Murder Most Foul

The murder of a promising teen athlete, Terrance Kelly, two days before he departed for a college scholarship, stunned a community inured to crime, violence and teen murderers. What was thought to be a case of mistaken identity in gang-related killing now may be a case of envy.

The Pratchers grew up a few blocks from Kelly in Richmond's Iron Triangle neighborhood. Larry Pratcher and Kelly apparently knew each other from playing pickup basketball games in grammar school, friends said.

The two young men maintained a friendship but drifted in different directions.

Kelly graduated in June from De La Salle, an academically rigorous Catholic high school in Concord. After playing linebacker, tight end and running back, he was named the most valuable player in what is considered to be the top prep football program in the nation.

But Pratcher dropped out of public schools, friends said, and never transformed his playground athletic prowess into success at the prep level.

"Kids go different ways,'' Montgomery said. "Terrance stayed in school, and Larry hit the streets.''

Kelly's father worked two jobs pay for the pricey De La Salle, one cannot help but wonder if a school voucher might have made the difference between a young man going to college, not prison, and his friend to an early grave.

The Chronicle asks the wrong question in a moving editoral today, it's not simply about poverty, or community attitudes/mores, but failed schools.

Richmond is a bleak place, hard against refineries and chemical plants, partitioned by elevated freeways, but there are also good neighborhoods, shoreline parks and caring, hard working people who have had enough. Enough of crime, bad parenting and sub-standard schools. California spends a mandated 40% of the general revenue fund on schools, yet the test scores failed again this year.

Across the state, 1.5 million students remain mired in the lowest ranks of academic performance.

"This is not where we want to be," said California schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell. "I hope that these scores are a wake-up call for all in education."

[...]

Statewide, 36 percent of students scored "proficient" or "advanced" on the English portion, up from 35 percent last year. The remaining students scored below par, at "basic," "below basic" or "far below basic."

In math, proficiency inched up from 40.5 to 41.6 percent of students in grades 2 through 7 since last year. Older students, tested in a variety of math subjects, slipped in algebra and geometry.

Only 20 percent of low-income students were proficient in English, while among wealthier students, 50 percent were proficient. The rates were identical last year.

[...]

Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Association, said things aren't as bad as some believe.

"I think the scores are OK," she said. "When people are looking for a Nordstrom public education on a Wal-Mart budget, teachers should be very proud of what they've been able to achieve, and so should students."

How many more Larry Pratchers and Terrance Kellys must pay the price of such elitist arrogance?

Posted by feste at August 17, 2004 02:58 PM | TrackBack