In the Wednesday, June 8, 2016 version of The Citizen (vol. 24, no. 1,144), the citizens of Fayette County were drawn in by the bold face accusations of Fayetteville City Councilwoman Kathaleen Brewer.
However, in her attempt to portray an issue within our community, she listed a long events with no direct causation. In fact, the whole synopsis portrayed by John Thompson of The Citizen appears to be a rant, with no empirical evidence.
As a high school student of one of Fayette County’s finest schools and one of the highly competitive schools in the state of Georgia, I would like to shed some light on the gaps within the councilwoman’s accusations:
1.“Why [is] my city is losing young families and not attracting new ones[?]:
• Lack of urban sprawl: What Councilwoman Brewer does not understand is that the growth of suburban communities like Fayette County is directly correlated to the ability to reach urban centers. Without the capability for employees to reach their homes from their workplaces within an adequate time period, such candidates [are forced] to seek homes located within urban centers or localities with access to these employers, leading me to my second, third, and fourth points.
• Pedestrians: Sixty-six percent of American college students graduating from public colleges have an average student loan debt of $25,550 (studentloanhero.com). With such a large burden, it would be incredibly difficult for these individuals to purchase a vehicle without their first paycheck, and even then it would be extremely difficult.
A quick search on Google maps reveals that an individual would be forced to walk approximately eight hours to reach Atlanta, Ga., from where the City Council meets. Not only is this not practical, but impossible with the conditions of Fayette County’s walkways.
Any individual laden with the task to walk from the Chick-fil-A Luau to South Jeff Davis, will quickly realize that Fayetteville is NOT a pedestrian-friendly town. With pedestrian crossings that few are willing to abide by and crossing devices that have failed to work since their implementation, Fayetteville does not encourage individuals walking to urban centers.
• Public transportation: Public transportation is vital to the social advancement of youth; yet, Fayette County lacks access to this resource. Not only does public transportation offer reduced commute times and access to goods and services, it is significant in job accessibility, job creation, and healthcare accessibility, which are driving forces of the “migration” of millennials. Research has also indicated that the proximity of homes to public transportation increases its value.
• Road infrastructure: Notice that a key aspect of suburbanization is travel times. Currently the road conditions of Fayette County are horrendous and do not meet the current usage. This creates a bottleneck situation for travel. In order to empirically observe this, visit the intersection of Ga. highways 54 and 92 at five in the afternoon on a Friday. Fayetteville has been slacking at meeting demands due to the lack of concern from the City Council. Instead of blaming competitive schools, issues such as this should be solved.
2. “Educated parents don’t want their kids in Title 1 schools, businesses don’t want to be here” and “Things like our schools becoming Title One schools is causing college educated parents (59 percent of our city’s population) to pull their kids out and seek education elsewhere.”
• Academic performance: Although Fayette County schools are Title 1, they are extremely successful at fulfilling the vision of producing great citizens. In the past graduation class, one Fayette County high school had students pursuing college educations at Georgia Tech, Yale, Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Duke University. Without quality education, Fayette County Schools would not see results such as these.
Instead of encouraging future students, Councilwoman Brewer is discouraging these students, by entrapping them in the mold of expectations of impoverished students.
• Competitiveness: Fayette County schools are one of the most competitive [systems] in the state of Georgia. Our city council fails to recognize this due to the blindness to the accomplishments of its students. From Intel ISEF participants to competitive speech and debate teams, Fayette County schools are home to great competitors, and if college-educated parents do not want to partake in this success, it’ll be a great loss for them. Pertaining to businesses, it can be observed that businesses withdraw from Fayette County due to its inaccessibility and incapability to adapt as stated earlier.
3. “This is not a racial issue since there are a lot of very upset black parents who moved here because of the schools and now are either moving away or sending their kids to private schools or homeschooling.”
• There are two problems with this argument. Income disparity is a cultural issue and ignoring the oppression of a race, by undermining its effects, creates a social predicament. Councilwoman Brewer fails to acknowledge that Title 1 is a means-tested welfare [program] attempting to solve this disparity, and by disapproving of its efforts of promoting this interest, she is causing a racial issue, knowingly or unknowingly.
• Cultural income inequality: In the United States, the wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013. This shows an underlying racial component to income inequality. The EPI explains that African American men have the highest unemployment rate by race and gender. In 2012, the black male unemployment rate averaged 15 percent.
Although African-American men are underrepresented in the construction industry, they do hold jobs in construction and lost jobs when the industry took a hit during the recession. Roughly one-quarter of the decline in employment for black men from 2007 to 2011 was due to their loss of jobs in construction. Paul Krugman of the New York Times explains that unemployment and income inequality are closely linked and perhaps even the same issue.
By addressing the issue affecting the lowest earning rung of the economic ladder, we solve a large component of inequality. The GPS qualifies the importance of solving race-based discrimination, because racism is pervasive in every sector of the economy.
Empirically, racial biases exist in hiring for jobs, and blacks find it harder to get business or home loans. As a result, they are pushed to the lowest rung of the income ladder and the result is income inequality.
Over two-thirds of African Americans (67 percent) could be considered “liquid asset poor” as are nearly three-fourths of Latinos (71 percent). Beyond that, while all racial and ethnic groups lost home equity as a result of the Great Recession, people of color suffered significantly more losses than whites. Title 1 is vital to offering quality education to the children of these individuals.
• Free and reduced lunch:
Councilwoman Brewer fails to realize that school lunch is one of the few meals some Fayette County students receive. To realize the vitality of this meal, Councilwoman Brewer would have to look at the summer lunch initiative in Fayette County and how many individuals request service. The free meal at school is the only source of food that prevents certain students from falling to a life of crime and obtaining their meals through illegal ventures.
By stating that free and reduced lunch is a “fraud,” the councilwoman is invoking a situation of stigma within the county, which should not be present. Free and reduced meals are one of the greatest successes on the “War on Poverty,” and by causing uncertainty, a situation of inequality is reestablished, where individuals on free and reduced meals are looked down upon. Young children and adolescents should not become the product of “political blindness.”
This letter is attempting to shine some lights on hidden truths within our school system. I request The Citizen to treat this letter with the same respect that Councilwoman Brewer’s accusations received. The citizens of Fayette County need to see these truths listed on the front page, so that the stigmatized society might represent itself, and gentrification might be prevented. I attempted to leave out any issues that our Superintendent of Schools has already addressed.
Jubin Thomas, 17,
Rising senior, Fayette County High School
Fayetteville, Ga.
