Blog Archive

June 23, 2010

Graduation by the Numbers

By David Eubanks

An article in the June 11, 2010 issue of the Washington Examiner reported that D.C suburban high schools exhibit some of the highest graduation rates in comparison to the nation’s top 50 largest school districts. The statistics are based on an analysis by Education Week magazine that used the most recent data from 2007. The results were published in “Diplomas Count 2010: Graduation by the Numbers”. According to the report, Montgomery County has the highest national graduation rate among the 50 districts, with 83.1 percent of students graduating in 2007. Fairfax County comes in at a close second with a graduation rate of 82.5 percent. However, just adjacent to Montgomery County, Prince George’s County schools report a graduation rate of 59.3 percent; almost 10 percent below the national average. Baltimore was among the bottom five districts with a graduation rate of 43.4 percent.

Posted June 23rd, 2010 at 10:54 AM | | Comments (4)
Categories: Quality Education, District of Columbia, Maryland

June 16, 2010

A Shared Fate: The Impact of Arizona’s New Immigration Law

By David Eubanks

On July 30, 2010 you leave work a few minutes early in an attempt to beat traffic. Anxious to get home, you leave your company shirt on; complete with paint stains from a hard days effort. Incredibly thirsty, you reluctantly decide to stop at a convenience store before you begin the 30 minute commute home. Back in the car, satisfied and finally on your way home, you notice the police lights flashing in your rearview mirror. As you pull over you wonder what you did wrong. Unbeknownst to you, as you walked out of the convenience store, a police officer identified you as a potential “illegal immigrant” living in the United States. Perhaps it was your tarnished work cloths, your brown skin, or maybe the clunker of a car that you happen to be driving; nevertheless, this is an example of the racial profiling that could occur as a result of Arizona’s new immigration law.

Posted June 16th, 2010 at 11:21 AM | | Comments (2)
Categories: Arizona, Immigrant Justice

June 15, 2010

Huffington Post: African American Mississippi Man Starts Record Sixth Murder Trial

By Bill Quigley (of the Huffington Post)

An article from the Huffington Post explains how Curtis Flowers, an African American man from Mississippi, enters the record books as the only man in United States history to ever go on trial six times for the same crime.

Posted June 15th, 2010 at 11:03 AM | | Comments (0)
Categories: Mississippi

June 3, 2010

Fishing in Oil: New Orleans’ Fishermen Struggle to Maintain Business

By David Eubanks

Oil spill containment efforts continue to fail more than a month after the BP Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil has already contaminated marine life bordering Louisiana and is beginning to threaten the coastline along Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. As the spill spreads it poses an obvious threat to the environment and as it worsens the economic impact on the local communities, specifically minority communities, becomes an increasing concern.

Posted June 3rd, 2010 at 5:59 PM | | Comments (3)
Categories: Reconstructing Justice Post-Katrina, Louisiana