For the last several years there has been an endless stream of negative reporting about the growing and persistent problems of the terrible rate of high school dropout rates for Black American students across the United States. Of course, it is always important to focus on the most critical problems that beset the quality of life of the African American community. Certainly, there is no greater challenge than encouraging our young sisters and brothers to stay in school to complete their high school education, and to prepare for their life careers by going on to finish college and graduate school or to enroll in some type of hands-on career training or to start their own businesses that may require special entrepreneurial internship and mentorship.
But, to
just keep describing and analyzing the “problems” of Black American high school
dropouts or pointing the fingers at the internal and external forces or
contradictions that plague the African American community will do very little
to change this situation. It is
not a hopeless state of being that cannot be changed. There are solutions to this problem. Brother Malcolm X reminded all of us
that in life you are either going to be part of the problem or part of the
solution to the problems that confront the daily life circumstances of Black
people in America and throughout the world.
Recently,
there was a related article in the Economist magazine that typically described
the problem of the direct causative relationship between the high rate of Black
unemployment and the high rate of Black high school dropouts. Among African Americans, 70% of those
who have dropped out of high school are also devastatingly unemployed. But, the article in the Economist
offered no solutions. It painted,
what may appear to most of its readers, a hopeless situation for Black high
school dropouts.
During my
50 years or more in the Civil Rights Movement, we were always confronted with
sometimes life-threatening problems and challenges. But, we never let fear or hopelessness determine our
strategies for progress and success in the very face all those forces of
oppression and repression. We kept
our faith in God and in our own abilities to participate in the development and
implementation of “movement for change” organizing, mobilizing, and in the
institutional-building process so necessary to move our race and community
forward. The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) along with countless Black churches and other
grassroots organizations, including organized labor, helped to build and
sustain a movement that irreversibly changed America for the better.
Now today
in 2011, we must address today’s educational problems and challenges with that
same kind of fortitude, alternative institutional-building, and
resilience. The education of our
children and young adults, and in particular the millions who have dropped out
of high school during the last 10 to 20 years, is of paramount concern. During the last couple of years I have
been blessed to work directly with innovation in the educational system. The rise of online education from K-12
to post-secondary undergraduate to graduate school has seen to many new and
effective educational alternatives that have emerged in the United States as
well as internationally. Education
Online Services Corporation has gain invaluable experience in helping
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) enter successfully onto
the online degree program global marketplace. The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) continues
to lead the way to encourage Black parents and students to explore and select
the best educational options available today to give students from our
communities the best quality education inclusive of considering charter schools
and other innovative educational models that have proven to be effective in
2011.
Thus,
today through the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), America’s
Black Press, I am announcing a unique solution and my personal contribution to
make this solution available as an option for those who may have dropped out of
high school, for whatever reason, to be able to return to high school and to
complete their high school education online and receive an accredited high
school diploma together with career training, job placement, and college entrance incentives built into
this “High School Re-engagement Program.” That’s right, I am going establish and run a national online high school
expressly to reclaim, redeem, and encourage the re-engagement of Blacks and
Latinos, in particular, back to high school with the mission of high school
completion together with career training, job placement, and a direct access to
a high quality college education. We will announce the name of this special and focused online high school
in the very near future. But, I
wanted to let our readers know now that we are serious about providing and
participating in the “solution” process concerning this issue. We are serious
about institutional building and capacity-building for the future. Education is the key to liberation and
economic empowerment.
Dr.
Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. is senior advisor to the Black Alliance for Educational
Options and president of Education Online Services Corporation.
