Texas Public School Districts Spent $227 Million On Disciplinary Problems, School Security: Study 10/30/2012 [...] ... districts spend more money on exclusionary programs and see subpar results when compared to alternative discipline techniques aimed at keeping students in their schools while combatting the social and emotional issues that underly most discipline problems. Barbara Williams, communications officer at Texas Association of School Boards, told the Tribune decisions regarding discipline should be left up to the individual districts. "We urge lawmakers to provide resources that help districts maintain a high quality education for students in disciplinary settings," she said. "Independent school districts should continue to determine which disciplinary actions work for their students and communities." Studies have shown that students who are suspended or expelled are more likely to be held back or drop out, and are also more likely to enter the juvenile justice system. In March, a survey by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights found that black students are more than three-and-a-half times as likely as white students to be suspended or expelled, and more than 70 percent of students arrested in school or handed over to law enforcement are black or Hispanic [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/minority-students-education-study_n_1322594.html ]. Texas Appleseed has expressed concern about Texas’ disciplinary methods creating a school-to-prison pipeline for poor and minority students, according to the AP. Last week, federal civil rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against Meridian, Miss. and other defendants that accuses city officials of operating a “school-to-prison pipeline” that jails students — most of whom are black — for days at a time for minor infractions [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/25/federal-civil-rights-lawy_n_2018947.html ], without a probable cause hearing. Mississippi is certainly not the only place in the country operating such a system, but is the only one to date where local authorities have not been fully cooperative with federal investigators. Many experts have attributed the school-to-prison pipeline to zero-tolerance policies [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/school-to-prison-pipeline_n_1340380.html ] — a holdover from the war on drugs — that punish all major and minor rule infractions equally, bringing police disproportionately into high-minority schools. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/texas-public-school-distr_n_2043787.html [with comments]
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