Our Children’s Landscape

Before you consider the unfortunate academic stats listed below, here are two graphs that further illustrate the thorny issues our kids navigate every day. Aside from run-of-the-mill issues such as emboldened gangs, convenient drugs, prostitution and general lawlessness, our kids live among the herd of sexual predators charted in the graph on the left. You may be interested in checking your own zip code at www.meganslaw.ca.gov. Note the larger blue squares, which indicate a facility housing as many as 15-20 offenders under one roof. To view the photo & offense of these individuals on the Megan’s Law website, zoom in on and area of the map, then click the blue square.

Rapists & child molesters near Strive

Teen homicides near Strive

May I ask you to consider the unhealthy link connecting the following two stats, before absorbing the remaining statistics?

(1) Students behind in reading in grade 3 have only a 12 to 20% chance of ever catching up.

(2) 3% of  kids (150 of 5,000 students) at the high school nearest Strive (Locke) are reading “at or above the national average on the 2002 Stanford 9 test¹. For math, it’s 11%.

There are 431 elementary schools in the L.A. Unified School District.
Twelve of the 15 lowest scoring schools are in the Watts community, including these three nearest Strive:²

93rd Street School
Poverty rate: 97-99% ³
60% Hispanic, 40% Black

Barrett Street
Poverty rate: 95%
51% Black, 49% Hispanic

96th Street School
Poverty rate: 90-95%
70% Hispanic, 30% Black

Drop out rates for the three high schools nearest Strive:⁵
Locke: 68.5%
Fremont: 52.6%
Jordan: 46.5%

Countywide: 7.04%

Relevant Vital Statistics by Zip Code

“The problem has been the inability of California’s public schools to bring
disadvantaged and minority students up to speed academically so that they
can secure spots at the increasingly competitive University of California
and other prestigious institutions.” ⁶

1. Los Angeles Times, 9.30.2002. Stanford 9 Test Results and the California Dept. of Education.
2. The 10 Schools Program, LA Unified School District
3. Based on individual school lunch program, LAUSD
4. The United Way, LA
5. LA Times Education Writer, Martha Grove
6. Los Angeles Times, Constance L. Rice.

• "'responsbilbility for our children's education must begin at home'"
  Quote by: President Barack Obama