Navigating a Restless Sea: The Continuing Struggle to Achieve a Decent Education for African-American Youngsters in Chicago.

Each day, children in Chicago are cheated out of a challenging, meaningful, or even an adequate education. Chicago public school students, overwhelmingly children of color (56% are African American, 29% are Latino) and children of the poor (79% qualify for federal lunch programs) are the victims. Despite the well-publicized crime rate in Chicago's poor neighborhoods, the greatest robbery is not in the streets, but in the schools. For example:* Of the 39,000 freshman who entered Chicago high schools in 1980, only 18,500 graduated in 1984. * Less than a third of those students could read at or above the 12th-grade level as measured by a national standardized test. * During the decade of the 1980s, between 40% and 50% of students who entered Chicago high schools dropped out, and many dropped out before beginning high school. * Reading scores in almost half of Chicago's schools are in the lowest 1% of the nation.In the past several years, a massive social movement has coalesced around reforming Chicago's schools. It has become a movement to fight this crime against children, a movement that is in profound ways a continuation of the African American freedom struggle, and a movement that may yet derail on issues of race and racism. This, then, is a story of conflict and contradiction, of a restless sea of social forces.If the flim-flam in Chicago is thought of as simple stealing, then over time Chicagoans witness not merely a stick-up, but grand larceny indeed, towering, extravagant theft. The following is an explanation of how this flim-flam works.INEQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESChicago schools are at the lower end of the resource-distribution curve, and they lack the most basic, essential resources needed to do the job they are asked to do. Eighty percent o the children in Illinois who speak something other than English as their first language attend Chicago public schools, and half of the poorest children in the state are served in these schools. Chicago children need more, and yet they receive less.Chicago spends about 15% less per student than surrounding districts. This is partly because the city can raise only about $1,500 per student per year on its property tax base, less than half that raised by the average suburban district. For example, within a few miles of Chicago, one district raises $12,000 per child; another $14,000 per child. State aid to Chicago schools is based on the notion that only 22.6% of the students are from poor families, yet the federal census declares that 45% of Chicago's students are poor and that 79% are eligible for the federal reduced-price lunch program. This artificial limit in the state aid formula costs Chicago schools over $120 million a year.Money is only one aspect of the resource equation. Aging and inadequate physical plants, overcrowded spaces, a disastrous public transportation system, deteriorating local services including parks and libraries, poor access to the resources of the wider community and city, the inaccessibility of school buildings to students during nonschool hours, and the questionable standards for certifying teachers--each of these factors is a matter of resources, and on each measure, Chicago children need the most and get the least.Chicago schools are increasingly poor, African American, and Latino; and the political struggle over state funding of the city's schools is intense. While surveys of suburban and downstate voters have indicated an unwillingness on their part to adequately fund Chicago schools, a glimmer of hope was seen last spring when 56% of Illinois voters supported a state constitutional amendment that would have raised taxes to support more equitable school funding. The amendment was defeated (60% of the vote was needed to pass), but it out-polled both presidential contender Bill Clinton and senatorial candidate Carol Moseley-Braun.In 1988, Illinois's then-governor James Thompson agitated a wide range of racial tensions when, in arguing against adequate funding for Chicago schools, he quipped that he did not want to throw money into a "Black Hole. …