As President Barack Obama hits the midpoint of his second term, many have begun to consider what will be his legacy, particularly as it relates to education. Debates have raged on about whether the president has done enough to help Black students overcome the historic and systemic deficits they have faced in their educational pursuits.
During a panel hosted last week by George Mason University, scholars discussed “the Historical Relevance of Education Equity Policies in an Obama Era.” Chronicling historic inequalities from Jim Crow and the failure to build schools that were adequate (if they were being built at all) for educating children in Black communities to more subtle, modern practices, like the discrepancies in the number of Advanced Placement courses in predominately Black high schools even to the persistently unequal funding of historically Black colleges and universities, the panelists examined the current state of racialized education.
When asked specifically about the efforts of President Obama, from a policy standpoint, to do more to boost the state of Black education, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign education professor Dr. James D. Anderson said, “I didn’t expect any changes in policy from the Obama administration.”
Anderson recalled an earlier speech when Obama was running for the Senate and he spoke even then about Black education from a “classic cultural deficit theory” perspective, a tone that has followed him all the way into the White House, with the prevailing thought that if Black students aren’t achieving, it is because of their own deficit and cultural inadequacies.
“Then I thought, ‘if you get a good secretary of education,’” Anderson said, before lamenting that President Obama had instead selected one who is “quiet and passive and looking for opportunities to come out [in the spotlight] on education, but [who is not] driving policy.”
“You’re only as good as the people around you, and I knew [Duncan’s selection as secretary of education] was going to be the death nail” for education policy in this administration, he said. “I think it’s too late in the game to expect any real changes.”
