In the News

Miami-Dade County on Friday threw its support behind President Obama’s campaign to save young men of color, just as the nation’s new education chief launched a complementary campaign to reduce chronic absenteeism among students.

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and Carlos Gimenez formerly launched the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative in Miami-Dade County at a town hall discussion on ways to make the plan work locally. More than 200 local leaders including mayors, police chiefs, social service agency heads and school district officials participated.

Wilson said the local initiative, which is the brainchild of President Barack Obama, will focus on job creation for school-age children.

With the rash of shooting deaths of Black children and teenagers, Wilson said My Brothers Keeper is needed more than ever. She made an impassioned plea.

“We give our boys opportunities, but still we cry. We are working on it, but still we cry. We’re doing all we can, but are we doing enough in crime prevention? Is it enough?” Wilson said.

“What more can we do? We work day and night, still our children are dying in the streets.”

The My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge is a national initiative to encourage community leaders to develop plans to improve life outcomes and create opportunities for all youths, with a particular focus on at-risk boys and young men of color. The challenge includes developing strategies to close educational and opportunity gaps so that all students graduate from high school and then attend either college or vocational school, so they are ready for careers.

LOCAL EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT STATS

“We want to make sure all of our children in Miami-Dade have an opportunity to succeed,” said Gimenez. Foreshadowing the magnitude of the task ahead, he said, “We will put more money in the upcoming budget for a youth summer program.”

The summit also drew officials from the Obama administration, including acting Education Secretary John King and Broderick Johnson, assistant to the president and chair of the MBK task force.

King said negative indicators for young Black children start as early as Pre-K. While Blacks comprise 18 percent of students in Pre-K, they are 42 percent of those suspended. Also, he said, by fourth grade many of those students are three grade levels behind other students.

“Too many of our young people are left behind,” he said.

King later visited Miami Northwestern High School to announce the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Success Mentors Initiative, which will start in 10 cities, including Miami.

Additional communities are expected to join this effort by the spring. Over the coming months, MBK Success Mentors will work with students in the sixth and ninth grades across their communities’ high-needs school districts, with the goal of reaching more than 250,000 students over the next two years and eliminating chronic absenteeism in these grades.

Administration officials say that chronic absenteeism, defined as missing at least 10 percent of school days in the school year excused or unexcused, is a leading cause of low achievement and a powerful predictor of which students will eventually drop out of school. As many as 7.5 million children miss a month or more of school each year, putting them at significant risk of falling behind and not graduating from high school.

A recent report by America’s Promise Alliance shows that students in our highest-need communities typically experience “relationship poverty,” which greatly increases the odds that they will dropout. The research showed that having a caring adult in their lives was a major counter force to dropping out. Having a caring adult in school had the largest impact of all – reducing the likelihood of leaving school by 25 percent.