This video is almost 15 minutes. It is important:
If you take the time to watch it, perhaps you will not need to read the rest of this post.
Last week saw the announcement of an important initiative. Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, Senators Manchin and Rockefeller, Randi Weingarten and the AFT and over 40 partners from business, foundations, non-profits and labor announced that they will lead an effort to bring educational improvement and brighter economic prospects to McDowell County, WV, one of the poorest areas in Appalachia.
Yesterday, Laura Clawson had this brief front page story on this initiative. It deserved more attention.
I want to provide some context to the effort.
I have been through McDowell County 6 times in the past 3 Octobers, going to and from volunteering in free dental clinics at a Remote Area Medical - Mission of Mercy event in Grundy Virginia, in Buchanan County Virginia, just across the border. The two places are comparable, and I have written in the past about the poverty in Buchanan County. It is worse in McDowell County.
Please keep reading, so that you will see why this initiative is so important.
Let me begin with some data. It is from the US Census Bureau, Quick Facts, as of 2010 (albeit in some case with data from 2009).
Buchanan County Virginia (figures in parentheses are those for Virginia as a whole)
Population 24,098, down 10.7% in a decade
18.8% < 18 (23.2)
16.1% 65+ (12.2)
96.6% White (68.6)
65.1% of those 25+ are high school graduates (85.8)
8.9% of those 25+ have bachelors or better (33.4)
Per Capita Income 16,185 (31,606)
2009 % below poverty level 26.5 (10.6)
Now let's look at McDowell County WV (figures in parentheses for WV as a whole)
Population 22,113, down 19,1% in a deace
20.0% < 18 (20.9)
16.5% 25+ (16.0)
92.6% White (87.0)
60.1% of those 25+ are high school graduates (81.6)
5.7% of those 25+ have bachelors or better (17.1)
Per Capita Income 12,585 (20,891)
2009 % below poverty level 40.8 (17.8)
Buchanan County has the lowest income in Virginia. As poor as it is, that per capita income is almost 30% higher than that of adjacent McDowell County, which has a poverty level more than 50% higher.
Laura's piece, which I strongly recommend, will quickly frame the issues, which can be summarized simply as this: it is not possible to fix the needs of the children solely within the schools, and there are no quick fixes available. This must be an ongoing commitment that encompasses the community.
The announcement of the official initiative was on Friday 12/16. The previous evening a story for that day's went up on the website. Allow me to offer several quotes from that story:
The AFT, which typically represents teachers in urban settings, wants to improve education deep in the heart of Appalachia by simultaneously tackling the social and economic troubles of McDowell County.
The union has gathered about 40 partners, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cisco Systems, IBM, Save the Children, foundations, utility companies, housing specialists, community colleges, and state and federal governments, which have committed to a five-year plan to try to lift McDowell out of its depths.
a five-year plan - this is not a quick fix, it is a commitment.
“I’ve gotten so angry in the last couple of years when people who are new to our field decide that they alone, just by exhorting, will help ensure that geography does not become destiny for some kids,” saidRandi Weingarten, president of the AFT, the nation’s second-largest teachers union. It represents educators in the District, New York City and elsewhere, including McDowell. “A lot of the factors that confront kids — poverty, divorce, health care — are real obstacles. People can pretend to ignore them elsewhere, but no one can ignore those factors in McDowell.”
Gayle Manchin is the wife of former Governor and now senator Joe Manchin, and a member of the State Board of Education. She turned to Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers for help. The state has had control of the county's schools for more than a decade.
No one knows what the initiative will cost. The union has committed $100,000 and staff, and leads a coalition that includes the likes of "Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cisco Systems, IBM, Save the Children, foundations, utility companies, housing specialists, community colleges, and state and federal governments" for the five year effort.
Poverty and lack of employment have devastating effects upon a community. Allow me to quote one more part of the Post article, speaking about children at one elementary school:
Most of the youngsters live with grown-ups who do not hold jobs, casualties of coal’s collapse. Many are being raised by grandparents because their mothers and fathers are in prison or struggling with addiction. Eight of every 10 children in the school meet the state’s definition of poor. Some rarely see a doctor.
Too often we think of poverty as primarily being an issue of people of color - inner city Blacks, Hispanics in ghettoes or in the rural Southwest, Native Americans on reservations. Appalachia is very white, and parts - like Wise County and Buchanan County Virginia where I volunteer, like McDowell County WV - are in dire poverty.
It should not matter where people are - they are our fellow Americans, they are our fellow human beings. if we do not address their basic needs, especially when they are young, we are condemning them to lesser lives. They will lack knowledge and skills, they will be limited by poor health.
This initiative is drawing a lot of attention. Anne O'Brien, head of the Learning First Alliance, offered this post. She writes
While educational improvement is to be the centerpiece of this new partnership, the initiative’s leaders recognize that working with schools alone will likely not lead to the results this community seeks. So while the initiative will work in schools to develop a well-rounded curriculum for academic and social development, strengthen school literacy programs, improve professional development and training programs for teachers, and expand broadband access to allow students to take advantage of digital learning opportunities (among its possible projects), it will also seek to provide new services to the broader community. Possible plans include intensive preparation for pre-kindergartners, better access to health care, drug prevention and treatment programs, and more recreational activities open to the community.
Randi Weingarten, President of the AFT, wrote Restoring Hope to McDowell County at Huffington Post, from which I quote
Neither demography nor geography should determine destiny. Yet, too often, ability, ambition and hard work square off against circumstance -- whether one lives in a place where opportunities abound or where they're in short supply. Over the years, more than one billion pounds of coal have been extracted from the mountains of McDowell County. It is time to start giving back to the region, and we are proud to be a part of this effort.
There are too many people in the US being left behind economically. Those of us in schools know we have our responsibilities, but we cannot do it alone. We need to address health care and nutrition. We need to ensure students do not have untreated dental caryes, have been screened for vision and hearing.
At one point in the film, you hear about a mother calling up because schools have been closed for four days for snow (not at all unusual in the mountains) and she is worried if they are closed for a 5th day she will not be able to feed her child - many students eat two meals a day at school, without which their families could not provide them proper nutrition.
I can get in my car and drive to McDowell County in about 5 hours. There will be familiar fast foot restaurant outlets, there will be gas stations with national brands. If you take the time to look around you will at first notice the beauty of the mountains themselves. if you look more closely you will begin to see the signs of poverty - they are impossible to ignore, especially if you get off the main highways and go into communities, or some of the more rural areas. It is like that in Wise County, it is certainly like that in Buchanan County.
It is good that there is this coalition - of government, of corporations, of a teachers union.
Is not addressing needs like this more important than providing ongoing tax breaks to the super wealthy?
Where are our priorities as a nation?
Should not the basic needs of our people matter as much as the profits for our corporations?
Should not one measure of our schools be whether students come prepared to learn because they are fed, clothed, housed, and have their basic medical and dental needs met, that they have glasses if they need them?
I applaud the effort to reconnect McDowell. I am angered that it needs to be reconnected, that in too many places in this country too many people are in desperate need - think of yet another winter where those here contribute so people on reservations in South Dakota have enough propane so that they don't freeze.
I am not a member of the AFT - my district is NEA. I am proud of what Randi and the AFT are doing. I wish it were not necessary, but glad they are stepping up.
If you have not already done so, I ask that you take the 14+ minutes and watch the entire video.
Then look around where you are. Perhaps you can find similar unmet needs in your own community. Perhaps you can be part of a similar effort to make a difference.
And perhaps together we can shame our political leaders into doing the right thing for ALL of the American people, including the children and families of McDowell County WV.