Against the backdrop of a student walkout in Allentown, Bethlehem’s NAACP hosted a forum devoted to educational inequality Sept. 29 at city hall. About 35 people, most of them black or Hispanic, attended. This racial disparity was noted by outspoken moderator and NAACP President Esther Lee. “That’s not my fault,” she said to laughter. “People hear the word NAACP and ... “

Wearing her ever-present church hat, Lee peppered panelists and even audience members with questions about the walkout, the absence of diversity among teachers and the educational gap between white and minority students.

Student walkout

Though opposed to the walkout, Lee said “[w]e would not have that situation in Allentown if those young people thought they were being treated fairly.” Mayor Bob Donchez, who spent 35 years as a teacher in Allentown, called education “one of the great equalizers,” but what sets Bethlehem apart from Allentown is that it is an area school district that includes suburbs like Hanover Township. Many years ago, Allentown passed on an opportunity to create an area school district that could have included Salisbury, Donchez observed.

Panelists like Lehigh University’s Dr. James Peterson insisted there would have been no walkout at all if school board members just listened to student grievances at a crowded and contentious meeting just a few days before the student strike. He said students have many legitimate grievances, like old textbooks and far fewer teachers than just a few years ago.

But Rev. Melvin Tatem, pastor at Grace Deliverance Baptist Church had a completely different view.

“It starts in the home,” the cleric observed, speaking in a soft voice that grew louder as he continued. “If we don’t do our job, everything else falls down. ... If you don’t respect your parents, you won’t respect the police.” He wants on to speak of three generations in just one family being in jail.

Police Chief Mark DiLuzio, sitting right next to Tatem, called himself the “last teacher” that a young person sees before being sent to the prison system. Both DiLuzio and Donchez criticized the poverty in Allentown and elsewhere within the Lehigh Valley. DiLuzio asked how, in a country as blessed as the United States, the poverty rate could go up 3 percent in just eight years. Donchez decried a permanent underclass with very limited skills.

Educational Disparity

Dr. Joseph Roy, superintendent of the Bethlehem Area School District, not only agreed that there is disparity, but told the audience it starts early. A gap in reading and math proficiency among white, Latino and black students starts in the fourth grade, and widens as students get older. That’s why he believes all-day kindergarten is so important. “We have to start young and get kids on a successful track early,” he stressed.

But all-day kindergartens and teachers cost money in a “don’t tax me” society that is increasingly unwilling to pay the price.

“We’ve lost respect for the public good,” observed Roy. “We don’t have money for roads and bridges,” he said, referring to our crumbling infrastructure.

Donchez blamed extremists on both sides of the ideological divide to whom “compromise” is a dirty word. “We can certainly do better,” he said.

Minority Teacher Shortage

Both Dr. Roy and Dr. Peterson agreed with Lee’s observation that the majority of teachers are white while the majority of students are not. But Peterson said there’s no pipeline to crate minority teachers. He stated more needs to be done to make “teaching a profession to which students aspire.”

Peterson, who directs the African Studies program at Lehigh University, noted that one reason so few high schools offer African American studies is because so few teachers are qualified in that area.

Other panelists participating in this forum were Bethlehem YWCA Executive Director Stephanie Hnatiw and Randi Blauth from the American Association of University Women.