August 20, 2015
By Brittany K. Jackson
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) of Los Angeles kicked-off its’ 33rd Annual 5K Walk for Education at Exposition Park Saturday August 15. A host of corporate sponsors, college organizations, youth and their families gathered to support the event, which raises funds to send more children to college and meet President Obama’s goal of regaining U.S. status as the number one country for college graduates by 2020.
UNCF Development Director and event organizer Carolyn Trader shared the value UNCF brings to communities across the county and emphasized the importance of prospective students applying to HBCUs. “The first thing for students it to find out what schools they want to attend, but we really want students to apply to HBCU’s. There are a lot of students who move to Southern California from the South, and we want them to know that they have a better chance by applying to college supported by the UNCF” Trader said.
High school students and Top Teens of America Camille Grundy and Nia Dodd supported their community as volunteers, passing out water to participants. “It’s a long walk, but it’s for a good cause for youth, Dodd stated.” It provides us with the right requirements necessary attend a college or university,” Grundy added.
Weslee Glenn, a post-doctoral scholar for the UNCF Merck Science Research Fellow, shared why the walk for education is so important, especially for African Americans pursuing education in science. “The UNCF Merck program is one of the few that offer fellowships for people across the country working in biomedical research or agricultural research. It’s very important I think to give validation to students and recognize them for all the good work that they do,” Glenn stated.
It’s all about scholarship and uplifting the community. We want to be here to support the UNCF and the funding that’s needed in order to support HBCUs,” an Omega Psi Phi member stated. UNCF Los Angeles has raised over $32,000 dollars and counting at this years’ walk for education and continues the quest to empower young students and help them achieve their collegiate and career goals.
August 13, 2015
LAWT News Service
In an historic move, the Compton Unified School District Governing Board of Trustees through the dynamic leadership of President Micah Ali, voted to approve Today's Fresh Start Charter School's petition to be an authorized charter school overseen by Compton Unified School District. This is the first charter approved by the Compton Unified School District.
Today’s Fresh Start Charter, founded by longtime educators, Drs. Clark and Jeanette Parker, continues to succeed in its mission to ensure excellence in teaching and learning so that each student will participate responsibly in a diverse and changing world preparing them as “lifelong learners.” Today’s Fresh Start maintains strong state test scores, achieving an API score of 833 by the overall student population of more than 800 students. Additionally, Today’s Fresh Start ranks 10 (the highest attainable score) among surrounding similar schools, and 7 among all California schools.
Originally authorized by the Los Angeles County Board of Education in September 2003, Today’s Fresh Start Charter was required to have programs in multiple educational sites throughout Los Angeles County, and to fulfill this requirement, opened the site in Compton on Rosecrans Avenue. This campus, which serves approximately eighty students in Transitional Kindergarten through fifth grade and their families—all from the local Compton
neighborhood, has been a part of Compton’s footprint for thirteen years.
In 2011, the State Board of Education passed regulation stating that Today’s Fresh Start and all countywide charter schools throughout the state of California must seek renewal and obtain a new charter from a local school district to continue their charter school program(s) from a local district that they are currently operating within.
Because of this regulation, Today’s Fresh Start sought authorization from Compton Unified School District to continue operating in Compton. The Today’s Fresh Start community knew this would be no easy feat, as special interest groups stood in fierce opposition to authorizing Today’s Fresh Start to operate within Compton Unified School District borders.
Led by board President, Micah Ali, the Compton Unified School Board took courageous action in favor of Today’s Fresh Start and voted to authorize the charter school to operate not only at its Rosecrans Avenue site in Compton, but also at its Vernon site on Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles (the largest of TFSCS’ five sites). This unprecedented unanimous clvote to charter TFSCS (their first charter) by the Compton Unified School Board ensures that students and families will continue to enjoy the benefit of an excellent education at Today’s Fresh Start Charter School.
August 06, 2015
LAWT News Service
View Park Library will soon be named after one of the community’s most distinguished residents: the late bestselling novelist and advocate for the mentally ill, Bebe Moore Campbell.
The county Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the change on August 4, on a motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.
“Bebe Moore Campbell was an accomplished journalist and author who, through her writing, engaged in tireless and undaunted efforts to confront racism and challenge the stigma associated with mental illness,” he said. “Her legacy of raising awareness for important social issues certainly will not be forgotten.”
Ms. Campbell authored four New York Times bestsellers: Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Come Back Choir, What You Owe Me, and 72 Hour Hold. She also wrote the Los Angeles Times bestseller and New York Times notable book of the year, Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine, for which she won an Image Award for literature from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Her byline has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Essence, Ebony, Black Enterprise, and many other publications.
Campbell was also the co-founder of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)-Inglewood, now known as NAMI Urban Los Angeles.
She died in 2006 of complications from brain cancer. She was 56.
In 2008, the US. House of Representatives passed a bill declaring the month of July as “Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.”
July 30, 2015
By JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press
Some federal and state prisoners could soon be eligible for federal student aid to take college courses while behind bars.
The aid would come in the form of Pell grants, which are for low-income people and do not have to be repaid.
The Education Department confirmed Tuesday of this week that it would conduct a limited pilot program to give prisoners access to the Pell grants. The official announcement was scheduled for Friday, when Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Loretta Lynch visit the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup, Maryland. The prison has a partnership with nearby Goucher College.
Previewing the program, Duncan said Monday that the administration wants to develop "experimental sites that will make Pell grants available" to inmates to help them get job training and secure a productive life after they are released.
Asked for more details, Duncan told reporters in a call after the speech, "Stay tuned."
Department spokeswoman Dorie Nolt declined to disclose any specifics on the length of the program, which prisoners would be eligible and how it would work.
Congress passed legislation in 1994 banning government student aid to prisoners in federal or state institutions. By setting up the proposed "experimental sites," the administration would be seeking to get around the ban with a pilot program.
The experimental sites section of the Higher Education Act of 1965 gives federal officials flexibility to test the effectiveness of temporary changes to the way federal student aid is distributed. The tests could give the Education Department data to support possible revisions to laws or regulations.
More than 2 million students now receive Pell grants, according to Duncan. The maximum award for the 2015-2016 school year is $5,775.
On Friday, Duncan and Lynch were scheduled visit Goucher College's Prison Education Partnership at the Jessup facility. More than 70 students are enrolled in Goucher College through the partnership, which began classes for prisoners in 2012 and does not receive public funding.
The inmates don't pay tuition, and books and supplies are provided at no cost, according to the partnership.
"Getting a college education takes an incredible amount of hard work," Amy Roza, director of the partnership, said in an interview. "The program helps with skills like critical thinking and problem solving."
About 70 percent of students in the program are first-generation college students, Roza said.
Goucher is part of the Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison, based at Bard College in New York. Wesleyan University in Connecticut and Grinnell College in Iowa also are part of the consortium.
Education Department Undersecretary Ted Mitchell this week called Pell grants "one of the key levers that we have" to increase the college completion rate.
Advocates for expanding federal student aid to prisoners point to societal benefits. A 2013 Rand study found that inmates who took part in education programs behind bars had 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison than inmates who had not. Supporters say the correctional education programs are cost-effective compared with the costs of re-incarceration.
Reps. Donna Edwards, D-Md., and Danny Davis, D-Ill., introduced legislation in May that would reinstate Pell Grant eligibility for federal and state prisoners. At the time, Edwards said it would go a long way to helping curb the nation's high incarceration rate through education.