PREPARING TO PURSUE
By Kyev P. Tatum
State of the Branch Speech, NAACP Texas Hill Country Branch
January 13, 2001, Hays County Courthouse

        On behalf of the officers and members of the Texas Hill Country Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, I would like to thank you for attending our installation ceremony here at this historic County Courthouse. I want to also personally thank our host, County Judge Jim Powers for his gracious hospitality. Judge Powers we are eternally grateful.

        Our theme, "Preparing to Pursue" is quite fitting for such an historic occasion. For it was 225 years ago that Thomas Jefferson penned some of the most powerful words ever written in human history. He wrote and I quote, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

        Make no doubt about it, the NAACP has fought for over 92 year to make sure that all Americans', especially people of color, unalienable rights are secured.

        But now we are faced with a more difficult challenge. And that is to secure the rights for all children to receive a free quality public education.

        Let me make it perfectly clear. The Texas Hill Country Branch supports public education. But we will not support public education that does not educate ALL of our children. We agree with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association common sense agenda for improving all of our schools. We agree that we need to focus on what work for all children.

        We support small classrooms, qualified teachers, proven academic programs, buildings and technology, fair and firm discipline and good safety policies. However we do not accept the notion that the majority of economically disadvantaged children, or black and brown students, especially our little boys, deserve to be placed in special education classes or alternative education programs as a means to educate them. When all else fails, we will stand and fight to do away with chronically under-performing schools, administrators, teachers, and politicians. We must have educators who are serious about saving all of our children. Not just the rich and the connected, not just the ones whose parents are involved not just the ones who shine on Fridays but can read on Mondays. But A-L-L of our children must be educated.

        We must address the issues, not dress up the issue.

        According to the 1996 Texas Kids Count study, children who live in poverty experience serious setbacks in terms of behavioral and cognitive development. Poverty also contributes to higher rates of absenteeism from school, lower grades and scores on standardized tests and increased discipline and behavior problems. In addition, chronic exposure to stress often found in poverty-stricken communities places children at greater risk of emotional problems, depression and substance abuse. Children growing up in poor families are less likely to have health insurance or be immunized; many go to school hungry and unprepared to learn.

        Princeton sociologist Kristen Luker reports that inherited disadvantages, such as poverty and minority status and poor school performance are the main background factors that influence which teens are likely to become pregnant and give birth outside of marriage. 

        In 1995, the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services reported that Hays County ranked 3rd of 30 counties in Health and Human Services Region 7 for child poverty. Births to single teenagers under age 15 in Hays County now surpass the state average of 83.7%. 

        According to a 1996 Robin Hood Foundation report "Kids Having Kids," teenage mothers face awesome challenges and poor life prospects; ---and for their children, the risks are even greater. Children of teenage mothers are more likely than children of later child-bearers to have health and cognitive disadvantages and to be neglected or abused. Census data from the 1995 special tabulation indicates that 33% of single female heads of households are living in poverty, compared to 11% of single male heads of household and 7% of married households. 

        The Intercultural Development Research Association found that school attrition or rates for Blacks and Hispanics in Hays County were 74% and 60% respectively, compared with the Texas average of 51% for Blacks and 45% for Hispanics in 1997.

        According to 1996 statistics compiled by the Texas Education Agency, the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District (SMCISD) has the lowest attendance rate, the highest annual dropout rate and the lowest percentage of students who pass the TAAS test of all four school districts in Hays County. 

        SMCISD's growth has averaged 28% each school year for the past three years, placing it consistently in the 90th percentile among all districts in Texas. Of the 6,800 SMCISD students enrolled during the 1997-98 school year, 55% were economically disadvantaged and 66% were minority. While children who have early success in school are more likely to possess the resiliency skills needed to avoid dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, incarceration, and few public school-linked programs are not available to help strengthen young children's resilience.

        That is why I support this new form of public school choice. I will encourage other branches, our state conferences, and our national association to support charter schools that work to break down the "monopoly of bureaucracy" that is destroying some of our greatest minds. Politics as usual are over. Our kids are dying and the Texas Hill Country Branch of the NAACP will take a stance and let them know that we care.

        In closing I want to take a moment to invited you to attend a statewide charter school forum that is being hosted by the Mitchell Center and Charter Schools USA. It is scheduled for Tuesday, January 23, 2001 at 6:30 p.m. at the San Marcos Activity Center. Some of the nation's leading education experts will discuss the challenges facing public education in a time when there is a massive demographic shift.

        Did you know that in less than 10 years the great state of Texas is going to be majority people of color? We must declare our allegiance to our God, our family and to the future of our country. We must come together in a spirit of oneness with a deep sense of mutuality and honor. 

        Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who birth we celebrate this weekend says is well when he said and I quote, "We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Tied in a single garment of destiny. And whatever affects one directly. Affects all of us indirectly. And for some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. The rich man can never be what he ought to be until the poor man is what he ought to be." 

        Ladies and Gentleman, our community can never be what it ought to be until our children are what they ought to be. "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all children are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." 

        As we close let us join hand and sing with new meaning the poetic words of James Weldon Johnson, 

Lift every voice and sing 
Till earth and heaven ring, 
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; 
Let our rejoicing rise 
High as the listening skies, 
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. 
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, 
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us, 
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun 
Let us march on till victory is won.

        Thank you and may God bless you and keep you is our prayer while we are preparing to pursue.

-- Kyev P. Tatum
January 13, 2001