This is part of the joint organizing project of the Mexica and New Panther Vanguard Movements and is an introduction to a regular publication, to be distributed primarily within the prisons. In To Die For the People Huey P. Newton wrote, “The main purpose of the Vanguard group should be to raise the consciousness of the masses through educational programs and other activities.” With so many of our people incarcerated, we understand the need to reach into the prisons and turn a negative into something positive, for as Malcolm said “Where else but in prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day.” In reaching out “jointly” we recognize the critical need to decipher and decode the divisive propaganda all around us. The NPVM Platform and Program and Code of Conduct is regularly printed in our newspaper.  For this Special “Pull-out” section, we have focused on the Mexica Movement Statement of Purpose, and an excerpt of Huey P. Newton's essay, Prisons, written in July 1969.

“We demand education for our people that exposes the true history of this racist and Inhumane treatment of people of color in American society, and the true nature of the System of Capitalism. We want education that teaches our people knowledge of our true history and role in this present society... The present educational system  is unacceptable because it has demonstrated that it cannot prepare the majority of our youth to assume meaningful and productive roles in this society.”

Excerpt from Point Number Two, Ten Point Platform and Program of the New Panther Vanguard Movement.
 

The Crisis in the American Educational System

  Nationally, the news about “educational issues” has been dominated by the tragic events in the middle class, mostly white, suburban community of Colombine, Colorado. It is both characteristic and hypocritical of the major media establishment and elected politicians who have seized the drama and public concerns surrounding this event and focused on “gun control” and  “school security.” However, the real issue of “educational reform,” does not seem to be anywhere on anyone's “news budget” or “political agenda.”

   Education is clearly big business in America; it employs a large segment of the population, from bus drivers to custodians, and from to teachers to superintendents. Most of the custodians and bus drivers are people of color, and most of the teachers and superintendents are white. Some “big city” school districts, like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), are in fact “multi-billion dollar enterprises.” Yet these tax-supported “enterprises” are failing to accomplish their basic “theoretical” purpose: to educate and prepare the next generation for adulthood and productive roles in their communities.

   In the urban areas, increasingly populated by people of color, the need for practical and immediate solutions to the seeming “problems” in educating youth of color has taken on a “mission impossible” complexion. From California to New York there are signs that a sort of “grass-roots” recognition is growing that something is very wrong with how “educational institutions” are being operated. Both of the major political parties, the Democratic and Republican parties have been forced to focus at least some of their rhetoric on this very issue. Recently the Mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani, announced publicly that: “The whole [school] system should be blown up, and a new one should be put in its place.” In Los Angeles, California, Mayor Riordan, has been instrumental in creating a  “coalition to reform” the multi-billion dollar budgeted Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), beginning with an effort to replace the incumbent Board of Education members, one of whom is “Black” and has held the position for the past eight years.

    According to a new federal assessment of 4th grade reading levels, California ranks second to last among 39 states. Keep in mind that California has a “majority” people of color population, and herein lies the  main problem. Let there be no mistaking the enormity of the “educational crisis” as we begin to enter the next millennium. Throughout the country, particularly in urban area schools, there is widespread and very serious overcrowding, outrageously low reading, math and science scores, deteriorating, unhealthy, and unsafe school buildings. There is also a widespread policy of social promotion. These “public” schools are failing inner-city students. Some Black parents are up in arms regarding the racial tracking of their children into classes that cannot qualify them to enter college upon graduation; but this is not a new problem; the practice of “tracking” has been acceptable among American educators, and is based on the notion that “smart kids” should be taught separately from those assessed as having lesser skills and abilities. It is not pure accident that higher level classes in math and science, and other “college prep” classes, are predominantly white and Asian, while “basic skills” classes are significantly populated by Blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and other non-Asian minorities.

Putting aside the isolated incidents of student violence within the educational setting in predominantly white suburban communities, it is fair to say that urban students, for some time now, have been subjected daily to acts of physical violence, racial bigotry, and other bias-motivated incidents. Where is the outcry? There has been none to speak of.

    How many students of color, or for that matter, how many white students, leave High School with any idea of who they are, the real history of this country, or even how to begin to think creatively, intelligently, and critically about their lives in this society or life on this planet generally? America is rather fortunate that there have not been more Columbines.

    While the Republican Party and other conservative voters look to school vouchers as the quick fix for failing publicly-financed schools, the Democratic Party, led by its standard bearer, President Clinton, is proposing the expenditure of billions of more tax dollars to fix a system some people believe is irretrievably “broken,” and should be simply “blown up” and “rebuilt.” Though clearly wrong, that sentiment is understandable, given the resistance by the existing educational bureaucracies to any true “reform” of education in this country. 

    The real solution to the educational crisis will be found in efforts to organize people around a comprehensive approach to educational reform, targeting inflated administrative salaries, down-sizing of schools so that they are more sensitive, and accountable, to students’ diverse learning needs and abilities, re-training teachers and increasing their salaries (in most states prison guards are paid more than the average school teacher), redesigning the educational curriculum to reflect the objective of teaching students critical and analytical skills, and providing them with a cultural and historical  foundation so that they may understand who they are and what must be done to advance and improve the human condition. 

    The Slave Master forbade any education for the African Slave, for he knew that a truly “educated slave” is a contradiction in terms. Truly “educated” persons of color  have always acted in their own interest and on their own terms; they have been, and still are, independent thinkers, who do not hesitate to condemn injustice, no matter how many support it, or to expose ignorance of the human condition no matter what price is to be paid. In the history of human kind, independent thinkers have also been self-initiated, and self-confident; they are participants in human struggles to achieve peace, justice and equality. The main issue in the present educational crisis is not money, although the money spent on education is enormous. The main issue is:  “In whose interest does the educational system operate?”

    An often over looked area of educational reform efforts is the necessity of addressing the cultural and historical roots of the present crisis in education. The present educational system, in both the urban and suburban areas, operates in the interests of maintaining the status quo. In America, the status quo, for hundreds of years of its colonial and independent existence, was founded on the premise of maintaining the Slave Economy. All the major and minor American Institutions (the churches, the schools, the financial and corporate businesses, social clubs and political associations) served this interest. 

    The leadership of the New Panther Vanguard Movement believe that radical solutions are needed for the 21st Century, because the problems we are experiencing, particularly with the educational institutions in America, are deep-rooted, mostly fundamental, and of long-standing duration. In Los Angeles, the New Panther Vanguard is involved in two primary arenas in our modest efforts to advance genuine educational reform here in this West Coast inner city.

    In the electoral arena, the New Panther Vanguard is consciously, intelligently, and very publicly, supporting an African-American woman, Genethia Hayes, whom many of the so-called Black  “progressive” organizations and individuals (such as, C.O.R.E., Brotherhood Crusade, Congresswoman Maxine Waters) have attempted to discredit. She has been described as some kind of modern-day, plantation-like, “puppet” or “pawn” of Mayor Riordan. Their sole fact in support of this “smear campaign” is that Mayor Riordan (who also happens to be a Republican with lots of money and wealthy friends and who at one time also made campaign financial contributions to Ms. Hayes's opponent, Barbara Boudreaux, the “black” incumbent) was in fact instrumental in forming a “reform coalition” to raise money targeted at supporting candidates challenging the present “status quo” on the Board of Education of the LAUSD.

    Ms. Hayes is not a politician; she is a former teacher and current Executive Director of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Ms. Hayes is articulate, compassionate, and knowledgeable of the need to address the  educational crisis with real solutions;  most importantly, she hasn't forgotten where her people have come from and where they need to go. 

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[ Image above: Genethia Hayes with poet Maya Angelou, just one of her many supporters during her campaign for election to the School Board.]

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