The decline is a result of the decline of parenting, morals, ethics and being responsible.

Correct, but that was then and this is now.....move on and move ahead.

I teach in the inner city. The problem that I see is lack of parental involement. My grandmother was poor had a 6th grade education. She raised 16 children without a husband(who died after the 16th was born). Everyone of them graduated from high school. With a 6th grade education obviously she could not help the 7-12th graders with their homework. Each of my aunts and uncles was encouraged by my grandmother to finish school. That's what we need to day. We need that same concern that all parents express whem baby girl or baby boy goes to that first day of school for the entire time the child is in school. 

We can do this. We are great people.

We must refuse to give up!

Black Schools are declining in the Black Community because the parents don't  UNITE and take an active stand to see to it that the schools are properly staffed and funded.

I supposed if they said they were going to give away free fried chicken or two for one drinks coupons to use at the club on Friday - niggaz would be breaking the doors down to run up there ,but as it is, most schools in the Black Community are nothing but warehouses. I used to belong to a program called Upward Bound. I would go to speak at the inner city High Schools and what I saw was not encouraging and that goes for some of the teachers and a lot of students. Classrooms were out of control and in disarray and many of teachers didn't seem to give a damm. I also have a friend who WAS a K-9 teacher and she said that parents were doing less and less every year and EXPECTING The schools to 'raise' their kids she said after a few years of that most tecahers just say to hell wit it.

I think everyone has made valid points about this issue. I totally agree that parents need to be more involved with their children education in whatever way neccessary. Most importantly, parents need to attend PTA meetings and school board meetings. If the parents don't care about their children's education no one else will. Another thing is the study of black history. Honestly, school can be very boring and meaningless, especially if we are only taught in confinement. Students ,especially minorities need to learn about their history so they can understand that they are not the inferior, stupid beings that we are seen as. And this will also motivate and encourage the desire to learn. Another thing we must consider is that a lot of black schools are in poor communities with low -income students. Some of these students are poor and being poor comes with many unfortunate circumstances, that not only affect them financially, but also effects them in their capacity to learn.

Ignore people like him.  We would never have had liberation struggles or civil rights victories if the critical, individualistic, and self-absorbed youngsters of today were in charge.Continue with your analysis.  Your solutions will grow from a premise of the truth.

Many Blessings