Poor school performance is directly correlated with poverty. According to the Schott Foundation for Public Education, of Cambridge Massachusetts, who sorted all New York City middle schools by their 8th grade results on the NY State English/language arts examinations, the schools which scored the lowest in the poorest neighborhoods of Harlem, the South Bronx and central Brooklyn. the study calculated that doubling the share of “highly educated” – master’s degrees + 30 or more hours of training – could result in a 600 percent increase in the chances of a black or Hispanic student scoring at the top level of those examinations.
The data are there. Why do our politicians avoid the obvious? Is it easier for them to blame the victims rather than fixing the problems?