Welfare reform should help. Improved policing has been beneficial. The ghetto especially needs police, as criminals are more likely to hit targets of opportunity within their own or adjacent neighborhoods than take a lot of trouble to cross town. I have seen women who have just cashed their welfare checks be ripped off in the more questionable part of Capitol Hill, too far down the block to attempt intervention. (What kind of low life steals from someone already living hand to mouth almost staggers me). Charter schools, which are less controversial than vouchers, have already made some sort of impact, and certainly serve to encourage concerned parents.
Tax abatement, to draw businesses back into the inner city, is desirable, but without improved services (roads, trash collection, policing) it will have limited impact. The trend to elect better mayors in the 90s, from Guiliani to Tony Williams, is encouraging. Jack Kemp's idea of providing people an equity stake in public housing, so that they will have an incentive to take better care of it, is pretty good, depending upon implementation.
The center of respectable society in the ghetto remains the churches, and it is crucial that the strictures against government cooperation with them be relaxed, as they are often the most viable and beneficial institutions "on the ground". In addition, Catholic churches have served non- Catholic elements of their parishes, and some "white" denominations have made outreach a priority. One of the reasons vouchers are important is that parochial schools have a much better track record, with lower overhead, in educating black and Hispanic kids. In some parishes, non- Catholic enrollment exceeds 80%. With vouchers, more parents could take such opportunities. By the way, the key to their success is not "cherry picking", since a lot of the students are below grade level at transfer, but discipline. Hard cases are bounced, and decorum is generally enforced. Increasingly, calls to segregate the most disruptive are being heard in public education, and if the public schools start learning crucial lessons, like that learning cannot take place when held hostage to miscreants, progress will be made.
Some of the mentoring initiatives that various corporations have sponsored are very encouraging. Having volunteers take time to tutor students, or to aid other constructive activities, is very helpful. Also, a lot of these kids live in chaotic homes, and providing structured opportunities for extracurricular study and activities is a godsend.
The "remoralization" of society is important. There should be pressure for men to raise their own children, and for parents in all classes not to neglect their children in favor of career or personal fulfillment. Drug abuse should be stigmatized, not treated merely as an "ailment". Responsibility and duty and honor should become more prominent concepts in our society. I have even sometimes thought we made a mistake in eliminating the draft. Anyway, this sort of thing is mainly reflected in the way one approaches various issues, and is less a matter of law than of cultural signals, like use of the "bully pulpit".
All in all, I am pretty hopeful of the direction of the next few years........ |
