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By Joe W. Bowers Jr. and Edward Henderson | California Black Media
Last week, the Black in School Coalition released the results of its comprehensive survey titled “California Black Voters Perspectives on the Quality of Education for Black Students.”
The coalition commissioned this statewide survey of 1,200 Black voters for the third consecutive year to assess their viewpoints on education funding, school performance, and the biggest challenges facing Black students today.
The Black in School Coalition is a statewide organization that works to improve academic and social outcomes for Black students in California.
The data gathered from the poll is intended to offer policymakers, educators, and other relevant stakeholders’ insights into the education related concerns of Black voters. These insights can be used to help them develop more effective policies and programs to improve the quality of education that Black students receive.
Currently, 70% of Black students are not meeting English language arts standards and 84% are not meeting math standards.
The survey found that 84% of Black voters want education funding to target the lowest performing schools.
Additionally, 71% of Black voters believe that allocating additional money based on student performance would improve education for Black students.
79% of respondents support a legislative proposal to change the way that LCFF is funded by creating a new grant for California’s lowest performing subgroups, including Black students.
50% of respondents do not think that schools in their area are providing quality education for Black students. This finding suggests that Black students are not receiving the same quality of education as their White peers.
93% of respondents think that chronic absenteeism is an urgent problem. This is a major issue for Black students because it can have a devastating impact on their academic achievement.
48% of Black voters disagree that the California legislature is working hard to improve education for Black students. Only 27% of respondents agree that Gov. Newsom is doing enough to improve educational outcomes for Black students.
All of these findings suggest that Black voters in California are deeply concerned about the state of education for Black students.
Dr. Margaret Fortune, President and CEO of Fortune School of Education said during the release of the poll, “I think that the point of this work is to improve the academic performance of all of our students including those that are the lowest performers.”
Brian Rivas with The Education Trust-West and a Black in School Coalition member said in the Coalition’s press release, “Almost half of those surveyed do not believe the California Legislature is working hard to improve education for Black students, and that is a problem. We must do better.”
