By Leslie T. Fenwick (via Thegrio)
Recently, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced TEACH, a national campaign to increase the number of African-American and Latino males being prepared as PK-12 classroom teachers. Nearly 40 percent of public school students are African-American or Latino. In many school districts this statistic hovers above 90 percent. Yet, less than 8 percent of the nation’s teachers are African-American and fewer than 4 percent are Hispanic/Latino. In schools inside central cities, 73 percent of teachers are white. In urban schools outside of central cities, 91 percent of public school teachers are white.
Unfortunately, there is a national mythology operating about why the number of African-American teachers, in particular, is so dismally low. The myth goes like this: With desegregation, blacks pursued professions more lucrative than public school teaching. The truth is that massive white-resistance to the desegregation of public schools prompted the firings, demotions and dismissals of legions of highly credentialed and effective black teachers and principals.
In almost all instances, these black educators were replaced by lesser credentialed whites. The fight to decimate the ranks of black principals and teachers leading integrated schools and classrooms was so pervasive that a series of hearings about the displacement of black school principals in desegregated schools was held by the Select Committee on Equal Education Opportunity of the Senate in 1972.
read the entire article at TheGrio.com
