CNN Ignores Facts, Scapegoats Teachers

by James Parks, Aug 18, 2010

CNN aired a segment today scapegoating America’s teachers for the failure of young black males to graduate from high school.

The CNN talking heads even went so far as to say that public school teachers don’t care about students. In the rush to put the blame on teachers, they ignored the findings of the very study they supposedly reported on. In the forward to the study on black male graduation rates by the Schott Foundation, Geoffrey Canada, the head of the Harlem Children’s Zone,  says we need better schools but we also need to

address the problems outside the classroom that derail the educational achievement of too many black boys.  We also need to strengthen communities so boys have a safe, enriching environment in which they can learn and develop, where college and success is just in the air as it is in middle-class communities.

So why didn’t CNN ask their “education contributor”—a charter school principal—about that statement? Or is it easier just to spout a simplistic, unbalanced,  “Blame the Teachers,” mantra and ignore the facts?

What do you think? We especially want to hear from teachers, the warriors on the frontlines of our public schools.

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