Shannon Waite, Ed.D., clinical assistant professor in the division of Educational Leadership, Administration, and Policy, talks about how hyper-segregation affects children’s education.
Hyper-segregation is the extreme separation of communities based on race and socioeconomic status. Inequitable education, under-education, and the denial of of access to a free, appropriate education are the byproducts of hyper-segregation. They are not the result of a lack of moral fiber or differences in culture or values. They are, in fact, the result of sanctioned policies that have historically impacted affected communities and left them bankrupt and blighted.
Under-resourced schools in hard to staff communities have become the pipeline to prison and contribute significantly to the increasing industrial prison complex. This is throughout the United States. You can see it, it’s evident in cities like Chicago, in Baltimore, and even right here in New York City.
The Bronx is actually home to significant wealth and extreme poverty, and the main difference in most instances are the last two digits on a family’s zip code.
If we here at Fordham are going to prepare our students to effective, compassion, data-driven, social justice-oriented change agents, then we have to help them by understanding what the problem is, and then, we have to teach them how to trace that problem to the roots and begin to plan backwards to address the specific issues and needs of the communities that they lead and move forward.
