Black students more likely to be suspended

I tend to take pride in the fact I don't prove many of the statistics about black males. But, sadly, this is one I do fit. Hip Hop Wired reports:

New data from the Department Of Education reveals that one out of five Black male students and just over one in 10 black female students face more suspensions and expulsions in public schools than their white counterparts, reports the New York Times. In a review of the numbers received from the Civil Rights Data Collection study, 72,000 schools over 7,000 districts were tallied.

Of the schools that were sampled, Black students only made up 18 percent of those enrolled. The ranges of grades recorded were kindergarten through high school, accounting for 85 percent of the nation's public school student body. However, Black students who were suspended once rang in at 35 percent. Repeat offenders were measured at a mark of 45 percent. At the core of the collected data is the Department of Education's desire to see the intersection between civil rights and education.

“Education is the civil rights of our generation,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a telephone briefing on the report. “The undeniable truth is that the everyday education experience for too many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise.”

The Department began its study back in 1968; however, it was halted in 2006 by then-president George W. Bush. After being revamped and revived, the study showed that a whopping 70 percent of Hispanic and Black students made up for school arrests that involved law enforcement officials, which was a newly researched part of the data.

Not surprisingly, schools with a high number of incidents with Hispanic and Black children also employed the lowest paid and less skilled teachers, with gaps ranging into the higher thousands for some.

The data has not been fully released for the public although Secretary Duncan will be presenting his findings today at Howard University.