"Education" and the Economy -- 74 Year Overview
Thirty miles to the east; and a bus ride every day to school. That was the "education opportunity" for black children of Warrensburg, Missouri in the 1940s and 1950s. At the end of their bus ride was C.C. Hubbard Elementary and High School, where those children received an education that, time has shown, was well above average for the state of Missouri and for much of our country at that time. It was the same circumstance for every black ("Colored" in those days) child for tens of miles in every direction from our school. They were my classmates between 1945 and 1957.
Toward the end of that period, "Integration" began to impact the younger children, at first, and, eventually destroyed C. C. Hubbard School. C.C. Hubbard, my next door neighbor, did not live to see that destruction, however; he died in 1947 -- well before the school began its decline. Generations of "Colored People" were educated there.
Now Warrensburg, a town that did not offer education decades ago to children of color (neither did any of the other towns within a 60-mile radius of C.C. Hubbard); is featured nationally by our first black President as an "innovator" in education. The education quest today is for a path to quality, affordable, and efficient education for youth of all colors. The country is in dire need of it. In my lifetime, education was not highly valued by the whites who controlled every aspect of our lives. Farmers, in general, did not see much value in education for any children; and certainly not for children of color. Remember, Missouri was a slave state, and vestiges of that history are still visible in 2013. Racial attitudes toward providing health care were far worse, then. Health care was deliberately denied to people of color, regardless of their ability to pay. "Colored" providers were the only option; wherever accessible.
The intrinsic racism of this country has sought to destroy chances for development of talent and creativity in poor and minority youth, for fear that white control could not be maintained. Policing is much easier for populations that are not "too smart". The pity is that whites have limited opportunities for their own youth, in the process. Not many of them are prepared adequately to compete in our global economy. Most prominent in the former-slave states; its impact can be seen in all parts of the country; even after decades of "integration" and internal migration.
This nation has burned through its post-war "fat", and infrastructure neglect in the areas of education and health have been laid bare. The Republicans seem to relish this circumstance. Their answer is to do nothing; let things fester. Austerity is their true religion. The old "social contracts" were burned in 1980 with the Rise of Reagan. Their unwillingness to see "the other" rise to its potential, for fear that the "overlords" may lose their ill-conceived "controls"; is a specter that has haunted this nation for centuries. Its still here among the monied classes; who are choking what life we have left in this economy.
Stay Vigilant! When is "Progress", not "Progress"?? When "Change" is illusory.
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