Texas state Rep. Gene Wu (left) discusses legislation with former U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) (Photo courtesy of Gene Wu).
“We’re creating a lost generation of kids,” Texas state Rep. Gene Wu told a group of Houston media executives.
National and local news is inundated with stories of young people making bad decisions, which end up costing lives.
In Collin County, Texas, Karmelo Anthony received a 35-year sentence for stabbing Austin Metcalf to death at a high school track meet.
Anthony had claimed self-defense in a high-profile case that split the public, often on racial lines.
In Florida, four young people received life without the possibility of parole for stalking and murdering rapper Julio Foolio.
Although many people can identify the problem, fewer seem to be able to find the solution or the origin of the problem.
But Texas state Rep. Gene Wu believes that society created the problems the has led to delinquent and sometimes violent children and teenagers.
Many old school parents believe that children do not have enough discipline.
Past generations faced corporal punishment.
But Wu believes that beating children does not change behavior.
The politician and lawyer said that children often become more violent or just hide their bad behavior when they endure physical discipline.
Additionally, he said that the biggest issue is the educational system.
Wu said that many educators do not know how to deal with students from volatile backgrounds.
Many Black and Brown students have often complained about schools having a heavy-handed approach to disciplining them in comparison to their White counterparts.
The New York Times reported, “Since the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde in 2022, school districts across Texas have spent billions of dollars to station police officers on every campus in the state. The effort, the most ambitious in the nation, was intended to protect students from similar tragedies.
“But the constant presence of officers has transformed the way many public schools manage discipline, subjecting students to heavy-handed police tactics for behavior that once would have landed them in the principal’s office…
“Officers in Texas displayed startling belligerence at times, grabbing or tackling students a fraction of their size over misconduct that often appeared to be minor. Children in elementary school, including one as young as 6, were handcuffed. Teenagers were arrested, charged with crimes and even jailed. In
the most extreme cases, they wound up in hospitals, bruised or concussed, after being body-slammed or shocked by Tasers, which are prohibited in the state’s juvenile detention facilities but allowed in its public schools.”
Furthermore, Wu sees the promotion of students who have not learned adequately in the previous grade as another huge problem when it comes to future volatile behavior.
The state representative said that many schools simply promote children to the next grade to keep money flowing to the school.
Despite the struggles of many schools, institutions in red states like Mississippi have seen recent success.
On Jan. 11, Sarah Mervosh of The New York Times reported, “In Kim Luckett-Langston’s first year as principal of Hazlehurst Elementary School, one of the lowest performing schools in what had been one of the lowest performing states, she quickly diagnosed the problem.
“Children at her school, outside of Jackson, Miss., were suffering from what she calls A.B.T.: ‘Ain’t being taught.’
“Kindergartners arrived not knowing their letters from their numbers. After a few years in school, they were still far behind. A decade ago, just 12 percent of Hazlehurst students were reading on grade level.
“Today, Hazlehurst has clawed that figure to 35 percent. And Mississippi has emerged as one of the best places in the country for a poor child to get an education.”
The Magnolia State was once ranked 49th in the United States on national tests.
Now, the state ranks in the top 10 for fourth graders learning how to read, while test scores have decreased everywhere else.
Poverty remains a major factor in the school achievement gap, with a wealthy state like Massachusetts having the highest rates of students proficient in math and reading.
However, when statistics are adjusted for poverty and other demographic categories, Mississippi ranks number one for fourth-grade reading and math.
Furthermore, the state is ranked at or near the top 10 for eighth graders.
Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said, “If you ask the question, ‘Which states are helping kids coming from difficult circumstances learn as much as they can?’ Mississippi is now doing much better than many other states, including wealthier states in affluent and progressive areas.”
Unfortunately, Mississippi’s high marks are often limited to earlier grades, where the Magnolia State has focused its efforts.
Their system is focused on standardized testing, and the gains have not always persisted as children progress through school.
Based on raw scores, the state’s eighth-graders still rank 41st on national tests in reading and 35th in arithmetic.
However, Mississippi is trying to find its children where they are so that they will not be forever lost to what some see as a broken educational system.
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