Md. in Violation of HBCU Students' Constitutional Rights HBCU Equality Lawsuit by Zenitha Prince

Oct. 14, 2013

Court Ruling: Md. Violated HBCU Students' Rights
By Zenitha Prince
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Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspapers

(TriceEdneywire.com) - In a historic, 60-page decision Oct. 7, a federal court judge ruled that Maryland violated its constitutional commitment to dissolving vestiges of segregation in higher education by allowing traditionally White institutions to duplicate programs already offered by historically Black colleges and universities.

In the suit, filed in 2006 and argued in 2012, current and former students of Maryland’s public HBCUs—Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Morgan State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore—argued they were subjected to ongoing segregative policies traceable to the de jure or legal era of segregation.

Federal District Judge Catherine Blake ruled partly in their favor, agreeing that Maryland had undermined HBCUs through unnecessary program duplication, such as the replication of Morgan State’s MBA program by Towson State and University of Baltimore, jointly. The resulting lack of unique programs at the state’s HBCUs, she wrote, had a segregative effect, by making those schools less attractive to students of all races. For example, according to the ruling, in 1976, HBCUs reported 18.2 percent White undergraduate and graduate enrollment. But, by 2008—seemingly as a result of the increase in duplicative programs at proximate TWIs-the enrollment of White undergraduates at HBIs was 3.35 percent.

Judge Blake found that Maryland’s penchant for harmful program duplication was “comparable to, and in some cases more pronounced than, the duplication found in Mississippi" in the Supreme Court case from two decades ago that sought to mitigate the vestiges of segregation in that state’s education system.

The court found that while the state’s TWIs have 296 unique noncore programs, its HBCUs have only 44. More significantly, among the high-demand programs, Maryland’s HBCUs offer only 11 non-duplicated programs, compared with 122 such programs at TWIs.

The court further concluded that Maryland "offered no evidence that it has made any serious effort to address continuing historic duplication. Second, and even more troubling, the State has failed to prevent additional duplication, to the detriment of the HBIs."

David Burton, president of the lead plaintiff, the Coalition for Excellence and Equity in Higher Education, said they were “elated” by the ruling.

"The very reason the Coalition was created was after the state undermined and duplicated Morgan's MBA program. We sought to prevent the marginalization of the HBIs and wanted them to have academic programs that are attractive to students and properly supported by faculty, facilities and other resources," he said in a statement.

Judge Blake did not order a specific remedy but provided guidelines for consideration including "expansion of mission and program uniqueness and institutional identity at the HBIs." She also suggested that "the transfer or merger of select high demand programs from TWIs to HBIs will be necessary.”

Michael D. Jones, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, D.C., said that those suggested solutions would require an infusion of resources—to train faculty and possibly enhance facilities—to ensure success..

"We look forward to the remedies phase of the trial,” he said. “We will present evidence of the costs of developing programs and identifying those programs at the Traditionally White Institutions that need to be transferred to the Historically Black Institutions. We will also outline the additional resources that are necessary for those programs to be successful.

“We expect that at the end of the process Maryland's HBIs will be shining examples of the possibilities at HBIs."

Though Judge Blake’s ruling provided some vindication to the plaintiffs, it was only a partial victory. The court did not agree with the Coalition’s assertion that the state’s funding formula was unconstitutional, although it did recognize "an abundance of evidence demonstrating that Maryland's HBIs face challenges that stem from direct and indirect discrimination, economic stratification and pre-K-12th grade educational inequity."

HBCU supporters say they hope that the outcome of this case will prompt the state to do right by its traditionally Black institutions.

"Now that the Court has found Maryland in violation of the constitution,” said Jon Greenbaum, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs and chief counsel of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, “we hope that Maryland will finally do the right thing and get serious about providing an adequate remedy that will enable HBIs to prosper."

Black Ministers Slam State Governors’ Resistance to Obamacare

Oct. 14, 2013

Black Ministers Slam State Governors’ Resistance to Obamacare

anthonyevansrev

Rev. Anthony Evans, president, National Black Church Initiative

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspapers

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Governors who refuse to expand their state Medicaid programs to accommodate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are “doing an extreme disservice to their citizens,” the National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) said Oct.11.

The NBCI, a coalition of 34,000 churches representing 15.7 million African American churchgoers, labeled governors who are blocking implementation of President Obama’s signature health care reform initiative as “wrong, misguided, and placing more undue financial burdens on the backs of the poor and middle class.”

“We are ashamed to see governors throughout our country refusing to expand Medicaid in their states as a part of the ACA – what we see as President Obama’s greatest accomplishment and indeed one of the greatest laws in American history,” NBCI President Rev Anthony Evans said in a statement released Oct. 11.

The Black ministers’ group “applauds President Obama and his administration on the greatest legislation accomplishment in decades.” They characterized the statute as a “monumental law [that] will provide quality and affordable health care access to millions of underserved in the African American community” and added that “its implementation is long overdue.”

The statement was issued at the end of the second week of a chaotic inaugural sign-up period for health insurance under the ACA. Yet, the NBCI statement pointed out, “more than twenty states, mainly Republican-led ... are refusing to expand Medicaid or leaning in that direction.”

Evans singled out the GOP for criticism, too. “As a party that proclaims Christianity is the center of their ideology, I am dumbfounded at these governors’ inactions. Every citizen in the United States has a God-given right to accessible and affordable health care,” he said.

“NBCI will do everything in its power to advocate for a decision reversal in these states, and will work tirelessly to make sure the mission of the ACA reaches each American.”

Time for a Dignified Minimum Wage by Benjamin Todd Jealous

Oct. 14, 2013

Time for a Dignified Minimum Wage
By Benjamin Todd Jealous

benjaminjealous

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - This summer, minimum wage workers in California abandoned their posts at fast food restaurants and retail stores for spots on the picket line. They joined workers in cities across the country to demand an increase in the minimum wage.

Their efforts paid off last month when California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to raise the state minimum wage over the next three years to $10 an hour.

For the first time in years, widespread minimum wage reform is a real possibility, and we need to keep the pressure on. The current federal minimum wage is inadequate, outdated, and out of touch with the modern cost of living. In this country, a full-time job should be enough to keep a family above the poverty line and off of welfare.

Imagine a mother working a steady, full time, year round job at the federal minimum wage - $7.25 an hour. Her annual salary will amount to just $15,080. That puts her below the poverty line for a family of two, and well below the poverty line for a family of four. To make matters worse, her paltry salary depreciates in value each year, since the federal minimum wage is not tied to inflation.

At this rate, she could put in 45, 50 or even 60 hour weeks in an effort to keep her family off welfare, but she would still qualify for - and most likely need - public assistance.

This is hardly a hypothetical situation. Thirty three U.S. states and territories use the federal minimum wage, and there are over three million mothers and fathers just getting by on full-time jobs. These are not the unemployed. These are not the underemployed. These are the over employed and underpaid.

It is a travesty that millions of Americans work full time but still struggle to support their families. They are making a decision to be hard-working employees and responsible parents, but their employers are also making a decision - to pay them poverty wages.

Raising the minimum wage is imperative, and the potential cost to businesses and consumers is less than you might think. According to a recent study by DEMOS, raising the federal minimum wage to $12.25 ($25,000 for a full-time, year round worker) would cost large retailers just one percent of total annual sales, and it would cost consumers just 12 to 18 cents extra per shopping trip. At the same time, this change would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty.

There are several opportunities to make this a reality.In November, New Jersey voters will decide whether to raise the state minimum wage to $8.25 and tie it to the cost of living. President Obama recently suggested increasing the federal minimum wage to $9. Even below the Mason-Dixon Line, two Maryland counties are considering bills to raise their minimum wage to $11.25.

It is time for a new social contract for people at the bottom of the economic ladder. We need to stand up with workers in California and other states and demand a dignified minimum wage on the federal level and in our communities. We can no longer afford not to.

Benjamin Todd Jealous is the president and CEO of the national NAACP.

Building Bridges By James Clingman

Oct. 13, 2013

Blackonomics

Building Bridges
By James Clingman

jimclingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - On October 11, 2002, we lost a great Black leader to an assassin’s bullet. Who was he? Stop reading right now and see if you can answer. If you cannot, then you are one of the reasons I am writing this article. While this is my annual dedication to him and his family, I also dedicate it to those who did not know him and those who have no knowledge of his lesser known assassination, but an assassination nonetheless, and the impact it had upon Black people.

We are quite familiar with famous Black men who were killed by assassins, but there are others who have died in that same manner and for similar reasons who are not celebrated, not remembered, and not memorialized. This brother falls into the latter category; he died during that well-known protracted period of chaos, fear, and confusion in and around our nation’s capital.

Emerging from that period was that ominous moniker, “The DC Sniper,” which has since been dramatized on TV. The sniper(s) became more familiar to us than any of those they killed and remain in our psyche today, but their victims are slipping from memory. There should have been a movie about the victims, and in this case, especially about the one to whom this article is dedicated; but maybe one day, huh? Another dear friend, Bob Lott (Philadelphia), is just the right person to produce it.

The man I am writing about, and I emphasize, “Man,” is Kenneth Bridges. He sought no accolades, even though he did some of the most important work in economic empowerment since Marcus Garvey. He was humility personified, despite being a Wharton School of Business graduate and one of the most intelligent persons around. He did not seek the spotlight, even though his message of self-reliance should have been blasted over all media, especially Black media.

Ken refused to allow his spirit to be crushed by negativity, irrespective of the mountain he was climbing and the stiff winds of change he faced daily. (Working for our people is very difficult and trying.) He met sacrifice head-on, despite having six children and a loving wife at home, by traveling across this country to spread the gospel of economic empowerment. And Ken never met a stranger; he was known for his bear-hugs and loving persona, always smiling, always encouraging, always ready to help, and always teaching.

I continue to write about this giant because everyone should know who he was and what he did. Just as we know about more prominent brothers and sisters who fought for economic freedom, we should know about Ken, and we should teach our children about him. He is the proper example of leadership for young people, thus, the title of this article, “Building Bridges.” Let me pause here to mention and give honor to Brother Muhammad Nasserdeen, who also died on October 11th (2007).

Great leaders serve; they don’t consider themselves higher than others; they are not intimidated by the initiative and intelligence of younger brothers and sisters; rather they always try to create other leaders by duplicating themselves. Great leaders know and accept the fact that one day they will have to give up the reins of leadership, so they are in a constant mode of developing new and younger leaders to take their places.

Great leaders build other leaders, and if there is one leader in whose image and memory we should build it is Ken Bridges. We must build more “Bridges” in addition to the Bridges children who had a father who taught them well, raised their consciousness, and put them on the path he pursued.

If you paused at the beginning of this column and could not answer the question, then you have learned something very important, and I have done my job. Now it’s up you to tell someone else, to educate your children, and expose them to a true Black leader, Ken Bridges, and the work he did. Our children need to be connected with Ken’s children; they are the future leaders who have the consciousness to do the right thing for all the right reasons, as Ken demonstrated during his relatively short life.

The likes of Claud Anderson, Bob Law, Rosie Milligan, and others are still working hard to bring Black folks out of the darkness of economic despair and dependence; we should get to know and appreciate them now while they are still with us. Do some research on your own to find out who they are, and take the opportunity to work with and support them. The ball’s in your court Black America.

If you’d like to see a video of Ken, go to my website, Blackonomics.com, click on videos, and share the love that exuded from Ken Bridges for his people. Then, as Ken would fondly say, “Let’s Get Busy!”

(Note: Just before publication of this article I learned that Dr. Walter Lomax (Philadelphia), a close friend, mentor, and supporter of Ken Bridges and his family, passed away. Now October 10^th will always be just as significant as October 11^th.)

Detroit Bankruptcy: Undemocratic, Fiscally Imprudent By Julianne Malveaux

Oct. 13, 2013

Detroit Bankruptcy: Undemocratic, Fiscally Imprudent
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - You don’t have to be from Detroit to be angry at what is happening there. And you don’t have to be from Detroit to lend your voice to an injustice that not only affects Detroit, but also the rest of the nation. If you agree with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition on this matter, please go to change.org, search for Detroit Bankruptcy, and sign the Rainbow/PUSH sponsored petition.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has pulled a fast one on the citizens of Detroit. When he appointed Emergency Manager Kevin Orr, he fast tracked the bankruptcy process with just ninety days elapsing between Orr’s appointment and the beginning of bankruptcy proceedings. Had Orr moved in a more deliberate manner, the citizens of Detroit may have had some input in the process. Instead, the people of Detroit have had neither voice nor vote in a process that circumvents democracy. The 23,000 pensioners who retired from government service, those who use open space and recreational facilities like Belle Isle (now leased to the state) or the Detroit Museum, those who depend on already-eroding city services like garbage pickup, public lighting, and other services are allowed no say in the status of their city.

Why is the Emergency Manager rushing bankruptcy? There are alternatives including restructuring. Raising taxes on water supplied to suburban cities is another way to raise revenue. Instead of moving in this direction the Emergency Manager seems to favor selling valuable assets.

Is this what the state had in mind when they voided a law that required the city’s police and firefighters to live in Detroit? That move eroded the revenue base, and it also left the city less safe because protective service workers are not readily available.

Instead of bankruptcy, an option for Detroit might be federal and state assistance. Five years ago, Chrysler and General Motors said they’d fail if they couldn’t get help from the federal government to prop them up. More than $80 billion was spent to help them and some of their suppliers. Congress and the auto companies justified their request for help by saying that the failure of these large companies would cut employment by at least a million workers at a time when the unemployment rate was plummeting.

If Detroit-based companied deserve federal assistance,

loans, and grants, why doesn’t the city of Detroit? Why has the Emergency Manager moved quickly from concept to court without a conversation about alternatives, including federal or state assistance? Instead of considering these possibilities, the Emergency Manager seems to favor selling valuable assets such as the revenue-generating water system.

In 1975, New York City was about to go bankrupt when federal and state authorities put together a Municipal Assistance Corporation to bring the city back to life. While disaster relief hardly constitutes a bailout, we spent $110 billion in disaster relief in New Orleans. When Hurricane Sandy destroyed homes and businesses in New York last year, Congress spent $51 billion in relief. One might argue that the fiscal state of Detroit is a disaster, a disaster manufactured by political forces pandering to the mostly-white suburbs in favor of a city that is 80 percent black.

In response to this manufactured disaster, it is not unreasonable for the federal and state governments to provide assistance to rebuild Detroit. Just as the automakers argued that their bankruptcy would eliminate jobs, so might Detroit argue that its bankruptcy will not only disrupt Michigan’s economy, but also the nation’s. The effort to cut pensions, and thus spending, has a negative effect on the overall economy. Restructuring health care obligations to the public sector (Obamacare, Medicare) represents a federal subsidy. While it may be unavoidable that future pensioners face a different set restructuring of benefits and health care, it breaks a covenant when current retirees find the conditions of their retirement packages altered.

From a distance, many will look askance at Detroit; it’s alleged “mismanagement” and a series of scandals that have tarnished the city’s image. Tarnished image or not, pension cuts hurts the most vulnerable. In Detroit the average pensioner receives just $1900 a month, and current pension costs represent just 4 percent of total revenues. No one who retired from service to the city of Detroit is eligible for Social Security, so pensions and savings represent the sole source for their support. This isn’t just happening in Detroit. As many as one hundred cities are looking to see if Detroit’s possible pension-busting is something they can do in their own states.

Governor Snyder will argue that he appointed an Emergency Manager because the city wouldn’t manage itself. He won’t disclose that the state of Michigan owes Detroit money, and that his Emergency Manager, with unlimited power, has spent more than $100 million “studying” the Detroit fiscal situation.

Detroit did not request an Emergency Manager. The Governor imposed it on them. Detroit did not file for bankruptcy, the emergency manager did. The state government takeover of Detroit is not a Detroit issue. If Governor Snyder gets his way, he will set a precedent for any ailing city to be taken over and to have its voting rights, and fiscal discretion, suspended.

The people of Detroit have not been allowed to weigh in on the future of their city, and those they elected have been placed at the periphery of negotiations. The move toward bankruptcy is both undemocratic and fiscally imprudent. And it is part of a trend that may hit your financially strapped city. Lift your voice with the people of Detroit to stop this ill-advised bankruptcy. Go to change.org, and use the search engine to find Detroit Bankruptcy. The petition, sponsored by the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is a cry for justice. Please sign.

Julianne Malveaux is an economist and author.