Three visiting speakers, all proponents of diversity and inclusion, warned of dire results if the United States fails to address the academic achievement gap that separates white students from their black and Latino counterparts.

The speakers -- Janet Murguía of the National Council of La Raza; John Payton of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and William Winter, a former Democratic governor of Mississippi – said addressing the problems that face urban education must become a national priority. Unless this happens, they said, the United States risks losing its economic advantage in the world and may become a nation further divided along economics and race.

The three took part in a panel discussion Thursday sponsored by the Levine Museum of the New South, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its “Courage” exhibit, which chronicles the national push for integrated schools that began in Clarendon County, S.C. The panel was moderated by Fox News commentator Juan Williams.

Speaking with reporters before the event, Payton said many of the problems we see in urban schools today are the direct result of white fight – a reaction to forced integration that many proponents did not foresee.

“In one generation,” he said, “there has been almost an evacuation of inner cities by white people who could leave. When there is white flight it takes the jobs out. It takes the tax base out. What we now see is collapsed inner-city school systems that are struggling with problems related to race compounded dramatically by the consequences of white flight.

“We’ve got to solve these educational problems,” he added. There is not an option where we can say, “Just let that go and let the inner-cities turn to oblivion.” That changes our country forever in a way that could be unbelievably unfortunate.”

Payton said schools have a duty to educate every child, even those who come from homes where education is not valued.

Winter, known as an ardent supporter of public education and racial reconciliation, said educational problems today cannot be solved with the same remedies used to address racial segregation in the 1950s.

“We have to have an emphasis on courage in this community,” he said. “Each one of us has to have the courage to speak out and say to our neighbors, the folks we live around, that we are all in this together.”

Winter said the nation needs a greater commitment to shared resources – a tough proposition during an economic downturn.

“The very survival of the country is going to be dependent on our ability to produce people who are capable of making intelligent decisions, who understand who they are, where they come from, what their role in life is and have respect for each other,” he said. “It’s not enough just to erase the laws that separate people. We must have a coming together of people of every background.”

Murguía said educational problems in the Latino community are compounded by distrust, suspicion and an even greater sense of isolation.

“We’ve got some in certain circles who want to repeal the 14th Amendment... and the right of certain children and people to be in this country,” she said. “I think we have a lot to deal with. We as a country and community by community have to decide what kind of communities do we want to be, what kind of country do we want to be, and how are we going to define ourselves in this 21st century.”

After the media briefing, Qcitymetro.com cornered Payton for a quick Q&A. Questions and answers were edited for brevity and clarity.

Q. You said schools have a duty to educate every child. Talk more about that.
Let me tell you how the public schools started out in this country. In 1900, that’s when the public school movement happened. The public schools open all across the country, and they take in every kid there is. It’s rich kids and poor kids. In that class will be kids who don’t speak English, who have no books, whose parents are completely illiterate, and some kids whose parents are really way ahead, some kids who don’t eat breakfast and some kids who do. In 1900, that classroom accommodated every one of those kids and taught them.

Our schools can’t change the families. We’ve got to give them the resources to educate the kids that come to them. If, in fact, the parents have some confidence that these schools really work for their kids, I believe that will have an impact on the parents. We have poor parents who don’t feel the schools do anything for them, so they are completely disengaged. I think we have to take the kids where they are. You can’t blame the kids for the communities they come from. You have to educate the kids whatever the communities they come from. That’s the burden that the schools and the teachers have to deal with.

Q. There is an adage that says, “You can lead a horse to water...” Isn’t that true to some degree?
There are some models of schools that I think are generally known around the country where the system manages to educate every one of those kids. And I understand that there are some schools that have teachers who this isn’t what they were trained to do, they are having a tough time in their classrooms. I understand that. We have to help that teacher get the tools to actually handle that classroom.
Harlem Children’s Zone deals with just the kids in Harlem, and they do an outstanding job on every kid you’re talking about. And maybe there are a few kids who you just can’t handle because of serious physical realities, but set that aside; that’s an insignificant number of people. We know enough to know you can educate every one of these kids. We’ve got to give the kids the resources to do it, and we’ve got to educate these kids.

Q. Students today do a much better job of mixing across ethnic and racial lines. Is this issue of re-integration of our schools and communities a self-solving problem?
It’s a self-solving problem when those kids, when they are going to work, are willing to move into inner cities and are willing to change on the ground the dynamic in the inner cities. You’ve got to bring people who have an investment in changing a community. Energized parents, energized members of the community, are one of the keys to making the schools get better. One of the keys will be where those kids go work and live. If they go back into inner cities, it will change inner cities tremendously for the better.

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