Battle for Better Public Schools
HARRIS: "Fix Our Schools," those three words driving much of what you see on CNN this week, because as America's children return to school, CNN has a mission to document the nation's education crisis, while also shining a lot on success stories that can empower us to offer our children much more than what they are getting right now. Joining me from New York, David Banks, principal of the Eagle Academy for Young Men, an all-boys public high school in New York; and John Jackson, president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public education. Gentlemen, it's good to see you both. Good to get an opportunity to talk to both of you. John, let me start with you. Your report on public education and black males shows only 47 percent of black male students graduating. That in 2007, 2008. You say that achievement gap was closing consistently until the Reagan administration. What happened in that administration to reverse that positive trend?</s>JOHN JACKSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, SCHOTT FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION: Well, I think you have to look back. And coming out of the '60s, you've got the 1964 Civil Rights Act, you've got the 1965 Elementary Secondary Education Act, and through it, Title I, which dedicated resources to disadvantaged communities. The impact of those policies, if you looked throughout the '70s, you began to see the achievement gap close. However, in the early '80s, with the entrance of the Reagan administration, you saw a retrenchment on civil rights, and you begin to see the achievement gap opening, and it has continued to increase to this day.</s>HARRIS: Did it have anything to do with the '80s recession, the retrenchment that you talk about?</s>JACKSON: Well, I think you've got to look at the fact that even during times where the economy is tight, it's more about targeting the resources on what works: access to early childhood education, highly effective teachers, college-bound curricula. So, it's not about just spending more money, but getting a higher return on investment with the resources spent.</s>HARRIS: Yes, we love the idea of that. David, did the idea of The Eagle Academy grow out of the idea of this widening achievement gap? And the question that was actually starting, as you know, to enter the mainstream media, do black men even matter?</s>DAVID BANKS, PRESIDENT, THE EAGLE ACADEMY FOUNDATION: Well, Tony, I'll tell you, the Eagle Academy really grew out of the minds of the members of the 100 Black Men of New York City who saw this issue as a crisis and had really just gotten tired of all the conferences and the panel discussions and the books that were being written and the analysis that was being done. But at the end of the day, people in our community have to stand up, and men in particular have to stand up and make a difference in the lives of our young man. That was really the impetus of the creation of The Eagle Academy, and we're creating more and more of these schools around New York City and eventually around the country.</s>HARRIS: Maybe, David, you just answered my next question. Seventy 70 percent of the inmates in the New York City prison population come from seven communities. What's missing in the lives of this young men? Is it black men?</s>BANKS: I would say to you that right at the top of that is black men. Our young men are coming from communities that are just completely unbalanced, young men who can go from kindergarten through 12th grade and never have a black male teacher, not have fathers in their lives or otherwise responsible male role models. We need men and we need black men to stand up and to be responsible for taking care of their children and getting involved in school. That's the work that is happening here at The Eagle Academy. You have got to have phenomenal teachers and you've got to have all the other great things that good schools have. But I think the missing ingredient in the lives of our young men are men that they can look up to who show them what it takes to be a real man.</s>HARRIS: Well, that's strong. John, your report outlines conditions for success that are necessary to turn things around. What are some of those?</s>JACKSON: Well, we talk about the need for access to early childhood education, highly investing in highly-effective teachers, college-bound curricula. Listen, any discussion that starts with pro- or-anti-charter is not a productive discussion, because charters only educate four percent of our children. What about the 96 percent? We need a plan for the 96 percent. Any discussion that starts off pro-or-anti-union is not a productive decision --</s>HARRIS: I agree.</s>JACKSON: -- because if the unions were the problem, in the right-to-work states the educational systems would be better, but they're not. So we need a systemic solution for a systemic challenge.</s>HARRIS: Well, John, you worked on the Obama/Biden transition team on education. And yet, is it fair to say that you believe the administration has moved away from maybe even what you're describing here, a more comprehensive education agenda beyond Race to the Top?</s>JACKSON: Well, I think we have to get back to a comprehensive agenda. Listen, what David is doing at Eagle Academy is great, but a school-by-school approach is not the solution for a systemic challenge. It's like offering grains of sand to fix a dam where you need sandbags. So, right now, the conversation is blame-rich and solutions-poor. And we need to begin to get to a comprehensive agenda for all states. At this point we don't necessarily need a race that leaves behind 50 states, but we need a plan that lifts every state to create one America.</s>HARRIS: David, one last one for you. What would closing the achievement gap mean for this country? And I'm describing a country where black and Latino and white kids are all achieving more evenly than they are right now. What would that mean for the country?</s>BANKS: Closing the achievement gap really -- you know, we have to recognize that this is a global race to the top, and that this country is in competition with countries all across this planet. And the reality is that we are losing. And for us to have so much wasted human capital sitting on the sidelines, it's just an economic reality that we're going to have to deal with. We cannot win this global Race to the Top unless we address this issue, and that's what we're trying to do with Eagle. And Eagle really represents a call to action to our community and to the powers that be in this country that we have got to do much better than we are doing.</s>HARRIS: John, same question for you.</s>JACKSON: Well, I think we've got to recognize that in order to solve this challenge, yes, we need opportunity to learn states, but we also need opportunity to learn businesses, businesses who will invest in the types of mentoring and other programs that provide students an opportunity to learn. We need opportunity to learn faith-based institutions, and opportunity to learn parents. We need to focus on the resources that create the conditions for students to learn. If the federal and state governments can pay for probationary officers for students, we can also pay for mentors for students. And I think that's what it's going to take to provide the policy changes, as well as the supports that are necessary to provide students an opportunity to learn.</s>HARRIS: John, David, gentlemen, I appreciate that. Great conversation. Thanks for being here with us this morning.</s>JACKSON: Thank you.</s>BANKS: Thank you.</s>HARRIS: Yes, a real pleasure. Education Secretary Arne Duncan believes one way to improve African-American outcomes in school would be to recruit more black male teachers. For those who answer the call, it is an opportunity to change lives. Here's a case in point.</s>WILLIAM HAYES, TEACHER, NEW MISSION HIGH SCHOOL: So the introduction starts with a broad outline of the research --</s>HARRIS (voice-over): William Hayes can understand why most black men don't teach.</s>HAYES: When you're growing up, you're taught that you need to be able to provide for your family. You need to be able to support those around you. Teaching doesn't necessarily paint the picture that I can get rich.</s>HARRIS: So after college, William went into teaching. He cared less about money and more about having an impact.</s>HAYES: I have a personal investment in the community as an African-American male who's benefited from all that my culture, my community, my family has to offer. I think it's up to me to give that back.</s>HARRIS: Giving back to students like Solomon Mastin, who, in high school, was in and out of trouble until one teacher changed the course of his life.</s>SOLOMON MASTIN, STUDENT, MOREHOUSE COLLEGE: This is where my -- I was trying to be hard, you know, trying to be hood and stuff. That came into effect and the cops took me down and arrested me, put me in jail, in a holding cell.</s>HARRIS: That was Solomon in high school, the same high school where William Hayes achieved the goal he set after college -- give back. The two met when Solomon was at a breaking point, something William immediately noticed.</s>HAYES: He was a young man who I saw had a great deal of potential, but he was kind of on a rocky roller coaster. So there was one day where he came in, and it was a terrible morning for him. He was obviously distressed and I asked him, how's it going? I introduced myself. What's going on? And at this point he was crying.</s>MASTIN: Before anything he could have said or done registered with me at all, he brought tears out of my eyes. That's when I knew, like, this -- this is something serious. And I must be -- I must be on the verge of doing something great in life, because I don't do this mess.</s>HARRIS: An instant connection, because both know the struggle of being a young black male.</s>HAYES: Where I saw pieces of myself within him, and agreed to cultivate that. What I saw in Solomon was what I see in so many of my students each day. It's that fear that, will I get out of life what I'm trying to put into it? And it's that fear that tomorrow is not necessarily promised and I don't necessarily know that I will be successful, so is there a point in trying?</s>HARRIS: Of the nation's three million public school teachers, less than 2 percent are black men, 24 percent are white males and 76 percent are women.</s>ARNE DUNCAN, EDUCATION SECRETARY: When I was CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, I used to go into elementary schools that did not have a single black male teacher.</s>HARRIS: It's one of the reasons U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan developed The Teach Campaign. It's an initiative to get more black men in front of the classroom.</s>DUNCAN: The nation as a whole have far too few teachers of color. How can that be a good thing for young children, especially our young boys? Historically black colleges and university, including Xavier, were established a century ago for the purpose of training a generation of black teachers. Education must be the great equalizer in America. And if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is a great place to start.</s>HARRIS: Currently, schools across the country are dealing with budget cuts, layoffs and growing classrooms. Still, Secretary Duncan believes making this initiative a priority, calling black men to serve.</s>DUNCAN: To the men here, I'm sorry to say, please don't expect that Denzel will be playing you any time soon if you become a teacher. And the truth is, I don't want to romanticize the job of a good teacher. Teaching is hard, hard work.</s>HARRIS: But William says the hard work of teaching is well worth it when you see a student like Solomon turn his life around and find success.</s>MASTIN: I never thought I would be this successful. And right now, I don't even see it as success. I'm still striving and I'm -- you know, I'm fighting, I'm running, I'm crawling, I'm dragging, I'm flying towards success. You know, I'm doing it all.</s>HARRIS: You know, teachers could learn a lot from their students.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think adding creativity to teaching really helps keep our attention in the front of the classroom.</s>HARRIS: Revealing insights from teenagers on what bores them to tears and what excites them in a teacher.