Today on NOW, Aurora Calderone discusses Zyahna Bryant’s position regarding the current racial divide here in Charlottesville. Additionally, Aurora dives into some responses from a UVA professor and Charlottesville City School Superintendent.
Produced by Kyra Min and Aurora Calderone
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Stats say no gray area, Charlottesville’s education gap really is a black and white issue. I’m Aurora Calderone today is October 17th and this is Now.
Yesterday morning, an investigative piece on racial inequality in Charlottesville-area schools was published by the New York Times in collaboration with ProPublica.
Charlottesville high school student, Zyana Bryant, shared her thoughts with the journalists. Bryant said quote “no matter how high your scores are or how many hours you put into your work, you are still black”
Additionally, some statistics the article revealed include that “White students are 4x as likely to be in gifted programs” and “Half of all black students are unable to read at grade levels”
The writers of the piece spoke with UVa Associate Professor, Lisa Woolfork who told them “this type of internal segregation is the way to keep white people in the public schools. This is a way that white supremacy undergirds the public school system.”
In response, superintendent of Charlottesville City Schools, Rosa Atkins released a statement regarding the article on their website. Atkins agreed that improvements can be made to level the academic playing field while noting some of the gains demonstrated by rising graduation rates and an 83% decrease in suspension rates in the past ten years.
Alright ‘hoos, We’ll See you guys next time.
