Why does everything have to be a contest? Why can’t we just do the right thing?
I’m talking about the Pittsburgh Promise. Joseph Kennedy is absolutely right in his challenge to the Promise. There should be no grade point requirement, nor attendance requirements. The original program, the Kalamazoo Promise, didn’t have either and it’s working great.
I know all you scholars are asking why not have requirements. Because if a poor or low income student has been accepted by a college, university, community college, or trade school he has to have done something right to make that institution accept him or her in the first place.
First of all we need to get one thing straight. The Pittsburgh Promise is not a scholarship. It’s a grant for students living in the city attending public schools. And its purpose like the Kalamazoo Promise and others around the country is to get more middle and upper income parents to send their children to public schools to boost the tax base in urban cities.
Actually the real purpose was to get more White middle and low-income parents who are struggling to send their kids to private or charter schools to send their kids to public schools to boost the tax base. With the percentage of Blacks increasing in urban public schools, White politicians and the community as a whole are highly alarmed because many Whites with money are leaving the city. Many leave because of the poor Public Schools but most because they don’t want their kids mingling with a large number of Blacks who either make up the majority or near majority in many of our urban cities.
To change this trend something had to be done to keep Whites in the city and get suburban Whites to consider moving to the city. So the Promise was never set up to increase the number of Blacks in city schools in the first place or to benefit Blacks. But it has. And it would help many, many more if the 2.5 GPA and the attendance of 90 percent were dropped.
Why? Because what a student does in high school shouldn’t prevent him or her from bettering themselves if they so desire. If they are accepted by these institutions and can do the work, why should they be held back because they don’t have the money?
I repeat. The Pittsburgh Promise or any of the other Promise Programs are not scholarships. They are grants. The money is there. There should be no need for students to have to compete for it.
Let’s say you have a student pulling straight As in Math and Science, but has no interest in Social Studies, History, PE, Foreign Language, or the Arts so his grades reflect this. Instead of an A average he’s only a 2.2 or 2.4. No money for him even though he or she may be a math or science genius.
Or you have the child that loves English, loves to write, loves to read so he gets all As in these subjects, but simply is not interested in or doesn’t understand Math, Science, Social Studies, etc. Are you getting where I’m coming from?
I’m saying all of us are gifted at something. And the schools are set up to help us identify that talent and bring it out. But should a child be punished for the rest of his or her life by not being given the money for a higher education in the field of his or her choice because they don’t excel at everything. Schools are supposed to grade, but should we grade in everything?
How many geniuses have been lost because of this?
Do you really care about how well your auto mechanic can write if he can fix your car? Do you really care about how well your doctor can speak a foreign language, or write or his knowledge of social studies as long as he knows how to cure your pain, or sickness?
Schools are set up to expose students to the many different varieties of fields so that they can identify what they are good at, what they are interested in, what they can make a living at. Once they are identified then colleges, universities, trade schools, community colleges, and employers are set up to help them apply these skills, talents, gifts of God to help them get a job and contribute to the country and the world.
Why should a C, D. F in Physics, Foreign Language or some other class keep you out of college if you are efficient in the classes you are going to major in?
Sure I would like to see more college or high school grads have some knowledge about the world around them but how many Math and Science geniuses have a clue about anything outside their field?
But should they not be allowed to go to college because their grade points average is not 2.5 or above?
Nobody is saying that Black males should get a free ride. Kennedy and I are not saying that they shouldn’t be expected to do the work once they’ve been accepted into an institution of higher learning. We are saying don’t block the doors. Let them show that they can do the work.
Under the Promise once a student enters college they must carry a full load and a GPA high enough to graduate in order to continue to get Promise money, which is fair. And I’ve witnessed first hand with my daughter that there are hundreds of students who would not have been able to graduate from college without the money they receive from the Promise, added to scholarships, loans and grants.
So my hats off to the Promise, you are doing a great job but you can do better. Drop the GPA, and 90 percent attendance requirement.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
RELATED ARTICLES:
Is the Pittsburgh Promise failing in its promise to Blacks?
https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2015/02/04/is-the-pittsburgh-promise-failing-in-its-promise-to-blacks/
The Pittsburgh Promise IS making a difference for African American students
https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2015/02/12/the-pittsburgh-promise-is-making-a-difference-for-african-american-students/
Foul play against the Pittsburgh Promise
https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2015/02/12/foul-play-against-the-pittsburgh-promise/
