California needs to change the way it handles problem students of color to enhance their graduation from high school, a state legislative committee reports.
The committee held statewide hearings and heard testimony from hundreds of students who said they had disciplinary action, such as suspensions and expulsions taken against them for misbehaving or defiance, the 50-page report says.
“It was very interesting that the kids who were there (at the hearings) were not the ones who had lost their way. They were the ones who didn’t want the system to push them in a direction where they would end up in the criminal justice system,” said Assembly member Sandré Swanson, D-Alameda, chair of the Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color.
The committee recommended revisions in school testing and funding. It also called for making it more difficult to suspend or expel a student from school. In addition, health care coverage ought to be extended for those who age out of the foster care system, said the committee.
The San Francisco Chronicle quoted Swanson as saying that “it isn’t a question of money. It’s a question of how we prioritize the money we have.”
The committee report also endorsed 19 bills currently working their way through the Legislature. Eight of those bills aim to reduce the “alarmingly high” rates of suspensions and expulsions of students of color.