April 2009
In this issue:
- Tragedy increases urgency of anti-gang work
- A snapshot from the Indicators Report: Idle youth
- IB charter school reaches milestone
Tragedy increases urgency of anti-gang work
The shooting death of 9-year-old Ciara Savage on Mother's Day showed in the starkest possible terms the need for a comprehensive approach to the problems that lead to gang violence. The county's anti-gang initiative, led by Beth Gill-MacDonald, will surely have more people willing to join its work. Safer York, the city's Weed and Seed anti-crime project, will find it easier to argue for continued support. Downtown Inc.'s effort to bring a more sophisticated approach to public safety should gain traction. The Stay in School project recommendations, due this fall from the United Way of York County and YorkCounts, hopefully will attract a little more attention. All of this will require the three Cs that David White talked about at the recent gang-prevention summit: cooperation, coordination and communication. Maybe Bev Mackereth, the county's new director of Human Services, and the next mayor of York - whoever that is - can begin a new period of ambitious, big-picture thinking to help these groups work together to develop a county plan to provide better education, more job opportunities and safer streets for the youth of York County.
A snapshot from the Indicators Report: Idle youth
The Indicators Committee added this measure to the 2009 report to show the number of youth who aren't working. These so-called "idle youth" are kids who dropped out of school or who graduated but haven't found a job or gone to college or a trade school. In the York-Hanover Metropolitan Statistical Area, 8.7 percent of youth ages 16 to 19 were considered idle by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage rose to 13.3 percent for ages 19 to 21. It's hard to draw many conclusions, since there's no previous data to use for comparison. But when hundreds of young people are out of school or not working, they are the most likely to turn to gangs, crime and drugs. Finding these kids, training them and helping them find decent-paying jobs is one of the education recommendations from YorkCounts' Metro-York group.
IB charter school reaches milestone
The effort to increase educational opportunities for York residents reached a significant milestone in April. A public K-12 charter school, one designed around what's known as an International Baccaleurate curriculum, identified two likely funding sources that will allow the YorkCounts Educational Opportunities committee to hire a consultant and begin considering potential sites in the city. If the effort succeeds, city residents will have a new option (see update) for a public education, in addition to the York City School District, and the first in central Pennsylvania with an IB program. It is hoped that an IB charter school will also make it more attractive for middle-class families to live in York, and their children would, in theory, help break up the concentrated poverty that interferes with student performance in the existing city schools.
Update, 5/21: To clarify, this IB school would be the fourth charter school in the city. Crispus Attucks YouthBuild, Lincoln Edison and New Hope Academy also operate as charter schools, according to the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools.
- Dan Fink
3 comments:
I'm suggesting another "C" for the list - contraception.
Judging by the number of teenaged mothers and births out of wedlock, it's no wonder our inner cities continue the downward spiral into poverty. In addition to the obvious economic distress suffered by thousands of young mothers, significant numbers of their sons, in particular, will become the gangbangers of the future.
I have no idea how the 3 young men who murdered Ciara were nurtured, but my guess is that there was no consistent father figure in at least two of their lives, none of them did particularly well in school, none of them holds a decent job, and all of them have at least one male relative in prison.
Furthermore, there's little chance of succcessful reintegration into society after prison for any of them, assuming they even have a chance at parole.
We need to extend the dialog to include two very, very touchy issues - the marginalization of marriage in the black community and an illegitimacy rate of 40% in the general population and 70% among minorities.
Adding more educational opportunites is fine, but no lasting good will be done unless we also deal with the cultural roots of violent gang behavior.
Teen moms get a bad rap and really are not the problem. Women have been mothering at very young ages since the beginning of time. Many actually do the right thing and grow up.
The problem in York and every other city in America is very simple: drug addictions.
If we didn't have drug addicts, we wouldn't have much crime at all.
So long as there are drug addicts clamoring for more drugs there will be dealers, which means more dads in prison, which means more grandparents (too old and too tired) managing -- or NOT managing -- the children.
Put an end to drug addictions and you'd put an end to many of York's problems.
I think you'll find that gang violence is highest among young men who have grown up without fathers to guide them. They learn from their single mothers that a woman's role is to cater to men: provide a meal, a place to sleep, and easy sex to their current boyfriend and provide whatever indulgences she can to her little boy. They see far too many adult males, including fathers, uncles, brothers, and cousins, drift in and out of their lives (many times between sentences) which distorts their world view even more.
Yes, drug addiction is a huge problem. But it's also a choice and unfortunately it's a crime that pays far too well. Are you suggesting that we legalize drugs to reduce crime or find a way to control (eliminate) the demand?
In either case, how would that change the attitude toward irresponsible procreation among teenagers? I don't see the connection.
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