On Tuesday night June 2nd, the Metro Council passed memorializing RESOLUTION NO. RS2015-1516 which ask the Tennessee delegation to the General Assembly to pass legislation to allow the Metropolitan Government to enact inclusionary zoning legislation to ensure sufficient affordable rental housing. Welcome to the Peoples Democratic Socialist Republic of Nashville, San Francisco of the South.
"Inclusionary zoning" takes its name so as to indicate it is the opposite of "exclusionary zoning." Exclusionary zoning is a name applied to any zoning policy that attempts to exclude some people. Up until it was ruled unconstitutional to exclude by race or ethnicity, some communities prohibited certain minorities from living in certain areas. After that form of overt discrimination went away, many cities imposed lot size restrictions which had the effect of making properties so expensive that only those who could afford to pay the price could live there. We still have minimum lot size zoning.
What is inclusionary zoning really? It is another term for rent control or housign price control. Several cities had rent control starting in World War II, but overtime most cities abandoned it. It was found to lead to abandoned and run down buildings, and it prevented developers from building new developments. Over time most rent control was allowed to be lifted. With "rent control" getting a bad name, social engineers came up with a different model and called it "inclusionary zoning." That sounds like a land use policy, but think of it like this: Assume we are concerned that some people do not have enough money to buy the same car a middle income or upper income person can buy, so we pass "inclusionary car shopping" that requires Car Max to sell 10% of their cars at a price that a low income person can afford and it has to be the same quality of car that a upper income person can afford. That is what "inclusionary zoning" does with housing.
Unbelievable, the ten or so Republicans on the Council voted for the resolution. The legislation passed unanimously on a voice vote. Even the most conservative members, Robert Duval, Duane Dominy and Josh Stites voted for it. These are people who I normally have deep respect for and who I am sure think of themselves as conservative. That was not a conservative vote. To be generous, one could assume they did not know what they were voting on but that is not an excuse.
There are various models of "inclusionary zoning," some really bad and some so ineffective that they have little negative impact. Inclusionary zoning may apply to rental property or homeownership property. Either way, it shifts the burden to those who do buy or rent a unit not set aside as affordable to pay a higher price to subsidize those who pay below market rent or purchase price. Some IZ models require the units to be kept affordable for as little as 15 years, some for up to 99 years. Some programs allow developers to pay into a fund rather than actually build the units.
Writing in Forbes magazine, author Scott Beyer points out that in In San Jose, California the city's IZ’s constitutionality is being questioned by the California Supreme Court. There, developers building more than 20 units must make 15% of them affordable, or pay a fee of $122,000 per inclusionary unit.
He writes:
IZ mandates both prevent new housing starts, and make market-rate housing more expensive. They prevent housing starts by acting as a tax on new development, thus making certain projects uneconomical; and because affordable units earn less, developers must cover losses by jacking up market-rate housing prices. In the study “Unintended or Intended Consequences?,” economists Tom Means and Edward Stringham define IZ as a price control, before noting that, like with other such controls, it discouraged production and raised prices in California.
He says a better alternative might be for cities to allow greater density without the price controls. The reason, he says, that housing is expensive in places like New York, San Francisco, DC, and other cities that have adopted IZ is that zoning regulations prevent supply from keeping pace with population growth. IZ can actually discourage construction and make the problem worse.
We find that inclusionary zoning policies had measurable effects on housing markets in jurisdictions that adopt them: the share of multifamily housing increases; the price of single family houses increases; and the size of single family houses decreases. These results are fully consistent with economic theory and demonstrate that inclusionary zoning policies do not come without cost.
We also found that housing prices in cities that adopted inclusionary zoning increased about 2-3 percent faster than cities that did not adopt such policies..... inclusionary zoning programs caused housing producers to increase the price of more expensive homes in markets where residents were less sensitive to price, and to decrease the size of less expensive homes in markets where residents were more sensitive to price. (link)
A study published in Reason magazine found that after passing IZ the average city produced only 15 units a year of affordable housing attributable to the policy and total housing production dropped from significantly and the average price of homes to increase significantly. The overall effect of the policy also was a significant decrease in property tax collections. (link)
It is my hope that the Nashville delegation to the General Assembly will simply ignore the Council resolution, but if they bring it to the State legislator, I hope the State Legislature will fail to pass it.
By E.W. Jackson Sr., American Thinker, Oct. 5, 2009
[Excerpt] Treating poor black people as victims to be "organized" has been an abject failure. They are human beings to be educated, inspired and required to take responsibility for their own lives. The tragedy here is that Derrion was doing just that and it was working, but the malignant pathology of the ghetto spread to him on that unfortunate day and ended his promising life.
[Excerpt] ...there is a deafening silence from some of the biggest mouths in America. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Julian Bond, Louis Farrakhan and the Congressional Black Caucus see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. When Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested by a white police officer, President Barack Obama -- without any facts -- found it necessary to put in his two cents. Here in Chicago, the salient facts are abundantly clear and a heinous murder has been committed in his home town, but the president is silent. (link)
Comment: This is an excellent essay and expresses my views exactly. In addition to the tragedy of the murder of this promising young man, there is also the tragedy of code of silence within the black community that says Blacks will not "snitch" on Blacks who murder other Blacks and the tragedy of the code of silence among Black and liberal leaders who will not address the problems of the Black community unless those problems can be blamed on white racism.
Having said this however, I know that below the level of the national Black and liberal leaders there are many Black leaders and good liberals who do give of themselves to improve the life of those in the Black community. They genuinely care. I may disagree with their politics, but I never doubt their sincere concern for those they serve. They have a passion for what they do. I have known many of these people in my own community of Nashville. They tirelessly raise money, recruit clients, advocate for and provide job training programs, after school tutoring programs, money management classes and home ownership opportunities in the Black community. They operate the Boys and Girls clubs and sponsor Boy Scout Troops and little league softball teams and summer camp programs.
There are those who live in the Black Community who organize local Neighborhood Watch programs and work to improve police-community relations. They view the criminal element as the enemy not the police. They care about the problems of drug abuse and school drop-outs and crime and gangs in their neighborhood. There are many local Black ministers in my city and across America that work tireless ministering to their flock and inspiring them to be the best they can be. Unfortunately, they do not get the support they deserve and too often the recognized national leaders ignore those in the field who are working against incredible odds to change lives. I am sure that in Chicago, just like here in Nashville, there are many local Black leaders who are appalled at what they see happening in their community. It is too bad that the establishment will not support their efforts and prefers to remain silent unless it benefits their political agenda.
Don't Snitch by Mac Dre Man... I'm through fuckin' around You niggaz keep on ya gon' be duckin' some rounds I'm rushin' the mound, bitch done hit me with a pitch He a snitch and he walk with a switch He in a band that sing for the cops Him and his mans, they cleanin' up shop Undercover concert promotor Ricky Schrodertryin' to turn somebody over Put that E.T. finger up, you stooley Don't tattletale, the number one ruley You the jumpest, the boys, them people Slipped in the game, sellin' toys to people I avoid them people, don't ask me shit The only law I break is in public, grip My mouth zipped, I plead the 5th And niggaz like you get pushed off a cliff [Chorus] - X 2 (Don't ask me shit) I don't tell mayne (I don't tell) You can send me to jail mayne (Don't ask me shit) I won't tell mayne (I won't tell) Send me to jail mayne You can line 'em up and put twelve in a box and find out your boy is workin' with the cops Doin' flip-flops, the Rover rollin' over The Tootsie Roller, scared to do a quarter It's October and he can't be gone 'til November So he's givin' up the gang, every damn member Everything he remember - he's tellin' He get out of jail free, ain't no bailin' He's no felon, he's no misdemeanor He got a target melon and a E.T. finger Nigga you the cleaners tryin' to wash me Quit peepin' at my Beamer, tryin' to watch me
[Chorus] - X 2 (Don't ask me shit) I don't tell mayne (I don't tell) You can send me to jail mayne (Don't ask me shit) I won't tell mayne (I won't tell) Send me to jail mayne
Police Chief Decries 'Code of Silence' Chicago Breaking News Center, September 30, 2009 (link) On Tuesday, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said authorities believe at least three other teens also punched or kicked the boy.
Weis called on the community to step up and tell police what they know. "Few have come forward," he told a news conference. "We must do better."
Weis decried the "code of silence" that he said was keeping police from making more arrests. Without more cooperation, he said, there will be "more violence...and unfortunately more funerals."
He also criticized teens who witnessed the beating last Thursday and did not call police. Weis said the 911 center did not get a call about Albert until after he was brought into a nearby community center.
"You got kids with cell phones but no one called," Weis said. "It's sad more people didn't call earlier."
Commentary: A good kid, a young Black man, is brutally beaten to death in front of a large group of other Black kids in daylight on a public street and the public will not cooperate with the police in solving the murder. There is an epidemic of Black on Black youth crime in this country. Here in Nashville, we have had 18 young people killed year-to-date, all but a couple of them African American. This is happening across the country and the Black community will not cooperate in solving the crimes. Instead, rap lyrics celebrate not snitching and you can get the "Don't snitch" ringtone for your cell phone and your "Stop snitching" tee shirts in the local clothing store.
Where is the Black leadership in decrying this "code of silence" and senseless murders? One Black Harvard professor gets arrested by a white cop and it dominates the news for days and the President intervenes with some Beer Diplomacy. Last year in Louisiana at Jena High School, six black students were arrested charged with attempted murder after a school fight in which a white student was severely beaten and suffered a concussion. Celebrities and Black leaders rallied around to defend the "Jena Six." To defend the Jena six was a cause worth getting involved in, yet we have unsolved murders of Black kids by other Black kids coast to coast and no one seems to care.
If a Black kid had been killed by a gang of white kids in a similar manner to the Chicago murder, you can bet we would be hearing from Hollywood celebrities and Oprah Winfrey and Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson and probably the President.
What are we to take from this? As long as Black kids are killing other Black kids is it OK? Are we to assume that the Black communities of America care more about showing solidarity against the police rather than cooperating with the police in stopping these senseless killings? Is life in the hood worth so little, that not being a snitch is a higher value than catching a killer. Will no one rise up and say enough is enough and that "Black Culture" has become the culture of the jungle and the thug and must be reformed? Will no one suggest that it is time to stop blaming the problems of the Black community on the oppression of the white man and see the self-destructive behaviour? Does anyone give a damn?
Staff Reporter, The Daily Voice, Posted September 29, 2009 8:45
A Chicago honors student was beaten to death on Thursday as two rival gangs fought outside a community center in that city.
An amateur cell phone video posted on YouTube showed a young man being struck on the head by a young man with a long wooden board, then punched by another young man. (link)
Sometimes you just want to yell, stop it, stop it! We've got to stop it! We're losing too many of our children and teenagers to senseless deaths, senseless killings, senseless shootings.
We've got to stop it! We've got to get them to put away their guns, to value life. Too many of these children and teenagers are being shot down as if they were a deer or rabbit being hunted. We've got to stop it!
Commentary:
The above video and news story is disturbing, sickening, and frightening. To talk about bad timing, this does not bode well for Chicago being picked as the site for the 2016 Olympics. The Olympic pick however is a footnote to the tragedy of this story. I have seen news coverage of this story and feel sadness for the boy’s family. Apparently the victim in this story was a good kid and a good student and was just caught in wrong place at the wrong time. The wrong place and the wrong time was a bus stop on the way to school during the day.
What has happened to America that things like this are not so uncommon? The truth is that things like this are common, not "in America" but in the Black community. It is not just in Chicago that things like this happen. In Dwight Lewis's column above he list the eighteen homicides that have occurred this year to-date in which the victim was younger than 18. Most of the victims are Black kids murdered by other Black kids. Neither Nashville, nor Chicago is unique and unfortunately this is typical for the inner cities of America.
I have spent most of my adult life working closely with African Americans and working in the inner city. As a city councilman for eleven years, one of the neighborhoods I represented was a Black community. I also chaired the Federal Grants Review Committee of the Metro Council that had legislative oversight of Community Development issues and related topics so I had insight into what was going on in the Black community. As a previous employee of the local housing authority and in my current job as a housing counselor, I serve mostly Black clients. I have worked in the housing projects trying to provide services that lift people out of poverty. I have seen some successes. I have seen some people change their attitude and change their life, but for the most part I have seen failure.
There are lots of reasons and excuses why black poverty persist, and along with the poverty, the despair, violence and lawlessness. I don’t have the answer of how to change the Black community. I have some ideas about what brought us to this point and some thoughts about what we should be doing, but I really don’t know if any of it would make much difference. In the 90’s with Welfare reform I thought we were making a major step in the right direction. A program called HOPE VI, I thought was a small step, but a step in the right direction. I thought No Child Left Behind was perhaps another modest step in the right direction. The truth is that not much has changed. The Black community seems as hopeless and crime ridden as ever.
One of the reasons I became a “disgruntled” Republican is because my party ignored the problems of the inner city, when I felt that following up on welfare reform, we had an opportunity to make a real difference. I have been ashamed of Republican indifference. The last Republican who cared about Black people and urban problems was Jack Kemp. I wanted the party to have more Jack Kemps. As unhappy as I have been about the Republican Party’s policy of indifference I thought Republican indifference was preferable to Democratic policies that would foster further dependence. I want policies that will fundamentally change the nature of Black society and lift Blacks out of poverty, not programs that simply subsidize the poverty.
I did not expect much from President Obama that would really improve the Black community. Liberalism fosters greater dependence, which is the last thing the Black community needs. But I was hopeful that President Obama’s example of hard work, responsibility, stable intact family, and success would inspire. I was hopeful he would use the bully pulpit and his prestige to motivate change in Black America.
Instead of flying off to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago for the Olympics, I wish Obama would have gone to Chicago and pitched non-violence, lawfulness and responsibility and called attention to epidemic of youth violence that is taking its toll on the Black communities of America.
Whether you are a gardener or a physician or an auto mechanic or whatever, you have probably had people share their uninformed but strongly held opinions about your area of expertise. A lot of people have strong opinions about things they know little about.
I am a housing counselor and have helped many low-income people become homeowners. I routinely hear people assert that the reason we have a housing foreclosure crisis is because the government had programs that helped low income people become homeowners. I have heard Rush Limbaugh make this assertion and our local Rush-want-a-be and lot of other people say this.
It is true that a large part of the housing crisis was caused by lenders making loans to people who should not have gotten loans. It is true that there were many irresponsible borrowers. There were a lot of people who bought houses with no money down. Some of these people were low-income but many of them were not. These people who were low income did not get these bad loans due to government assistance programs.
Those low-income people who got government assistance for down payment probably were less risky borrowers than the typical borrower. There have been a variety of programs that helped low-income people become homeowners over the years.
In recent years the most widely available program was the Bush Administration’s program called American Dream Downpayment Initiative (ADDI). Under this program, the borrower could get into a house for an out-of-pocket cost of only 1% of the sale price and the balance of the closing cost and downpayment was provided in the form of a grant or a loan.
To take advantage of this program, the first mortgage had to be an FHA loan, or VA loan, or conforming conventional loan. This meant that the borrower could not get a “liar’s loan,” also know as a “stated income” loan. They could not get a negative amortization mortgage or an interest only mortgage or the really bad adjustable rate mortgages. The borrowers had to have decent credit and could not have excessive debt and their housing cost, including escrowed taxes and insurance, could not be over 32% of their gross monthly income.
ADDI is but one of a number of similar programs that I have been familiar with over the years that were designed to help low income people become homeowners, but almost all of them had these same requirements. Most of these programs also required that the borrower attend homebuyer education programs. These borrowers were better informed homebuyers than the average buyers.
Another reason that low-income people who become homeowner using down payment assistance programs are not likely to default on their mortgage is because the agency that assisted them usually ends up holding a second mortgage on the property. The second may be in the form of a “due-on-sale” mortgage, which means the assistance will be paid back if the property is ever sold. It may be a “forgivable loan,” where for example, 20% of the downpayment assistance is forgiven each year for a period of five years. The assistance could simply be a low-interest, long-term second mortgage.
If one wishes to refinance a first mortgage, one cannot do so without paying off the second mortgage, unless the second agrees to subordinate. When the non-profit agency holds the second mortgage, they can prevent the homeowner from refinancing into a bad loan or persuade the borrower that it is not wise to do so. Many borrowers end up refinancing when it is not in their best interest to do so, but borrowers who got downpayment assistance usually can’t do this. I think that programs that help low-income people become homeowners is money well spent. It helps lift people out of poverty rather than subsidizing their life in poverty. These programs have genrally been sucessful. While it may be popular to blame the housing crisis on government programs that helped poor people become homeowners it is simply not the truth.
To tell you the truth, two years ago I didn’t know the difference between a credit default swap and a collateralized debt instrument, but I knew a housing crisis was brewing. I did not know how widespread it would be or the impact it would have on the rest of the economy, but I knew something was terribly wrong. I have been Director of Housing Services for a non-profit housing counseling agency for the last sixteen years. For most of this time our primary housing service has been providing prior-to-purchase, housing counseling. We provide two types. We offer single session, eight-hour housing workshops, which we call “Fast-track." We also offer in-depth, long-term counseling, which we call “Homebuyers Club.” Fast Track is for people who are already eligible for a home mortgage. People are often motivated to take the class because it is required in order to be eligible for certain down-payment assistance programs or preferential interest rate programs. In an eight hour class the client learns all they need to know about working with a realtor; getting a good mortgage; protecting their investment; purchasing homeowners insurance; getting a home inspection; down payment assistance programs; and closing on their home. Our Homebuyers Cub program is quite different. It is for people who have serious obstacles to homeownership. While clients learn the same things as participants in the Fast Track, the focus is on getting people ready to get a mortgage. Most of the clients in our Homebuyers Club are single mothers. Most are African American. Most are low income. Clients attend class for an hour and a half, once a month, for a year. Many clients are still not ready after a year and they re-enroll and stay in class. For many of our clients it takes two or three years before they are ready to purchase a home. In a Homebuyers Club, we not only teach the mechanics of home buying but, more importantly, we change people’s values and habits. We teach the virtue of delayed gratification. We teach people how to clean up their credit and improve their credit score. We encourage people to get a checking account and to stop using check-cashing services. We teach money management skills and encourage savings. Many times, after being in a Homebuyers Club for a while a Club member may decide that, rather than pursuing homeownership at this time, they are better off getting their GED or skills or training that will enhance their potential to earn more money, and then at a later time try to become homeowners. Many participants in our Homebuyers Club never buy a house while in our program but make other positive changes that will improve their lives. While the primary measure of success in this program is the number of people who actually become homeowners, the number of people who improve their lives, yet do not become homeowners, is a greater number. I have always felt like we helped a lot more people than simply the number of people who became homeowners. Since the start of our Homebuyers Club we have had over 735 people become homeowners. Unfortunately, not many of these successes occurred in the past three years. At one time we had sixteen Homebuyers Clubs and average attendance in each club was about twelve. Now we have four clubs and attendance is only about six per club. About three to four years ago attendance started dropping in our clubs, and when we offered new clubs we had few takers. Managing a Homebuyers Club requires providing a lot of encouragement to participants. Clients can easily get discouraged. Prior to a meeting, clients get a reminder call and a reminder post card. If a client misses a couple meetings, we try to reach them to find out why they have not been attending. It was about three years ago that I noticed a disturbing trend. I would call a client and the conversation would go like this: “I noticed you missed the last couple of Homebuyers Club meetings and I just wanted to see what was going on.” “Mr. Rod,” the client would say excitedly, “I have good news. I bought a house.”
I would immediately have a sinking feeling in my stomach. I knew the client was not mortgage-ready. “Great!” I would say. “Tell me about it.” The client would start describing her new home. Then I would say, “Tell me about the financing. What kind of loan did you get?” More often than not, the client did not know. I would ask the client to bring in her mortgage papers for review. What I would find is that our clients were getting terrible loans. They would buy their homes with no money down. They often were getting 80/20 loans with the 80% loan a hybrid adjustable, with a low teaser rate fixed for three years and then adjusting every six months thereafter. These loans had high margins and payments that would adjust steeply after the end of the fixed period. The 20% loan was often fixed but with very high interest rates of 12% to 22%. Most often the clients had no idea what they had gotten themselves into. If they would have just stuck with our program, they could have gotten a FHA fixed loan but they did not. The temptation to do it the easy way was just too great. Also, the clients were often misled and told they could refinance before the loan reset. They were told this as if it was almost automatic. They were not told that they would have to meet income and debt and credit standards in order to refinance their loan. It was presented as something they could do almost automatically. After a while the problem was not that our clients were dropping out of our program and getting bad loans, they were never enrolling in the first place. They no longer needed us and the discipline our program required. With “creative financing” they could buy a house without saving any money or changing their habits. They could get a loan without becoming responsible. Income and credit were not necessary. Knowing the clients I was serving, I was shocked that anyone would give these clients a loan in their current circumstances. I saw this crisis coming. It was like watching a train on a collision course; I knew without a doubt that many of these clients were going to default. I still believe in the goal of helping poor people become homeowners. If done the right way it permanently helps people escape terrible environments. It causes people to be more responsible. It builds wealth. It lifts people out of poverty for generations to come. It changes lives. Helping low-income people climb out of poverty is good for society and is the right thing to do. If done the right way, low-income people can be given assistance to help them become responsible homeowners and it does not have to lead to foreclosures. Handing out mortgages to undeserving people, however, who have not leaned new skills, behaviors, and values can be detrimental to society and it betrays poor people in the process.
As we to prepare to witness the historical inauguration of Barack Obama as the first Black person to become President of the United States, I feel good about it. I wish him well. I do not wish him well because I agree with his policies; I hope he is not successful in implementing some of the changes he wishes for our county. On some issues, I think we should be changing in the opposite direction of the direction Obama wants to take us. On other issues, I agree with Obama and hope he follows through on his campaign promises. In general, it is not his policies that have given me high hopes for Obama. I am not hoping he can change government policy but rather I am hopeful that he can change society. America is still a society where most White people have it pretty good and most Black people do not. You do not have to tell me that there are successful African Americans and poor White people; of course there are. But, on average the typical Black person has it much worse in this country than the average White person. Some will point out that any remnant of discrimination has been eliminated and opportunity, even preferential treatment, has been provided to Black Americans. For the most part I agree, and yet the divide between the races is undeniable. If you are born white, you can have reasonable expectations of growing up to be successful. Even if you are born to parents of modest means, you probably know someone who has achieved success or someone in your family may have achieved success. If you are white it is reasonable to have high expectations. The chances are pretty good that the typical White child will grow up to be productive, and middle class and prestige and wealth are within grasp for those with exceptional abilities and those who apply themselves.
What can the black child realistically look forward to? Many find a reality in this: If you are a black girl you will be pregnant by the time you are sixteen and raise a child alone as a single mother, financially struggling your entire life. If you are a black boy it is worse. You will start getting into trouble with the law by the time you are a young teenager. You will drop out of school and you will end up spending part of your life in prison. You may be killed before you reach thirty. No one has to tell me it doesn’t have to be this way; I know it doesn’t, but the picture I have painted is the likely reality. If life turns out better, then you have beaten the odds. Why is it like this? I suspect that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Great Society are all responsible for the state of the Black community. We have witnessed the destruction of the family in the Black community; the family unit is the building block of society. And poverty can be a simple math equation. For example, a mother earning $20,000 a year with one child is living in poverty. However, a family with a father earning $30,000 and a mother earning $20,000 and raising one child are doing OK. Poverty is much more than a math equation though. The absence of the father in the home is more than the absence of that income. Young men need a role model and a strong disciplinarian to keep them from running wild. Young women need a stable male figure, representing strength and fortitude and demonstrating love. Poverty is hopelessness. Poverty is a different set of values. Poverty is a state of mind. If poverty is not to be devastating, people need the support system of the family structure. Poverty and despair and immediate gratification and low expectations and self-destructive behavior have become part of the fabric of Black society. I think that whatever success Obama may have as President, his greatest success may be that he can change Black society. I can only imagine the pride that many Blacks must be feeling as they see a Black man achieve the ultimate success in becoming the most influential and powerful person in the world. Certainly we have had other Black role models recently. The Bush administration featured Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, yet I suspect that having a Black man at the very top of the ladder can have an impact that other Blacks in lesser positions cannot have. Due to the historical structure of society, politics and even the entertainment industry, Blacks have had few admirable role models in the publicized realm. In modern times, the Black adults that many Black kids look up to are rappers and athletes. Many of the athletes have the persona of thugs and pimps and the rappers revel in that image. I watched the movie Ray Charles the other night. I love the music of Ray Charles and really enjoyed the movie, yet Ray Charles was not an admirable person. He was a drug addict who was openly unfaithful to his wife. If you are a Black parent, is this the kind of role model you want for your kid? I know one could also say that there are plenty of Whites who would make poor role models, but it seems poor role models are abundant in the black community and people to admire are few and far between. It seem like even the successful blacks are often crooks and thugs or tainted by scandal or associations. Here in Tennessee we had an attractive Black candidate run for Senate a few years ago named Harold Ford, Jr. There was never any serious allegation about defects in his character, yet he comes from a powerful political Black family out of Memphis that is deeply tainted by scandal and corruption. His uncle, John Ford, was a sharp-dressing, handsome, arrogant, slick politician who had numerous run-ins with the law and who had a wife but also openly had a mistress. He openly maintained two households. He was a state senator for many years and is now in prison for corruption. From Adam Clayton Powell down through the present, it seems that there is almost an expectation that Blacks who achieve political success are corrupt. Also, many of the civil rights leaders and religious leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson seem more like demigods and shakedown artist rather than principled leaders. Certainly there are many, many good people pastoring Black churches across America and other Black leaders of stature, but the high profile Black leaders look like con artist. My hope for America is that Blacks will aspire to look and act like Barack Obama and not the pimp on the corner, or the drug dealer, or the rapper, or the thug athlete. I hope that the image of the Obama household where a family consisting of two successful parents and two little girls living in a normal, loving, and supportive environment sinks into the psyche of every Black kid across America. I hope that Blacks see that they can achieve anything they put their mind to. I hope they learn to value education. I hope that speaking normal English and being responsible and working hard and studying and having aspirations is no longer considered “acting white.” I hope there is never a hint of scandal on Obama. I was concerned about some of his Chicago relationships but I hope they were casual and that nothing more comes out to tie Obama to the corruptions of some of his past associates. If Obama has a girl friend on the side, I hope we never learn about it. I hope Obama is never caught taking money under the table. I hope he never shakes down contributors or is caught helping a corrupt crony get a contract or having a cheap affair with an intern. I hope that Obama does not try to help the Black community by extending the dependency of the welfare state. That is the last thing the Black community needs. They do not need more dependency; they need self-sufficiency. Welfare reform was a step in the right direction and then it was abandoned and we backslid. For the last few years, for the most part, the problems of the Black community have been ignored. There are ways to expand opportunity without fostering dependency. The best thing Obama can do for the Black community is be a role model and use the bully pulpit to inspire Blacks to have greater aspirations and change the way they think. If Black kids want to grow up and be like Obama, that may be Obama’s most lasting legacy.
LAKE CITY, Ga. (AP) — More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.
Three years later, the reality TV show's most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis. (link)
Comment: This is sad, but not surprising. This extreme case represents part of what is wrong with give-away programs. Poverty is not just an issue of lack of money, but it concerns a total mindset. Many social programs fail in their mission of lifting people out of poverty because they fail to change the way people think. Many programs simply subsidize the recipients' poverty, without requiring the recipient to change their values and behavior. If people do not learn delayed gratification, improve their money management skills and change the way they think, then they are destined to remain poor. I suspect that if we redistributed all of the wealth in America starting tomorrow morning, by tomorrow night we would again have rich people and poor people.
By JAIME SARRIO, Staff Writer, The Tennessean Some of Nashville's hardest-to-educate students are taught by the district's least-experienced, lowest-paid teachers, an inequity education leaders have struggled for years to address. A Tennessean analysis of teacher salaries and experience levels shows a clear pattern: The district's top earners with the most experience and education are more likely to work in schools with fewer poor and minority students. Nashville's not alone. For years, urban districts around the country have been experimenting with hiring bonuses and performance incentives to try to level the playing field. Some cities, including Chattanooga, have made marked gains. Metro Nashville has been slower to address the issue, said state officials, partly because of a historically tense relationship with the teachers union. Now the district faces state intervention because of consistently low standardized test scores for poor, black and foreign-language-speaking students. (link) Commentary Teachers Unions Stand in the Way of Educational Improvement Nashville it a great city in which to live. We have a diverse economy, great parks system, and numerous universities and colleges. We have grown rapidly, but for the most part responsibly. We are big enough to have almost anything one would want but still small enough to feel like one unified city. We have a mild climate and are centrally located in a beautiful part of the country. Our downtown is booming and the city has a vibrancy and energy about it. The music scene and arts community give Nashville its own distinctive flavor. What Nashville does not have is good public education, not that it is uniformly bad. We have some schools that are excellent but we also have some absolutely terrible schools. Our school system is considered a failing system and will be taken over by the state. The above article looks at an aspect of the problems with Metro schools. It is very well written with lots of examination of data and figures. The writer does a good job of explaining the complexity of the problem. The title sums up the story: The worse performing schools have the lowest salaried teachers. If you have an interest in the Nashville schools and missed this story, I urge you to click the above link. If you are not connected to Nashville, you may want to read it anyway, because more than likely the same situation, maybe to a lesser degree, exists in your community. The following except from the story is very telling:
“Until this year, Metro could not offer bonus incentives for teachers in high-poverty schools because it violated the rules of the teacher contract, and the district and union couldn't agree how to do it. Now, a state law that takes effect this school year requires every district to offer incentives, and Metro will pay $4,000 to teachers willing to teach hard-to-staff subjects like math and special education in a high-need school.”
No doubt there are various reason why poor students perform poorly. Poor students may not have had parents who read to them. They may not have good role models. They may not have parents who encouraged, disciplined, and motivated them. They may not have books and computers in the home. Everything is not equal. That being given, however, does not mean we should further handicap poor students by giving them the least experienced and lowest paid teachers. The MNEA (Metro Nashville Education Association), like teachers' unions across America, has fought every meaningful education reform, every opportunity they had to do so. Incentive pay is common in the private sector; shift workers get shift differential pay. Jobs in high demand, demand higher salaries. Yet, the teachers unions have fought incentive pay at every opportunity. Teachers in math and science need to be paid more than teachers of literature. It is a harder course of study, and the private sector competition is higher for people with those skills. The new bonus incentive plan mentioned above is a step in the right direction but does not go nearly far enough. Any teacher teaching in a high-needs school should earn more than a teacher teaching in the middle class suburbs. In my view, those teachers serving in majority black, inner city schools should get combat pay. There should be a special designation and specialized training and considerably higher pay for teachers who will devote themselves to serving the students that no one wants to serve.
It is time for the teachers' unions to stop being the obstacle to improvements in education, and it is time to bring the logic of economic incentives to the field of education.
Above is the video and below is the text of Senator Obama's Father's day speech delivered to the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago.
Good morning. It’s good to be home on this Father’s Day with my girls, and it’s an honor to spend some time with all of you today in the house of our Lord. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus closes by saying, “Whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.” [Matthew 7: 24-25] Here at Apostolic, you are blessed to worship in a house that has been founded on the rock of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But it is also built on another rock, another foundation — and that rock is Bishop Arthur Brazier. In 48 years, he has built this congregation from just a few hundred to more than 20,000 strong — a congregation that, because of his leadership, has braved the fierce winds and heavy rains of violence and poverty; joblessness and hopelessness. Because of his work and his ministry, there are more graduates and fewer gang members in the neighborhoods surrounding this church. There are more homes and fewer homeless. There is more community and less chaos because Bishop Brazier continued the march for justice that he began by Dr. King’s side all those years ago. He is the reason this house has stood tall for half a century. And on this Father’s Day, it must make him proud to know that the man now charged with keeping its foundation strong is his son and your new pastor, Reverend Byron Brazier.
Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it.
But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it. You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it. How many times in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of another child? How many times have our hearts stopped in the middle of the night with the sound of a gunshot or a siren? How many teenagers have we seen hanging around on street corners when they should be sitting in a classroom? How many are sitting in prison when they should be working, or at least looking for a job? How many in this generation are we willing to lose to poverty or violence or addiction? How many? Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more after-school programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities. But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one. We need to help all the mothers out there who are raising these kids by themselves; the mothers who drop them off at school, go to work, pick up them up in the afternoon, work another shift, get dinner, make lunches, pay the bills, fix the house, and all the other things it takes both parents to do. So many of these women are doing a heroic job, but they need support. They need another parent. Their children need another parent. That’s what keeps their foundation strong. It’s what keeps the foundation of our country strong. I know what it means to have an absent father, although my circumstances weren’t as tough as they are for many young people today. Even though my father left us when I was 2 years old, and I only knew him from the letters he wrote and the stories that my family told, I was luckier than most. I grew up in Hawaii, and had two wonderful grandparents from Kansas who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my sister and me — who worked with her to teach us about love and respect and the obligations we have to one another. I screwed up more often than I should’ve, but I got plenty of second chances. And even though we didn’t have a lot of money, scholarships gave me the opportunity to go to some of the best schools in the country. A lot of kids don’t get these chances today. There is no margin for error in their lives. So my own story is different in that way. Still, I know the toll that being a single parent took on my mother — how she struggled at times to the pay bills; to give us the things that other kids had; to play all the roles that both parents are supposed to play. And I know the toll it took on me. So I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle — that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my girls; that if I could give them anything, I would give them that rock — that foundation — on which to build their lives. And that would be the greatest gift I could offer. I say this knowing that I have been an imperfect father — knowing that I have made mistakes and will continue to make more; wishing that I could be home for my girls and my wife more than I am right now. I say this knowing all of these things because even as we are imperfect, even as we face difficult circumstances, there are still certain lessons we must strive to live and learn as fathers — whether we are black or white; rich or poor; from the South Side or the wealthiest suburb. The first is setting an example of excellence for our children — because if we want to set high expectations for them, we’ve got to set high expectations for ourselves. It’s great if you have a job; it’s even better if you have a college degree. It’s a wonderful thing if you are married and living in a home with your children, but don’t just sit in the house and watch “Sports Center” all weekend long. That’s why so many children are growing up in front of the television. As fathers and parents, we’ve got to spend more time with them, and help them with their homework, and replace the video game or the remote control with a book once in awhile. That’s how we build that foundation. We know that education is everything to our children’s future. We know that they will no longer just compete for good jobs with children from Indiana, but children from India and China and all over the world. We know the work and the studying and the level of education that requires. You know, sometimes I’ll go to an eighth-grade graduation and there’s all that pomp and circumstance and gowns and flowers. And I think to myself, it’s just eighth grade. To really compete, they need to graduate high school, and then they need to graduate college, and they probably need a graduate degree, too. An eighth-grade education doesn’t cut it today. Let’s give them a handshake and tell them to get their butts back in the library! It’s up to us — as fathers and parents — to instill this ethic of excellence in our children. It’s up to us to say to our daughters, don’t ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream without limit and reach for those goals. It’s up to us to tell our sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we give glory to achievement, self-respect and hard work. It’s up to us to set these high expectations. And that means meeting those expectations ourselves. That means setting examples of excellence in our own lives. The second thing we need to do as fathers is pass along the value of empathy to our children. Not sympathy, but empathy — the ability to stand in somebody else’s shoes; to look at the world through their eyes. Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in “us,” that we forget about our obligations to one another. There’s a culture in our society that says remembering these obligations is somehow soft — that we can’t show weakness, and so therefore we can’t show kindness. But our young boys and girls see that. They see when you are ignoring or mistreating your wife. They see when you are inconsiderate at home; or when you are distant; or when you are thinking only of yourself. And so it’s no surprise when we see that behavior in our schools or on our streets. That’s why we pass on the values of empathy and kindness to our children by living them. We need to show our kids that you’re not strong by putting other people down — you’re strong by lifting them up. That’s our responsibility as fathers. And by the way — it’s a responsibility that also extends to Washington. Because if fathers are doing their part; if they’re taking our responsibilities seriously to be there for their children, and set high expectations for them, and instill in them a sense of excellence and empathy, then our government should meet them halfway. We should be making it easier for fathers who make responsible choices and harder for those who avoid them. We should get rid of the financial penalties we impose on married couples right now, and start making sure that every dime of child support goes directly to helping children instead of some bureaucrat. We should reward fathers who pay that child support with job training and job opportunities and a larger Earned Income Tax Credit that can help them pay the bills. We should expand programs where registered nurses visit expectant and new mothers and help them learn how to care for themselves before the baby is born and what to do after — programs that have helped increase father involvement, women’s employment and children’s readiness for school. We should help these new families care for their children by expanding maternity and paternity leave, and we should guarantee every worker more paid sick leave so they can stay home to take care of their child without losing their income. We should take all of these steps to build a strong foundation for our children. But we should also know that even if we do; even if we meet our obligations as fathers and parents; even if Washington does its part, too, we will still face difficult challenges in our lives. There will still be days of struggle and heartache. The rains will still come and the winds will still blow. And that is why the final lesson we must learn as fathers is also the greatest gift we can pass on to our children — and that is the gift of hope. I’m not talking about an idle hope that’s little more than blind optimism or willful ignorance of the problems we face. I’m talking about hope as that spirit inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting for us if we’re willing to work for it and fight for it. If we are willing to believe. I was answering questions at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin the other day and a young man raised his hand, and I figured he’d ask about college tuition or energy or maybe the war in Iraq. But instead he looked at me very seriously and he asked, “What does life mean to you?” Now, I have to admit that I wasn’t quite prepared for that one. I think I stammered for a little bit, but then I stopped and gave it some thought, and I said this: When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me — how do I make my way in the world, and how do I become successful and how do I get the things that I want. But now, my life revolves around my two little girls. And what I think about is what kind of world I’m leaving them. Are they living in a country where there’s a huge gap between a few who are wealthy and a whole bunch of people who are struggling every day? Are they living in a country that is still divided by race? A country where, because they’re girls, they don’t have as much opportunity as boys do? Are they living in a country where we are hated around the world because we don’t cooperate effectively with other nations? Are they living a world that is in grave danger because of what we’ve done to its climate? And what I’ve realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children — all of our children — a better world. Even if it’s difficult. Even if the work seems great. Even if we don’t get very far in our lifetime. That is our ultimate responsibility as fathers and parents. We try. We hope. We do what we can to build our house upon the sturdiest rock. And when the winds come, and the rains fall, and they beat upon that house, we keep faith that our Father will be there to guide us, and watch over us, and protect us, and lead His children through the darkest of storms into light of a better day. That is my prayer for all of us on this Father’s Day, and that is my hope for this country in the years ahead. May God bless you and your children. Thank you.
Commentary: This is a great speech. I wish every man could hear it. I am equally as critical of White men who abandon their children as I am of Black men, but it is fitting that this speech was delivered to a Black audience where the destruction of the family and the resulting social problems are so severe. I could quibble with his specific prescriptions for government action. Some of his proposals I think are on target, but others I disagree with. His recognition of the problem however is important and long overdue. Also, it is important to recognize that there is a roll for government in addressing the problem. Since this was a Father's Day speech I am not going to criticise him for not addressing the roll of mothers. Maybe next Mother's Day, he will tell single mothers that it is equally irresponsible to bring children into the world without a father in that child's life. Maybe he will say that there is no excuse for having multiple children by different men. Being a single mother is not something that just happens. Black women must also share the blame for the destruction of the Black family and the state of Black society. I differ with Senator Obama on several important issues and am not supporting him for President, but if elected I hope he will aggressively pursue an agenda to address Black poverty and the state of the Black family. For too long we as a nation have simply ignored this problem. It is time to do something about it. Recognizing there is a problem is a place to start.
Barrack Obama’s Father's Day speech was a breath of fresh air. The state of the Black family is such an incredibly sensitive matter, only a Black person can raise the issue. People tiptoe around the issue when discussing urban policy or anti-poverty initiatives. There is an assumption when talking of Black crime rates, or Black poverty, or Black homeownership rates, or Black school dropout rates that the disparity simply must be due to discrimination. It is considered impolite to point out that Blacks commit more crime, and have poorer credit ratings, and voluntarily drop out of school. To point these things out is considered “blaming the victim” if not downright racist. Political correctness keeps us from talking honestly about the problem of Black poverty. For most of my adult life I have worked with poor people, and for the last 15 years or so, I have worked as a housing counselor. As a housing counselor, part of what I do is work with low-income people seeking homeownership. I help clients clean up their credit and improve their money management skills, allowing them to become qualified to get a mortgage. I have counseled hundreds of clients. Most of them have been Black, single mothers. Unfortunately, as I have discovered, having children out of wedlock is the norm in the Black community. More Black children are born to single mothers than to intact families. Black, single mothers do not seem to expect to be married or receive child support. I have counseled women who themselves became single mothers at age 16. While in my counseling program, I have had these same mothers come to me and tell me their own 16-year-old daughter is now pregnant. It is my conclusion that the primary reason for Black poverty is the self-destructive behavior of Blacks; the single most destructive behavior, in my estimation, is having children out of wedlock. Young boys are less likely to get into trouble and young girls are less likely to get pregnant when there is a father in the home. Also, poverty is a function of income. A family consisting of a household of a mother earning $20,000 a year and a father earning $20,000 and with two children can get by OK; a family consisting of a single mother earning $20,000 with two children is poor. The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow certainly contributed to the state of the Black family, but the modern culprit is the legacy of the liberal welfare state. Welfare made fathers irrelevant. When mothers could get food stamps, public housing, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children if there was no father in the home, we destroyed the Black family and enslaved Blacks to institutional poverty. In The War on Poverty, poverty won. Welfare changed Black society for the worse. Welfare reform was certainly an important development and a step in the direction of correcting the mistakes of the past. Unfortunately, it did not go far enough. Since the initial reform there has been backsliding and retreat on this front. Welfare reform alone, however, will not change the Black culture, nor will it change it rapidly. It will take time and a willingness to face the problem. Cultural norms and the way people think do not change overnight. To make meaningful progress in ending Black poverty, there must be a change in the values of the Black community. I don’t pretend to know how to do this, but a place to start is for Black leaders to admit there is a serious problem within the culture and values of Black society. Blaming society for all of the problems of the Black community relieves the individual of personal responsibility. Black ministers need to challenge their parishioners to end self-destructive behavior. Black men should be shamed for abandoning their children. Single motherhood should not be celebrated. An out of wedlock birth needs to be viewed as a tragedy. If elected President, Obama may very well end up like other Democrats, advancing the welfare state and keeping Blacks enslaved in poverty and dependency. But from what I read of his Father’s Day speech, he is saying exactly what needs to be said. One speech will not make much difference, but maybe the tide is turning. With a Black leader of Obama’s stature, maybe Black society can reform itself, and Blacks can change these aspects of their culture and join the mainstream of society.
Obama celebrated Fathers Day today by speaking to a Black Church in Chicago. Various news sources including The New York Times, USA Today and The Associated Press gave accounts of the speech. Here are snippets of the speech:
“Too many fathers are M.I.A, too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes,” “They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.” “More than half of all black children live in single-parent households.” “I know how hard it is to get kids to eat properly, but I also know that folks are letting our children drink eight sodas a day, which some parents do, or, you know, eat a bag of potato chips for lunch. Buy a little desk or put that child at the kitchen table. Watch them do their homework.” “We need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility doesn’t just end at conception. That doesn’t just make you a father. What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”
This is a breath of fresh air. The state of the black family is such a sensitive matter that only a Black person can raise the issue.
By JASMINE RIDLEY, Published: Tuesday, 12/18/07 , Tennessee Voices When I think of Christmas, I think of joy and happiness, presents and food, family and fun. I love this family time and, like everyone, the presents. But I come from a single-parent home where my mom works full time every day to provide the basics for my sister and me. I would be truly grateful if I got just one thing off my "wish list" for Christmas, and I know how hard my mom works and tries to save to make this possible. Every year, kids like me and parents like my mom want Christmas to be a special time, but every year families in my east Nashville community fall prey to predatory lenders, like payday and title lenders, to make this happen. Many people who can't afford to buy Christmas presents frequent predatory lending establishments to get Christmas cash and end up having to pay for holiday debt long after the season is over. ( >To continue: Folks relying on...) My Commentary Jasmine Ridley, a junior at Maplewood High, has written a very good article on the topic of pay day lenders. I commend her. I hope this article reaches a lot of people and the adults in her community take heed. As long as the loan-sharks are legal, the only way to oppose them is by educating the public. I routinely see low-income people who have taken out these loans with interest rates that may be as high as 390% interest. The payday lenders, pawn shops, check cashing businesses, title lenders, and income tax preparers who market "rapid refunds" prey on the poor. I have counted over twenty such establishments in the section of Nolensville Road between Glenrose Ave. and Grassmere, a distance of about two miles. This area of Nashville, known as Woodbine, is a predominantly working class white and Latino neighborhood. All of the low-income areas of town likewise have a large number of these businesses. I am not sure to what extend we should protect the poor from making unwise decision. To some extent, to protect them by removing the temptation of high-interest rate loans seems paternalistic and insulting. No one holds a gun to their head and makes them take out a 400% interest loan. After we ban high-interest rate loans should we next ban the sale of lottery tickets, beer and wine? Should we then ban the Rent-a-Centers? There is a limit to how much protection from themselves we can provide the weak. On the one hand, free people should be free to make stupid decisions. On the other hand, I feel we have an obligation to prevent the powerful from preying on the weak. While we can not stop all abuses or protect everyone from making stupid decisions, I do not think anyone should able to charge 400% interest. I would wish that we could educate people to the point that they would choose not to be victims. I wish the poor would be insulted that they are being offered such loans and would refuse to be victims any longer. At my place of employment (Woodbine Community Organization) we try to educate the poor. In our Homebuyers Clubs, and Financial Fitness classes and in one-on-one counseling sessions we try to help people improve decision making and money management skills. By offering the free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) services, we keep people from going to the tax preparers who will try to sell them a tax anticipation loan at rates of up to $360% interest. I doubt anytime soon our state legislature will crack down on the predatory lenders victimizing the low-income. As for now, the immoral payday lenders and other predators are legal. We can only hope that voices like Jasmine's will reach enough people so that they will chose not to be victims.
Writing in today’s Washington Post, columnist David Broder says the Democratic Presidential race had developed a “different and welcome dynamic-a sharp competition among the leading candidates to become champions of the urban America.” (Urban America's Moment http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002047_pf.html) It is welcome news that the Democrats are placing a renewed focus on urban issues and the deafening silence from Republicans on urban policy is disappointing.
Jack Kemp seems to be the last Republican who had an Urban policy. To give Bush credit, however, his American Dream Homeownership Initiative (ADDI) has increased homeownership among all Americans including the urban poor. And, his Faith Based initiative has leveraged federal funding to help the poor by allowing religious based organizations to access federal dollars. Both of these programs have had positive results. Otherwise, however, the Bush administration and Republicans in general have been silent on the issues of black poverty and urban problems.
Unfortunately the Democratic “champions of urban America” are offering all the wrong solutions. Republican neglect of the issue may be preferable to the Democratic “solutions”. Their solutions center around raising the minimum wage, expanding the earned-income tax credit, new subsidies for housing, easier access to college and job training, and universal health-care. I would like to see the Republicans join the debate so the full range of solutions are presented rather than the issue be restricted to a Welfare-state expansion bidding war.
These are the elements I would like to see in a Republican Urban policy. 1.Keep doing right the things that have worked: · Homeownership expansion: The ADDI program has worked. The massive mortgage defaults we are seeing in housing is not among those new homeowners who received the ADDI down payment assistance, instead it is occurring among those with sub-prime loans. To qualify for the ADDI program, participants had to qualify for a good mortgage, so the program actually kept people from turning to sub-prime lenders. Expansion of homeownership builds individual wealth and strengthens families and communities. We should seek new ways to increase homeownership among the poor.
· Faith based initiative: It is a wise use of federal fund to fund those who have a passion for helping the poor.
2.Expand Welfare Reform-Stop the retreat. In the early 90’s Presidential candidate Bill Clinton vowed to "end welfare as we know it". Pushed along by the Republican Contract with America, which called for toughening the criteria for receiving welfare, the Republican Congress passed and President Clinton approved the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. Critics made dire predictions about the consequences of welfare reform. But, those dire predictions did no prove correct and Welfare Reform was a tremendous success. The New Republic concluded, "A broad consensus now holds that welfare reform was certainly not a disaster--and that it may, in fact, have worked much as its designers had hoped." Overall welfare rolls were cut by over 50% and in some states they were cut almost 90%! Former welfare recipient found work. Since then however, we have retreated on Welfare Reform. A Republican position should be a proposal for a Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act II which would revitalize the program and continue the progress. In the short-term, Welfare Reform is more expensive than subsidizing poverty, but it is worth the investment.
3.Expand and continue the HOPE VI program. Launched in 1992, the HOPE VI program was a drastic change in public housing policy and one of the most ambitious urban redevelopment efforts in the nation's history. It replaced distressed public housing projects occupied exclusively by poor families, with redesigned mixed-income housing and provided housing vouchers to enable some of the original residents to rent apartments in the private market. The program was mismanaged in some communities, but were it worked, it worked well. One of the results was a net decrease in the amount of public housing and a destruction of federally created ghettos of poor people. It is bad social policy to put all poor people in big developments were there are no other examples of what life can be. Public housing creates a culture of poverty. HOPE VI corrects that and should be expanded. (http://www.urban.org/publications/411002.htmlhttp://www.brookings.edu/urban/20040517_metroview.htm)
4.Support marriage and stigmatize single motherhood. This would have to be a multifaceted program and would have to be approached with delicacy and compassion, but strengthening the black family and marriage should be public policy. The 2000 U.S. Census shows only 44.9% of black householders live with a spouse, compared to 80.6% of whites. Single motherhood must be addressed as a leading cause of black poverty.
5.Continue support for No Child Left Behind. The program may need to be renamed and redesigned, but the goal should be the same. Easier access to college and job training are going to help very little in a community where most black boys drop out of school and those who graduate may not be able to read but have a worthless high school diploma. Accountability, Charter schools, incentive pay for teachers who teach in the worse schools, single-gender schools, and other innovations needs to be part of the solution. The educational establishment is an obstacle to school reform. Those who owe their election to the education establishment special interest group are not going to advocate meaningful reform in this critical area.
5.Think outside the box. Advocate bold new solutions. One bold solution, proposed by Sociologist Charles Murray, would provide a grant of up to $10,000 per year for life for everyone over the age of 21. Admittedly, initially this would be an expensive program, but by replacing other forms of public assistance and with a modification of tax policy, it probably is not more expensive than current social policy spending and it has the promise of changing private behavior and values. Single men who father a child would be subject to having their grant taken to pay child support. (http://bostonreview.net/BR31.5/conley.html). I understand a serious candidate may not wish to advocate something as radical and as specific as the Murray plan, but should offer a promise of a bold new initiatives
At last week's NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate Forum, of the nine Republican candidates invited to the forum only Tom Tancredo showed up. All the Democratic Presidential hopefuls showed up for their forum. The excuses given by the Republican campaigns mostly had to do with scheduling conflicts. Many will see this as an indication of the Republican party's commitment to civil rights in America.
Democrates usually start with upwards of 90% support from this easily identifiable demographic group that makes up some 12% of the population. So, the Republicans may reason, why waste our time? Republican efforts to court black votes have not proven effective. When Blacks vote as a Democratic block, then they can't expect to be courted by Republicans.
Still, I wish Republicans would not give up on them. Republicans have a record of which to be proud. Bush's faith-based initiative, the Bush Housing initiative which increased Black homeownership, increased employment in the Black Community, and prominent Black cabinet members in the administration such as Rice and Powell are all things of which the Republicans should remind Black voters.
If Republicans appearance before a black audience does not win them black votes, it is still a good place to talk about important issues. For the good of America, we need to address the issues that effect black America such as poverty, the war-on- drug policy, the black aids epidemic, and failing schools. The forum would have been a good opportunity for a Republican candidate to talk about continuing welfare reform, economic opportunity, and personal responsibility. Even it the blacks in the audience don't care what white Republicans have to say, I would like to see how the Republicans would address the important issues that effect black America and therefore effect us all. I do not think a Jack Kemp would have turned down this opportunity.
As the author of A Disgruntled Republican I often post items which I think may be of interest to the conservative, Republican, libertarian or the greater community. Posting of a press release or an announcement of an event does not necessarily indicate an endorsement. Rod
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