Watch the Video: Black kids public school education for sale http://billmoyers.com/episode/public-schools-for-sale/ Why the Racist Jim Crow History of the Charter/Choice/Voucher School Movement Is Never Discussed  ‪http://www.alternet.org/education/‬ David Behrendt was editorial page editor at the Milwaukee Journal during the 1990. As is customary in the media, certain peoples phone calls bypass the secretary and go straight to influential editors. In the 1990, when the voucher controversy was first surfacing in Milwaukee, Behrendt got a call from ''a prominent Milwaukee business executive'' who wanted to speak off the record.  ''He said some well connected Powers That Be had concluded that it was finally time to pump taxpayer dollars into Catholic schools because that was the only way to save them,'' Behrendt explained years later. ''The push would be framed as an effort to help impoverished black children get a better education ( Polly Williams's agenda), but that saving the Catholic schools was the driving force. Apparently, it was expected, correctly, that the Supreme Court of this state would never strike vouchers down as unconstitutional, to coin a phrase, the rest is history.'' It took five years, but in 1995 Catholic school supporters reached their goal. Wisconsin passed legislation expanding the voucher program to pay for tuition at private religious schools. Milwaukee, already home to the country's oldest and biggest voucher program, continued to make educational history. Page 198 Barbara Miner, Lessons from the Heartland ‪http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59558-829-6‬ When Charters Try to Crowd Out Marginalized Public School Kids. A battle in NYC shows what happens when corporate-backed schools fight special needs public school kids for space.  ‪http://www.alternet.org/.../when-charters-try-crowd-out...‬

Did Multi-Culturalism Lower the Standards of Public Schools The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study (EEOS), also known as the "Coleman Study," was commissioned by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1966 to assess the availability of equal educational opportunities to children of different race, color, religion, and... Like · · Share · about an hour ago Leon Todd Quality doesn't follow rise in voucher schools. Social Class Matters, data verifies James Coleman/Jencks 60s research http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/quality-doesnt-follow-rise-in-voucher-schools-9v3442t-134187363.html Quality doesn't follow rise in voucher schools - JSOnline www.jsonline.com Keith Nelson says it has been a godsend for Wisconsin Academy to take part in Mi... See More about an hour ago · Like · Leon Todd Score comparisons show key points for MPS. Social Class Matters. Data verifies the James Coleman research of 1966 http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/score-comparisons-show-key-points-for-mps-u63cljq-135388523.html Score comparisons show key points for MPS - JSOnline www.jsonline.com What does the Hillsborough County, Fla., school district have that Milwaukee Pub... See More about an hour ago · Like · Leon Todd Social & Economic Class Matters; Why Won't We Admit It? The Unaddressed Link Between Poverty and Education: http://nyti.ms/sOIrK4 The Unaddressed Link Between Poverty and Education www.nytimes.com Federal education policy seems blind to the relationship between poverty and student performance. 48 minutes ago · Like · Leon Todd Ex-MPS superintendent Lee McMurrin ran a first class public school system until right wing business reforms ruined it. http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/where-are-they-now-exmps-superintendent-lee-mcmurrin-131434188.html Ex-MPS superintendent Lee McMurrin - JSOnline www.jsonline.com Lee McMurrin was superintendent during the court-ordered integration of Milwauke... See More 48 minutes ago · Like · Leon Todd What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/#.TwW70arL7rc.email What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success www.theatlantic.com The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence. 47 minutes ago · Like · Leon Todd The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study (EEOS), also known as the "Coleman Study," was commissioned by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1966 to assess the availability of equal educational opportunities to children of different race, color, religion, and national origin. This study was conducted in response to provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and serves as an example of the use of a social survey as an instrument of national policy-making. The EEOS consists of test scores and questionnaire responses obtained from first-, third-, sixth-, ninth-, and twelfth-grade students, and questionnaire responses from teachers and principals. These data were obtained from a national sample of schools in the United States. Data on students include age, gender, race and ethnic identity, socioeconomic background, attitudes toward learning, education and career goals, and racial attitudes. Scores on teacher-administered standardized academic tests are also included. These scores reflect performance on tests assessing ability and achievement in verbal skills, nonverbal associations, reading comprehension, and mathematics. Data on teachers and principals include academic discipline, assessment of verbal facility, salary, education and teaching experience, and attitudes toward race. http://www.amazon.com/Equality-Educational-Opportunity-Perennial-sociology/dp/0405120885 Equality of Educational Opportunity (Perennial works in sociology) www.amazon.com Equality of Educational Opportunity (Perennial works in sociology) 41 minutes ago · Like · Leon Todd SUBTRACTION BY ADDITION | A WATCHDOG REPORT ON MPS' FAILED CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM Buildings rise, test scores fall Spate of school expansions is no tonic for student proficiency By ALAN J. BORSUK and DAVE UMHOEFERaborsuk@journalsentinel.com Posted: Aug. 19, 2008 Third of three parts The $102 million spent on reviving the concept of the neighborhood school in Milwaukee hasn't improved academic success at most of the schools where the money was used, a Journal Sentinel investigation found. With a few exceptions, student achievement has shown little improvement - and in some cases it has fallen dramatically - at 22 schools that were among the largest beneficiaries of the district's school construction program. The district's Neighborhood Schools Initiative was conceived as a way to get children off buses and into their local schools - which MPS officials hoped to improve with new classrooms, before-school and after-school services, and such things as state-of-the-art science labs and libraries. But bricks and mortar have not raised student performance, testing data shows. In 16 of the 22 schools, the percentage of fourth-graders rated as proficient or better in reading was lower last year than it was in 2002 - the year the school building initiative hit high gear. Nine schools saw their math scores drop. Overall, combined fourth-grade reading and math scores have declined sharply at a half dozen of the22 schools where more than $1 million was spent on improvements. Only five schools have had major increases in their combined reading and math performance. The lackluster results may not be a factor in why parents choose to send their children outside their neighborhood. MPS records show that thousands of parents are sending their children to schools with similar scores. But the scores are not an attraction for the bulk of the schools on the Neighborhood Schools Initiative list. "Unfortunately, you can't get kids off a bus to go to a bad program," said former MPS Superintendent Spence Korté, who oversaw the district when it began its ambitious school construction phase. Almost all of the additions were finished by 2005. 21 minutes ago · Like

SUBTRACTION BY ADDITION | A WATCHDOG REPORT ON MPS' FAILED CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM Buildings rise, test scores fall Spate of school expansions is no tonic for student proficiency By ALAN J. BORSUK and DAVE UMHOEFER aborsuk@journalsentinel.com Posted: Aug. 19, 2008 Third of three parts The $102 million spent on reviving the concept of the neighborhood school in Milwaukee hasn't improved academic success at most of the schools where the money was used, a Journal Sentinel investigation found. With a few exceptions, student achievement has shown little improvement - and in some cases it has fallen dramatically - at 22 schools that were among the largest beneficiaries of the district's school construction program. The district's Neighborhood Schools Initiative was conceived as a way to get children off buses and into their local schools - which MPS officials hoped to improve with new classrooms, before-school and after-school services, and such things as state-of-the-art science labs and libraries. But bricks and mortar have not raised student performance, testing data shows. In 16 of the 22 schools, the percentage of fourth-graders rated as proficient or better in reading was lower last year than it was in 2002 - the year the school building initiative hit high gear. Nine schools saw their math scores drop. Overall, combined fourth-grade reading and math scores have declined sharply at a half dozen of the22 schools where more than $1 million was spent on improvements. Only five schools have had major increases in their combined reading and math performance. The lackluster results may not be a factor in why parents choose to send their children outside their neighborhood. MPS records show that thousands of parents are sending their children to schools with similar scores. But the scores are not an attraction for the bulk of the schools on the Neighborhood Schools Initiative list. "Unfortunately, you can't get kids off a bus to go to a bad program," said former MPS Superintendent Spence Korté, who oversaw the district when it began its ambitious school construction phase. Almost all of the additions were finished by 2005. How easy is it to attract students to a school such as Fifty-third Street in Sherman Park, where the percentage of fourth-graders proficient or better in reading fell from 69% in 2002 to 42% in 2007? In math, the numbers there fell from 30% to 19%, meaning only one in five fourth-graders was considered to be at grade level last year. A $2.1 million addition to the school, with room for 199 students, was one of the first projects completed under the neighborhood building plan. Improving academic performance was a publicly stated goal of the school building plan, although the district didn't list specific strategies to make it happen. "One of the underlying goals was that by updating our buildings . . . one of the byproducts would be to increase achievement," said Aquine Jackson, who directed implementation of the plan the School Board approved in 2000. "Everything we do should be focused on how to improve student achievement. The neighborhood school project was part of that mix." But Jackson did not want to form conclusions about the success of the project based on achievement data. He said researchers would have a hard time figuring out whether the initiative in itself had a positive or negative effect on student achievement, and he views the project as one factor contributing to student success. "What would have been the results if we hadn't done this?" he asked. Roseann St. Aubin, spokeswoman for MPS, said the schools that got additions are still evolving. "We are glad we went ahead with the projects," she said. A national expert on urban school-building projects said districts make a mistake by putting bricks and mortar ahead of strong educational reforms. "You can't lead with your facilities," said Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that advocates for improved school buildings. "You have to start with your program." Causes of poor performance Schools that received construction money aren't the only MPS schools that are struggling. Throughout the district, test scores generally have remained low since 2002. Talk to teachers, parents, academic experts and politicians, and you'll get a wide range of reasons why urban school districts such as Milwaukee's generally produce lower test scores. It's the parents and the dysfunctional role so many play. Kids just don't show up ready or willing to learn or with a grasp of what is acceptable behavior. It's MPS itself. Two reports in the last two years from a major urban education organization criticized the lack of urgency within the system for improving student performance. It's the budget. The financial squeeze on MPS has reduced the number of teachers, leading to increased class sizes and a harder time getting through to kids. It's poverty. Milwaukee has one of the highest child poverty rates in the U.S., and poverty correlates with low academic achievement in every city in America. The schools involved in the district's construction program may illustrate all of those problems, plus one more: It's the principal. The importance of the principal is an intangible factor, but educators nationwide often point to it as a key to success, particularly in urban school districts. That is a guiding belief for New Leaders for New Schools, an organization training principals in nine cities, including Milwaukee. "When we look around the country at schools that are making dramatic improvements, we haven't found one without a great principal," said Jon Schnur, CEO and co-founder of the organization. A strong principal was the common denominator at Doerfler, Longfellow and Burbank schools. The three MPS schools had the largest increases in student achievement after receiving school construction funds. The Journal Sentinel's analysis found that the two schools with the sharpest drops in achievement - Clarke Street and Martin Luther King Jr. - lost principals with strong reputations in recent years. Several others with large drops, including Fifty-third Street and Thurston Woods, also experienced turnover in the principal's office. Asked why achievement declined in many schools that were part of the construction project, School Board member Bruce Thompson, who was president when the plan was approved, said, "I suspect a lot has to do with the principal - whether the school is together as a unit." Thompson added, "I never believed you solved the problems with a better building." A few success stories Doerfler and Longfellow schools on the south side and Burbank on the west side show what can happen when the neighborhood school building program reaches its potential. The schools are enrolled to capacity and had sharp improvements on the academic side. At Doerfler, fourth-grade reading and math scores have surged since 2002 - including a 34 percentage-point improvement in math. In the same period, $1.9 million was spent to add six classrooms. Enrollment rose almost 25%. A $4.9 million addition increased Longfellow's capacity by 189 seats. The school with 830 students is full, test scores are up and planning is under way for a second addition that will make further improvements, including a new gymnasium. Principal Wendell Smith said the first addition allowed the school to build its relationships with the surrounding families. The school added middle-school grades, like many of the schools in the project. Neighborhood parents like the continuity of having their children in the same school until high school, he said. The school also is home for many programs in the neighborhood and is planning to expand its connection to Journey House, a community agency serving young people, as part of the next wave of expansion. "I want this to be the hub of this community," Smith said. He said the educational program is "very relationship-based," and many staff members have worked hard to connect with the families of their students in surrounding blocks. On the other hand, several schools where the new additions are underused had steep declines in achievement. At Thirty-fifth Street School, where no use is being made of classrooms that cost $7.2 million, the percentage of fourth-graders proficient or better in reading fell from 56% in 2002 to 33% in 2007, and in math from 40% to 33%. Surplus space McNair Academy is another school that has struggled since a large addition, costing $2.7 million, was built. When a reporter visited McNair last spring, teachers and students appeared focused on appropriate activities and hallways were orderly. Principal Willie Fuller was friendly, and so were teachers and students. A writing contest sponsored by an outside group seemed to encourage students to take extra steps aimed at achievement. But the building has a huge amount of empty space. Of the nine classrooms added, last year only three were used for conducting classes. One was used for storage. The rest were used by specialists such as a social worker, a psychologist and a "curriculum generalist" assigned to help improve the overall educational program. Conventionally, each would have a small office rather than an entire classroom. Furthermore, six classrooms in the older sections of the building were also unused. Overall, enrollment had fallen from 313 in September 1999 to 243 last September - even as space for 162 more students was added to the school. As enrollment fell and budgets tightened, the school lost some of its teaching specialists. Last school year, McNair was down to a gym teacher two days a week. It didn't have an art or music teacher. It had a new library, built as part of the addition, but it had a librarian only one day a week. Academic achievement as measured by test performance had slipped. In 2002, 48% of fourth-graders were proficient or better in reading. Last year, the figure was 42%. In math, the proficiency percentage went from 52% to 42% in the same period. Fuller, the principal, said a lot of children in the neighborhood are enrolled in MPS schools elsewhere or in private or charter schools outside MPS. She said she sees lots of kids in the neighborhood after school who go elsewhere for an education. But efforts to win more over to McNair have not succeeded. The efforts include such things as distributing fliers in the neighborhood. "We send it out constantly, but people are just not, kids are just not, coming," Fuller said. She held up her hands, palms turned toward her, and waived her fingers, as if trying to bring the children toward her. "Give us some kids," she said. Jackson, the MPS administrator, said McNair was in "an ideal neighborhood school location." The surrounding blocks are residential, with light traffic. The neighborhood does not have high crime rates and is generally stable. The school is physically attractive and has lots of playground space. But the school is not thriving, not when it comes to academic achievement, not when it comes to enrollment, and not when it comes to the impact of the Neighborhood Schools Initiative.

Social Class Matters in America & Blacks are Stuck in an Underclass

Class Matters The New York Times, Bill Keller 69 Reviews Macmillan, Sep 2, 2005 - Social Science - 268 pages The acclaimed New York Timesseries on social class in America--and its implications for the way we live our lives We Americans have long thought of ourselves as unburdened by class distinctions. We have no hereditary aristocracy or landed gentry, and even the poorest among us feel that they can become rich through education, hard work, or sheer gumption. And yet social class remains a powerful force in American life. In Class Matters, a team of New York Timesreporters explores the ways in which class--defined as a combination of income, education, wealth, and occupation--influences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity. We meet individuals in Kentucky and Chicago who have used education to lift themselves out of poverty and others in Virginia and Washington whose lack of education holds them back. We meet an upper-middle-class family in Georgia who moves to a different town every few years, and the newly rich in Nantucket whose mega-mansions have driven out the longstanding residents. And we see how class disparities manifest themselves at the doctor's office and at the marriage altar. For anyone concerned about the future of the American dream, Class Mattersis truly essential reading. " Class Mattersis a beautifully reported, deeply disturbing, portrait of a society bent out of shape by harsh inequalities. Read it and see how you fit into the problem or--better yet--the solution!" --Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch http://books.google.com/books/about/Class_matters.html?id=l429kaN9rUwC Drawing on both her roots in Kentucky and her adventures with Manhattan Coop boards, Where We Stand is a successful black woman's reflection--personal, straight forward, and rigorously honest--on how our dilemmas of class and race are intertwined, and how we can find ways to think beyond them. http://www.amazon.com/Where-We-Stand-Class-Matters/dp/041592913X

Inequality : A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America by Christopher Jencks 1972

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Reassessment of James Coleman "Equality" 1966, October 25, 1998
By A Customer

This review is from: Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America (Hardcover)
Inequality : A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America by Christopher Jencks 1972
Leon Todd (leontodd@execpc.com from Milwaukee, WI usa , October 24, 1998

Christopher Jencks, Inequality (1972), noted that it is probably wiser to define a "good" school in terms of student body characteristics than in terms of its budget or school resources. According to Jencks, once a good school starts taking in "undesirable" students (the definition of desirable sometimes pertains to academic, social, or economic attributes), its academic standing automatically declines. He concluded that while an elementary schools' social composition had only a moderate effect on student's cognitive achievement, secondary or high school social composition had a significant effect on achievement. Jencks also concluded that school racial composition had only a small effect on black students' later occupational status. This evidence on racial composition and occupational status is far more convincing than any evidence offered to date supporting the position that expenditures or school resources influence academic achievement.

The type of friends students are likely to make, the values they are exposed to, and satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the school, are all dependent upon the character of the student body. Jencks reanalyzed Coleman's EEOS data, Equality of Educational Opportunity (1966) and also concluded that the achievement of lower class students, both black and white, was fairly strongly related to the socioeconomic level of their classmates as long as the poverty class students were in a significant minority of the school student body. This usually meant that a student's achievement was also related to the race, or more accurately the class, of his classmates, since black classmates tended to be poorer or of a lower SES classmates, and vice versa. Jencks also concluded that when the socioeconomic level of a lower class child's classmates was held constant, however, their race had no relationship to achievement.

This conclusion is consistent with Coleman's argument (1966) that school social class has an effect on academic achievement independent of the individual student's family background. Jencks reported that when race and the economic status of students within schools were controlled for, differences in school policies and resources did Not significantly affect verbal achievement. Black student achievement was found to be even less related to schools' policies and resources than white student achievement. This conclusion was inconsistent with Coleman's findings.

"Family background, "social class," and "economic status" are often used interchangeably by social scientists. This interpretation or confounding of these complex concepts often poses serious problems in terms of the comparability and interpretation of research findings. The term "social class" has been defined in a variety of ways. Disputes about the legitimacy of these term have been many and heated and in the ensuing discourse confounding and confusing.

Some scholars deny the existence of social classes in America. Jencks (1972) stated that: The term family background can itself be somewhat misleading, since differences between families derive not just from differences between neighborhoods, regions, schools, and all other experiences that are the same for children in the same family socioeconomic status. Also, the term family background has various interpretations.

By "family background," Jencks (1972) referred to all the environmental factors that make brothers and sisters more alike than random individuals. "Some of these factors are economic, while some are not." Jencks further stated that there can be great variation in "family background" among children who come from the same social or economic class.

Jencks (1972) estimated that a family's economic status probably correlates about 0.35 with children's test scores. What this means is that the test scores of children whose fathers rank in the top fifth of the occupational hierarchy will on the average be 13 to 15 points higher than children whose fathers rank in the bottom fifth. If family income is used as a measure of SES, the disparity between these two groups will be less than 13 points. Jencks further stated that class differences appear to be greatest for verbal ability and general information. Test of mathematical skills, reading comprehension, and non-verbal ability are less influenced by economic background.

http://www.amazon.com/Inequality-Reassessment-Effect-Schooling-America/dp/0061319600/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325135348&sr=1-1

Equality of Educational Opportunity, James Samuel Coleman (Author)

Equality of Educational Opportunity (Perennial works in sociology) [Hardcover]
James Samuel Coleman (Author)

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Family background and public school achievement, October 13, 1998
By An Amazon Customer URL below

This review is from: Equality of Educational Opportunity (Perennial works in sociology) (Hardcover)
Milwaukee Public School (MPS) Board Director Leon Todd's review. E-mail A Review:

James S. Coleman was commissioned by the 1964 Civil Rights Act to investigate the effects of the 1954 Brown Decision. The first national study on public education was conducted to validate the Supreme Courts decision that integration was a key variable in equality of educational opportunity and was in the public's best interest.

James S. Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity (1966), concluded that the effects of the school environment on student achievement, whatever its racial or ethnic composition, appear to come from the educational proficiency of the school student body. In addition to the achievement level of other students, the "realistic" aspirations of other students affect academic achievement. In other words, as the educational backgrounds and aspirations of other students increase, a student's academic achievement increases no matter what the individual student's social class, race or background.

These findings have had important implications concerning school race as a factor in student achievement since middle class overlaped with white and poverty class overlaped so well with students of color, particularly in the sixties.

While Coleman's results showed higher achievement for all racial and ethnic groups in schools with greater percentages of white or middle class students, they also indicated that the apparent beneficial effects of a student body with a high proportion of white students do not result from school racial or genetic composition, but from the higher educational aspirations and better educational backgrounds generally possessed by white or middle class students.

Since white students are more likely than black students to be middle class, it is reasonable to assume that schools with a higher percentage of white students would have student bodies with higher and more "realistic" educational aspirations and better educational backgrounds than black or poverty class students of color. The percentage of families owning encyclopedias, (2) transfers in and out of school, (3) average daily attendance, (4) percent of students in college curriculum, and (5) average hours spent on homework, were used to determine school social class. The socioeconomic mix of students in classrooms was cited as one of the school characteristics that increases academic achievement.

Coleman's (1966) first conclusion was that parents' education, variable defined as family background, has the highest relation to achievement for nearly all racial or ethnic groups, particularly in later years of public school education.

Coleman's second conclusion, which is the one that is almost more pertinent to his research, was that compared to the effects of family background, the effects of school staff and facilities on achievement are of minimal importance. In other words, improving the quality of schools attended by blacks alone will not reduce the gap between black and white achievement. Coleman (1966) concluded that school factors, particularly tangible facilities (age of the building, size of the library, currency of the text books, etc.), had little effect on student performance.

Coleman (1966) also reported that children from disadvantaged groups (including blacks) were more external in their control beliefs. Locus or center of control became a critical variable. The unresponsive nature of their environments was cited as one of the reasons (see page 16).

Christopher Jencks, Inequality (1972), reanalyzed Coleman's EEOC data and also concluded that the achievement of lower class students, both black and white, was fairly strongly related to the socioeconomic level of their classmates. This usually meant that a student's achievement was also related to the race or social class of his classmates, since black classmates tended to be poor classmates, and white classmates tended to be more middle class or vice versa.

James S. Coleman, et. al., Equality of Educational Opportunity (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966)

5.0 out of 5 stars

http://www.amazon.com/Equality-Educational-Opportunity-Perennial-sociology/dp/0405120885

Impotent Black Leaders who set the stage for State Fair Youth Riot Apologize

Impotent Black Leaders who set the stage for State Fair Youth Riot Apologize
Posted by Leon Todd on Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 3:33pm
Re: African American Leaders, What Leaders???
Dt: August 6, 2011 2:46:22 PM CDT

Leon, first and foremost I would like to say that by no stretch of the imagination do I condone the behavior of the young people at the State Fair. I'd also like to say that I do not condone the behavior of the "so-called leaders" of the African American community, (i.e.), Common Council President, Willie Hines, Urban League Director, Ralph Holman, Mark Wade , Executive Director, of African World Festival.

These "so -called" leaders allowed themselves to be marched out on stage to broadcast to the broader community that all African Americans do not display this kind of rude, foolish, violent behavior. In other words, to apologize for the behavior of a few misguided teens.

When the Mayor was attacked at State Fair I did not see the Native American community leaders (I was told that the young man was a Native American) coming out to apologize for the behavior of that misguided young person.

When Jeffery Dahmer killed, maimed and cannibalised his victims, I did not see the European community leaders coming out to apologize to the rest of the community, for his behavior or stating that they do not condone this behavior, nor do they "eat" people. I believe that all or most of Jeffrey's victims were minorities.

A Russian young man in Mequon recently killed both his parents and stored the bodies in their garage, when the police arrested him, they asked him how he felt having murdered both his parents, his reply was, "I never felt better". There was no broadcast from the Russian leaders in the city apologizing for his behavior.

Tim Sheehy of MMAC had a son who was recently convicted of felony assault. No apology from the MMAC for his behavior.

The young man from the real estate family axed his grandfather to death on Mother's Day, no community leaders were called in to apologize for his behavior.

My point is, why is it that our "so-called" leaders allow themselves to always be used to apologize for behaviors of some rotten apples from our community as if, they control or speak for the entire African American community. It appears that they are used as puppets.

What are they doing to get help for some of the problems that beset our community? If there are mental health issues, lack of jobs, education,etc. within our community these "so-called" leaders should do everything within their power to address these issues. However, I do not see these issues being addressed by any of these individuals.

Council President Hines' solution, "the hate crime law should be applied if these young people are charged and convicted".

It seems when other ethnic groups commit heinous crimes, they have mental health issues, in our community, it's condemn, condemn, condemn the entire community and our leaders lead the charge.

FED UP, WE NEED HELP!!