COMMENTARY

January 19, 2004

Dr. King and a Decade of Reform

Lynn Harsh | Evergreen Freedom Foundation
After more than a decade of reform in our state's public schools, how would Dr. Martin Luther King assess our progress if he were alive today?

What would he say about the 61 percent of black students in Washington state who drop out of school before they graduate? What would he think about the test scores of the rest—test scores that, on average, border on functional illiteracy? What would his counsel be about the future of a country that tolerates this huge educational gap?

And how would he address the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the majority of state lawmakers who feel our public education system is moving the right direction? Or who feel if they just had more money, they could close this "separate-but-equal" gap.

I think he would shake his finger at us, and in a voice quivering with anger, would remind us that the American form of government and our way of life dies without self-governance and an educated citizenry. I think he would implore parents of black students to advocate loudly and persistently for their children's educational futures. I think he would chastise the keepers of the education status quo to put children's needs above their own. I think he would challenge legislators to muster up courage to shake up the status quo.

Knowledge is power and, especially in America, it must be distributed widely across all racial and gender lines. To do less is to write our country's epitaph.

Lynn Harsh is the Senior Education Analyst for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.

Contact: Marsha Richards | Communications Director | 360.956.3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org