This School year, students from Macolm X Shabazz HS assulted their own basketball coach after a game vs Livingston HS. Both are in New Jersey and these Schools are only 12 miles apart. They could not be more different:\
SPOILER ALERT!!! ITS NOT ABOUT FUNDING!!
Article about assult: https://abc7ny.com/newark-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-new-jersey-assault/5908704/
This story made me research both schools:
Malcom X HS DATA: 1/10 on Great Schools; (91% black, 8% Hispanic and 1% White); 11 students per teacher; 61% graduation rate; 52% pursue four year college, only 15% return for 2nd year of college; 846 avg SAT, FOLLOW THE MONEY--- Total District Spending: $958 MILLION; $22k per Student, Average Teacher Salary $84,900; Funding SOURCES: 11.5% local, 83% State, 5.4% federal
Livingston HS: 8/10 on Great Schools; (64% white, 26% Asian, 4% Black); 11 students per teacher; 96% graduation rate; 93% pursue four year college, 84% return for 2nd year of college; 1240 avg SAT; FOLLOW THE MONEY--- Total District Spending: $115 million; $19k per Student, Average Teacher Salary $80,100; Funding SOURCES: 85% local, 13% State, 1.4% Federal
Funding source data: https://www.nj.gov/cgi-bin/education/csg/16/csg.pl (old data but all thats available and follows current trends)
Great Schools Data: Malcolm X; https://www.greatschools.org/new-jersey/newark/1321-Malcolm-X-Shabazz-High-School/#Race_ethnicity*College_readiness Livingston: https://www.greatschools.org/new-jersey/livingston/997-Livingston-Sr--High-School/
I grew up in the projects. I’m here to tell you it’s not about schools or spending. IN the 80s, I was bussed across town to be the minority and ‘integrate’. I went to the same schools and later In childhood, lived in the same projects AND went to the same schools across town. If anything, having to get up much earlier to catch a bus that literally drove you all the way across the city was a huge disadvantage. (Opinion: my presence as a white dude in the minority in these schools did nothing for the black students betterment of education)
It’s a culture thing. It’s a not having fathers in the household thing. It’s a mother’s allowing their children to run wild and free in the streets thing. It’s a lack of discipline as a child thing. It’s a peer pressure thing.
A common trend in impoverished neighborhoods is that misery loves company. If you do something to try and better your life, you experience immense pressure to fall in line with the majority and do what they do. Dress like they do, talk like they do, act like they do. Sometimes others will actively and intentionally sabotage your efforts to escape and succeed. Other times, circumstances of living in that environment - not directed specifically at the target - hold you back.
I lived it and grew up in it. It’s a fact.
I agree it's nuts. They're talking about disbanding the police when we should be disbanding these neighborhoods. People can blame race or racism but as soon as anyone can get a few bucks together they move the fuck out. Black people included. Thats the real issue. It's a cycle of poverty and crime. Money won't fix a broken culture. All the money that goes into these places just goes into the hands of corrupt politicians.