Roy Exum
As County Mayor Jim Coppinger adroitly explained the Hamilton County Department of Education budget request on Tuesday, he noted for FY2018 the school district will receive $26.1 million from the Federal Projects Fund. I thought he said this money would go to our problematic iZone schools, of which there are four being threatened by a state takeover. Man, that’s over $6 million a school – my word, we could buy every kid a Toyota!
But, no, I was lucky enough to be sitting next to assistant superintendent Zac Brown who whispered that money is used by all of our Title I schools.
If any school has over 50 percent of its students on a “free lunch” program – where the parents or guardians meet a financial criteria – Title I schools get a stipend from the feds.
Now I know that there are the four iZone schools, where State Commissioner Candance McQueen is eager to force herself on our city’s most unfortunate. And I know there are about 10 or 12 other schools on the “cusp” after a downhill glide onto the thin ice of our educational standards. So I am totally assured that what you are about to learn should shock every person within range of these words to their very core.
In Hamilton County there are really 76 schools under the guidance and direction of the Hamilton County Department of Education. There are 46 schools in our system, a full 60 percent, where over half the kids can’t pay for lunch. That’s right: 46 of our schools are Title 1 and, brother, I am absolutely astounded by that.
Here we are, the third-wealthiest county in the state, and we have 43,000 students on the rolls. I’m thinking that 60 percent of 43,000 is 25,800 students. In theory, at least half of those eat free lunches. What has happened in our county when the families of almost 13,000 children can’t afford to buy lunch at school?
They say that 60 percent of our third-graders can’t read at grade level but I’d venture the guess that if 30 percent of our students struggle to eat at school, there are some associated problems that we as a society don’t want to talk about but – be bold -- most certainly affect a child’s ability to learn. We have no idea of the life challenges that our elementary students are forced to endure. It is not their fault but they have no choice but to pay a steep price. Most wear such a harness through their senior year.
I am thoroughly convinced we must rethink the way we as government, educators and as human beings approach education. It’s time we go after “the total child.”
I desperately wish our County Commission, as it approaches the FY2018 budget for public education, would make whatever cuts, changes, alterations or amendments it takes to appropriate $2 million of the $425 million request that would eliminate every fee or monetary grab from our children.
I’m willing to bet that if your single mom can’t afford to buy your lunch, she most assuredly is going to cry at night – this after everyone else has gone to bed -- over lab fees, band fees, play-day fees or any other nickel-dime deal that adds into dollars she has to watch like a hawk.
I will swear with my life that athletics is a crucial part of education. I’ve seen kids come to school just so they can practice. I’ve seen introverts blossom with a tennis racquet. I’ve seen the look on a junior high runner who had to wear different kinds of track shoes on each foot – no other choice -- but who won the race. Now who is laughing? There is no racial equalizer than 11 boys playing as one on a Friday night and all will tell you – black blood and white blood tastes the same. That is education!
As one who was once suspended and seen dozens of others fall by the wayside, I can speak with authority on an alternative. When a principal pitches a kid, the kid loses the most. He’s out, can’t come back for the semester. Gets a scrub job and becomes a dropout. How are we doing there?
I’ve seen time and time again where a choice is better. “Son, you are going one of two ways right now. You decide. Not your Momma, your daddy … you! Walk out the front door and we don’t want to see you again until January. Or, you can walk the other way to the locker room and draw your gear. Practice starts at 3 and all us coaches want to see you there in 45 minutes. Now, be a man and take a stand … you can do it because … I still believe in you.”
I can name 10 athletes who became all-state that very way. Another 10 who played on SEC teams. You put any child on a pedestal and two things happen. About 20 of his best friends will try to knock him down so they can steal his place. The other? Every kid will fight to stay there. That’s education you can’t conceive in a classroom but one thing is for certain: with emergence of fees in recent years, all the most needy are the first ones lost.
We are cheating children when they are forced to pay for the most savory parts of public education.
To be part of the student newspaper is to be part of just as big a team. You’d never know if from reading Elizabeth Browning’s sonnets but when the Soddy Daisy cheer squad appeared before the County Commission as the best in the United States, each of those girls had to pay a fee. Where you need to focus is there was probably a girl or two who dreamed of being part of that thrill with her classmates but whose aunt – who is raising her “because” -- didn’t have the money. Nowhere to get it. A child is lost.
The lust for fees is one of the biggest hurdles in public education. Poverty is bigger. Our most challenged schools need to make education inclusive to rich and poor alike. When Orchard Knob Middle made 25 percent of its students go to study hall because they didn’t have the three dollars to watch the faculty-student basketball game, those shunned 25 percent sure learned a lesson, huh?
But you want to know what is really the very worst in the whole scenario? Remember, I want you to see this not through your eyes but through those of nearly 13,000 of our children whose families can’t afford a school lunch. Is it being embarrassed? Nah. It is being hungry.
One of my closest friends told me that. To get a free lunch back in his time they let him work in the lunch line. Here he was, president of the Student Body, handing every kid in school a hot dog. He was lucky. Signed a scholarship to play at Tennessee. Got in the Army with a degree. Medical School. Fabulous family. What a sensational guy.
But he worked in that lunch line because his folks were poor. What if he had to pay activity fees? No football, No college. No med school. No life to ever equal what he, in turn, has done for mankind.
Take a stand, County Commission. Abolish all fees for public education in the FY2018 budget. Let’s educate every way we can. Every child we can. Oh … This message is endorsed by 13,000 of our children.
royexum@aol.com