A new report from the U.S. Department of Education provides a wealth of data regarding the civil rights of students in K-12 education during the 2020-21 school year while the nation was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the key findings are:
* K-12 students reported to school employees over 42,500 allegations of harassment or bullying. Some 29 percent of the incidents had to do with race.
* Black students represented 15 percent of K-12 enrollment, but 37 percent of students who reported being harassed or bullied on the basis of race.
* Black boys were nearly two times more likely than White boys to receive an out-of-school suspension or an expulsion.
* Black students represented 15 percent of K-12 student enrollment, but 18 percent of students referred to law enforcement, and 22 percent of students subjected to a school-related arrest.
* Approximately 35 percent of high schools with high enrollments of Black and Latino students offered calculus, compared to 54 percent of high schools with low enrollments of Black and Latino students.
* Approximately 522,400 students, or 1 percent of overall student enrollment, attended public schools where fewer than half of the teachers met all state certification requirements. Of the students attending those schools, 66 percent were Black and Latino students.
We have to get rid of DEI initiatives for teachers and simply hire the best-qualified ones for our majority-black schools.