A recent report issued by Education Week, graded states’ education systems throughout the country.  The report gave Minnesota an overall grade of C, placing it 36^th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Most shockingly, Minnesota received a D+ on “efforts to improve teaching,” ranking us 39^th in that category. 

These grades are alarming because they may be an indication of an inadequate education system in Minnesota that is failing our children. This is especially alarming when looking at Minnesota’s students of color who have never fared well in our education system. Minnesota has one of the largest achievement gaps and worst graduation rates in the country for its students of color. At every grade level, and in every subject measured by the state, Minnesota’s students of color score lower than their white counterparts.

The shameful truth is that our nation has taken major steps backwards when it comes to educating our Black children.  A child who can’t read or compute today has no future in our rapidly globalizing world. Yet, at least 84 percent of Black children in the U.S. cannot read or do math at grade level in the fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades. Thirty-five percent of Black students attend high schools labeled as “dropout factories”; and 40 percent of Black children drop out of school before graduation.

Education is not the only area where Black children are at a disadvantage. Poverty, racial disparity, violence and massive incarceration all affect children of color at higher rates than white children. 

This past December, Children’s Defense Fund convened with Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, and Angela Blackwell, Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, to launch the next phase of the Black Community Crusade for Children (BCCC), which initially launched in 1990 to address the challenges faced by Black youth. I was honored to be a part of this new phase of BCCC.  As participants, we reviewed reports on the state of Black children and engaged in critical discussion regarding the role of the Black community in the midst of what many believe to be the worst crisis faced by Black children since slavery.

As we move forward, participants in the Black Community Crusade are determined to find solutions for every child that faces obstacles, keeping in mind that we don’t have a minute, or a child, to lose.  Referring to the urgency of civil rights, the words of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. inspire us today, "It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.”  Our renewed crusade for equal opportunity for all children starts now. Won’t you join us?

Children’s Defense Fund hosted a Press Conference on January 13 to announce the launch of the second phase of BCCC and the release of new research about the state of Black children.  To learn more, please visit our website at www.childrensdefense.org

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