Private School Success in Public School Settings

October 7, 2022

The leftover children of the United States are a result of policies, economic pressures, a fractured familial unit, abuse, trauma and mental illness. "There are more than 400,000 children and teens in the Foster Care system, and every single one deserves a chance at happiness, belonging, safety and love. (1)"

Those children, who are raised in a hurry, learn quickly what it means to survive and advocate for themselves. The mistrust of adults and other children often defines their focus, concentration, and success in school. For the leftover children, education is central, whereas their teachers replace their parents. When facing malnutrition at home, the school cafeteria replaces a home cooked meal. The programs in the school replace their home/social life, and their success or failure in education—will act as a filter, for the rest of their lives. We all need friends, foster kids need many, to understand healthy relationships, so they can grow to be respectable and responsible adults.

"Of the children who entered foster care in 2019, the majority had a reason for removal that included neglect (either alone—24.7 percent— or in combination with another reason other than physical or sexual abuse—30.1 percent). Physical or sexual abuse (alone) accounted for 16.0 percent of the removals, and drug abuse (alone) accounted for 8.1 percent.(3)"

It's important that education is upended, even for this minority of children within the education industrial complex. The propensity for failure, violence, runaway, drug abuse, trafficking, and incarceration, is an algorithm. This algorithm is one which we as a community can intervene in, afford, and prevent students from failing the system by innovating on and changing the landscape of education.

"Outlays by the state and local districts total a mind-blowing $85 billion, more than the entire GDP of most countries and, at $34,000 per kid, nearly twice the national average. (4)" On October 4, 2022, when the New York Post ran the headline, "Insane school spending and meager student results reveal NY educrats’ real priorities: staffers — not kids." I had an epiphany.

I am a result of the Foster Care System. In the late 1990's, my father re-married, his third wife. As part of the union, I was to be neglected, malnourished, and removed from the home, to live with a, "friend." This wasn't the beginning of my engagement with the Foster Care System, as these guardians had been involved in the upheaval of my life, when I was a toddler. I had come to know foster care, the police department, and schools as advocates, because surely my family was not focused on my upbringing. Now 2022—things have equalized, and my family is doing extremely well, but where they are now, has no bearing on who I am as a person today. Let me explain.

Down on my luck, depressed, with very little to wear, and very little to eat, soon this was something that my advocates would notice, and intervene. They pushed me in music, tutoring, college class, the Teacher's Academy. I was busy 6 nights out of the week, beyond what I knew I was capable of. My guardians listened to me and provided tough love, they made sure I did my homework, made sure I ate, provided legal advice, so I would remain safe. I repaid them with honors, awards, academic achievement, graduation, college acceptance, and finally my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from St. Paul's College in 2012. These are the guardians of Mr. Jonas-Charles E. Brown. My guardians remain active as members of my family, today.

I am so grateful to Mr. Leonard Pollacchi, my beginning band director, whose band system I continue to use today. May he sleep in peace.

"From 2015 to 2019, state performance declined for placing American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander children into permanent homes (measure 3.5). There was an increase in the median percentage of White children (from 90.4 to 91.4 percent), Black or African American children (from 84.2 to 87.0 percent), and Hispanic children (from 90.6 to 90.7 percent) exiting care to permanent placements. (3)"

"Although the national percentage of young children placed in group homes or institutions has declined since 2015, it is important to note that 15 states declined in performance (i.e., more children were placed in congregate care). Therefore, it would be useful to determine what specific strategies may assist states that continue to struggle in this area. (3)"

It is understood that not everyone possesses the tools required to reach out and help a latchkey child. It's difficult to help a child whose situation you cannot see, or do not understand. Furthermore, it's significant in schools, however, that parents, teachers, and administrators, create a well-rounded child and thus brings us to the central point of this article.

If schools aren't preparing the family unit, and their children, for their next step after high school. How can foster kids compete, especially if they are being incarcerated at rates higher than their peers, shouldn't we take a closer look at spending on specialized programs in the public schools? "The audit, released Oct. 4, primarily examined whether DOE students completed high school by their expected graduation date and if they possessed skills needed to succeed and complete higher education – such as college or a trade school."

It was the arts, which got me to college. The arts which fostered discipline, concentration, and a longing to be better each day. Music was there to wake me up each day and gave me a reason to come to school and do well in my studies. Advanced Wind Ensemble introduced me to families deeply rooted in faith across the street from my high school. Pipe Band took me throughout the vineyards, riverbanks, mountains, valleys, mansions, cathedrals and pageantry, of what some call privilege.

Then I aged out. I was emancipated. I was on my own, legally, and I'd always have a family. Being in a large music program at university, allowed me to work through the thorn bush that is my family, and after 20 years - we speak, eat together and get along today.

You see the wealth, the success, the glam and glitz. The trips, the innovation, the career, the view, the future, a difference.

You don't see what it took to get here, it wasn't meant to be. For if my middle school and high school didn't invest in music, and if for some reason I didn't have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, I wouldn't have made it to where I am today.

"Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Education (DOE) Chancellor David C. Banks announced Thursday the official launch of a brand-new school safety initiative, Project Pivot, which will provide students with access to resources and additional support to ensure improved academic success and social and emotional well-being. (6)" We need programs like this, and it's a relief to see progress in the right direction.

The discipline, structure, concentration, organization, reliability, and skills attainment found within the Arts - is all some foster kids require in their toolkit of survival. They don't need to be a hopeless romantic, wooing the world with a pedantic facade, for you to scream and shout. Though it remains an option for them. The goal of the Arts is to prevent students from giving up hope. These valuable, lifelong skill sets concrete within its participants good character, honesty, reverence, respect for other people, work ethic and an understanding for high caliber performance in the Arts, and in business at work.

Violence prevention is right on target, bullseye. Don't though, forget the classics. For what you put into the system, you get out in societies productivity. It is therefore possible to have a private school education in the public schools, I know this because it was made possible for me.

Foster a Child

By. Jonas-Charles Brown

Works Cited

My Letter to the Bronx and Brooklyn

Black Julliard Conservatory of Music?