Glitter penguins

"Only four states (New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont) allow inmates to vote. In fourteen states, a felony conviction equals lifetime disenfranchisement" (287).

"As many as one-third of all black men spend time in the criminal justice system. Upon reentering society, many discover that, among other things, imprisonment has robbed them of their voting rights. Only four states...allow inmates to vote. In fourteen states, a felony conviction equals lifetime disenfranchisement" (City Kids, City Schools, 302).

"O'Connor argued that there is nothing about poverty in and of itself that places poor children at academic risk but, rather, it is how structures of opportunity and constraint come to bear on their likelihood for achieving competitive educational outcomes." (from "The Intersection of Race, Culture, language, and Disability")

"[Avery] was a kid caught up in gangs; he was being victimized and was violent against others; he had been in prison; he was large, black; he did not learn as fast as others; he had medical problems; he was dyslexic; and in the minds of business-oriented school administrators, he would be expensive to educate." (From "Being Down")

At one point Noguera points out in his, "The Trouble with Black Boys" article the following,

"The majority of my students who seek to become teachers and the vast majority of teachers I have worked with did not enter the profession because they wanted to serve as sorters and gatekeeprers. They also did not choose to teach because of the high status the profession enjoys or because they believe it will lead to financial security. Most are motivated by the idea that education can transform lives by inspiring young people and exposing them to knowledge that makes it possible to dream, aspire, and imagine new possibilities for themselves and the world" (120).

As we came to the end of the tour and walked toward the main office, the assistant principal shook his head and pointed out a boy, no more than eight or nine years old, who was standing outside the door to his office. Gesturing to the child, the assistant principal said to me, "Do you see that boy? There's a prison cell in San Quentin waiting for him." Surprised by his observation, I asked him how he was able to predict the future of such a young child. He replied, "Well, his father is in prison; he's got a brother and an uncle there too. In fact, the whole family is nothing but trouble.

When reading the two articles, “How to Destroy a Public-School System” by Daniel Denvir and “Racial Bias in Pennsylvania’s Funding Public Schools” by David Mosenkins I thought it was interesting how the first focused on funding between public and private school systems meanwhile the second article focuses on how the funding is distributed within the public school systems. However what really struck me was how at the moment “Pennsylvania is currently one of only three states in the U.S.

It struck me today that the No Child Left Behind Act was based on poverty. Having grown up with it in existence I did not realize that the NCLB act was supposed to prevent poverty. Thinking about it now, I question whether or not forcing people to be in an enviroment that they do not want to be in is even the right way to go about things. 

On one note, I do not see how lack of an education can improve matters of poverty but on another note, having read this article, the benefits of a higher education seem not to exist. 

The only path I see is having to create more jobs; an entirely new work force, but where exactly does that lie?

Gordon, Brooks notes, “said his job was ‘to help poor people.’ Well, no one asked for your help…. Every couple years, they come up with a new philosophy about what’s best—instead of funding the schools.”

“Change is the only option,” declared Mark Gleason, the PSP’s chief executive, in testimony before state legislators in 2013. “We may not fully know which changes will make the most difference, which will transform outcomes for poor and minority students. But we have some good clues—we even have some proof points right here in Philadelphia—and we know the status quo is most definitely not working for disadvantaged students. The debate we should be having is about which changes are worth trying—not about saving a failed system.”

At the end of “How to Destroy a Public-School System,” Denvir touches upon the politics of getting funding for schools. The spokesman for Turzai, the Republican majority leader in the State House of Representatives, “explains that Republican members view every dollar earmarked for Philadelphia as a dollar they can’t spend on their own schools. ‘What makes those kids more important that our kids?’”

According to online resources, the term, white savior, is "in reference to western people going in to 'fix' the problems of struggling nations or people of color without understanding their history, needs, or the region’s current state of affairs." In Anyon and Greene's article, "No Child Left Behind as an Anti-Poverty Measure," and in both online articles, the white savior narrative is voiced and further explained as into why what one might consider helping might actually be further damaging individuals and communities.