited English proficiency, special education and Hispanic students, among others, are much more likely to drop out of high school. Hispanic students, for example, are 4 times more likely to drop out than Asian and White students, likely due in part to trouble grasping the English language.

Studies have indicated that low income students are at particularly risk for not finishing high school. Below are the high school dropout rates for 6 low income communities in Massachusetts. While 34.2% of students in MA as a whole are low-income, the percentage of low income students in these cities ranges from 72.5% to 87.1%.

	Boston	Chelsea	Holyoke	Lawrence	Lowell	Lynn
All Students	15.9	25.1	28.4	26.6	13.6	16.4
Limited English Proficiency	16.9	37.8	45.6	34.2	16.7	25.9
Special Education	24.3	35.4	42.5	39.7	34.3	31.9
Low Income	15.5	25.4	32	26.4	15.3	18
African American/Black	16.3	19.4	23.1	8.7	13.8	19.3
Asian	4.8	25	N/A	20	12.4	14
Hispanic	20.4	25.2	33.1	27.4	17.9	20.1
White	9.9	29.7	14.5	25	12.3	12.6
Male	18.5	31.5	29.5	32.9	17.9	17.9
Female	13.1	18.7	27.3	20.4	9.2	14.8

Most importantly, we see that the dropout rate for all students in these cities is much higher than what Massachusetts reports as a whole. Overall 4 year dropout rates in these communities are as high as 28.4%; also this data does not include students who may be required to complete a fifth year of high but drop out before doing so. Looking at the specific populations, it is clear that limited English proficiency students and special education students have particularly high drop out rates. Dropout rates for the special education group in these cities ranges from a quarter to nearly half of the total population. Additionally, drop out rates for Hispanic students ranges from almost 18% to 33.1%, a significant percentage give that the Hispanic population in these communities ranges from 40.1% (Boston) to 90.1% (Lawrence). In Holyoke in particular, nearly half of both special education and limited English proficiency students drop out of high school. Males are also much more likely to dropout; noticeable gender differences in dropout rates exist in Chelsea, Lawrence, and Lowell.

Even within the same city, drop out rates can vary among selected populations in different schools. Lynn, MA, a city with almost 90,000 people, has 3 high schools: Lynn English (1,739 students) and Lynn Classical  (1,401 students) are more college preparatory in focus while Lynn Tech (809 students) is a vocational school where students can learn a trade. Below are the 2010 drop out rates for these schools:

	Lynn Classical	Lynn English	Lynn Tech
All Students	10.8	9.8	27.1
Limited English Proficiency	30.6	14.9	32.6
Special Education	27.3	22	32.2
Low Income	11.1	10.3	25.2
African American/Black	12.8	14.7	33.3
Asian	2.3	10	36.8
Hispanic	16.5	10	29.8
White	8.3	8.5	19.1
Male	11.7	12.8	24.7
Female	9.8	7.1	30.7

When broken down further, one sees that Lynn's high dropout rates for certain populations may be driven by one or two schools. All three schools seem to be having difficulty keeping special education students on track to graduation; this is important because the special education populations at these schools are not insignificant with 11.2% of students at Lynn English, 13.3% of students at Lynn Classical and 23.6% of students at Lynn Tech are considered special ed. Educating special ed students is not Lynn Tech's only difficulty as the school is seeing a third of African American, Asian and Hispanic students leave school. These groups combined make up 77.8% of the Tech's total student population. Surprisingly, females are also more likely to drop out at Lynn Tech than males. 

Sadly, the current focus of education reform has centered around teacher tenure and collective bargaining, while little to no discussion around what we can do to increase graduation rates and keep minority  students from falling through the cracks This is especially important given that those how do not complete high school are increased risk for negative outcomes including poverty, unemployment, incarceration, and substance abuse (Annunziata, Hogue, Faw, & Liddle, 2006). Part of the solution may be to allow schools or school districts to come up with individualized plans for their students and their schools making interventions more specific to their needs. As we see with the city level comparisons, some cities are having issues with certain populations that another city with similar demographics may not be. Furthermore, schools within the same district may have different challenges as was indicated with the case of Lynn, MA. While debate continues around teacher effectiveness and unions, some of Massachusetts' (likely the country's) most vulnerable students are dropping out in large numbers. Instead of focusing on ways to fire people and implementing reforms with little evidence for success, politicians, reformers, and parents should be trying to find ways to help keep America's youth in school and graduate (on time).

**All data taken from: www.doe.mass.edu

Reference: 

Annunziata, D., Hogue, A., Faw, L., & Liddle, H. A. (2006). Family functioning and school success in at-risk, inner-city adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 105-113.

*Part II (Coming July 22): Dropout Rates by Selected Population: Lynn: What do these dropout rates mean in terms of actual numbers for the city of Lynn?