In any large American city, there are many problems and issues that city officials must deal with on a daily basis. A city as large and diverse as Houston is no exception. This page will explore some of Houston’s most pressing issues, especially as they affect the city’s ever-growing African American and Hispanic population.
Low test scores
Substandard test scores and sky-high dropout rates have unfortunately combined to describe the Houston Independent School District (HISD). The education problem is pervasive, and one that trickles down to affect many other city issues (such as crime and poverty rates). According to an online article from the Houston Chronicle, recent results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress of Houston’s eighth-graders showed a small gain from previous years, but still scored higher than only Cleveland and Lost Angeles students. I
n addition, less than20 percent of eighth-graders in Houston managed to qualify as “proficient” on the test, compared to one-third of all students nationwide.
Perhaps even more notable than this, however, is the intracity disparity in test scores between races: white or Asian students scored 31 points higher than their back counterparts and 33 points higher than Hispanic students of the same grade. Interestingly, the black and Hispanic scores are within two points of the low-income student average, which was more thantwenty points lower than the wealthier children’s’ average score. It should be noted than in the HISD, 77% of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
Dropout rates
Dropout rates are another huge concern for HISD’s administrators and city officials. A 2007 study conducted by Johns Hopkins University found 42 ‘dropout factories’, or high schools with a dropout rate higher than 40%, in the Houston area. Within the HISD, 22 schools made the list. The Hispanic population suffered the worst dropout rate of any group at 45%, though they do comprise the largest percentage of the state’s public school system. In one study, roughly 70% of the state’s dropouts were black or Hispanic students, demonstrating an obvious educational hurtle for the minority citizens of Houston and across Texas. HISD officials have sought to resolve the high dropout rate by going door-to-door shortly after the start of each school year in search of students who haven’t returned to school. It is definitely an issue that will take considerable time and effort to improve.
Improvement
Though the public schools of the Houston area may be struggling to graduate students, charter schools specializing in serving minority and low-income students have begun to pop up in their quest to provide the thousands of potential dropouts with a better life. YES Prep Public Schools is a nationally-recognized system that serves students in grades six through twelve and recently expanded its training program for new teachers. YES Prep is instrumental in providing training and teaching strategies to teachers in the Houston area – providing them with essential skills like developing lesson plans and how to properly administer disciplinary actions in the classroom setting.
KIPP Polaris Academy, a charter school for boys, is another attempt by a compassionate educator to provide a quality education to Houston’s less-advantaged students. In the North Forest neighborhood, KIPP will serve students tha
t are 90% black and 10% Hispanic. KIPP is an acronym for “Knowledge is Power Program” and is “generally hailed as the country’s most successful experiment in educating low-income minority youths”,with the first school established in Houston in 1994 (Gray, 2007). It attempts to reach out to these students by utilizing long school days, a long academic year, and an enduring commitment to succeed fromall sides – parents, teachers, and students. KIPP has an ambitious goal of opening 40 more schools in the city of Houston alone over the next decade. If successful, this program will undoubtedly be a positive shaping force in countless young lives.
Pollution
The city of Houston’s great expansion throughout the twentieth century is thanks in large part to the booming oil business that forms an enormous portion of the economy of southern Texas. It’s no wonder then that the thousands of residents within only yards of the “largest concentration of petrochemical plants in the United States” are beginning to experience increased risk of a variety of health problems (Witt, 2007). However, the neighborhoods most affected (mainly in the Southeast part of Houston, in proximity to the Houston Ship Channel) are almost completely Hispanic.
Towering around this part of Houston (which, it should be noted, is the largest U.S. city without zoning laws) are countless smokestacks, waste disposal sites, oil refineries, and petrochemical plants. A study released by the University of Texas School of Public Health in 2007 pointed out that children
residing as far as two miles from the Ship Channel have more than a 55% greater chance of contracting the devastating acute lymphocytic leukemia than children farther from the industrialized part of the city. Some have gone so far as to say that it is not a coincidence that minority populations are the ones most affected by the toxic pollution, but is instead a result of “environmental racism”.
In a separate study released earlier in 2007, Houston was placed second on a list of ten U.S. metropolitan areas where minorities composed the largest percentage of neighborhoods near dangerous waste facilities. In fact, Houston currently has 10 separate neighborhoods were minorities make up more than 75% of the population and are near these toxic industrial areas. However, petrochemical officials stress the fact that most the plants were constructed well before the neighborhoods around them were settled.
The issue may be somewhat of a ‘Catch-22’ however, as the presence of dense, polluting industry naturally drives down residential property values, thereby drawing families with the lowest incomes. In addition, these minority, low-income communities have very little political influence, and so their ability to press for change is greatly hindered. What makes the issue even more difficult to fight is that the majority of industries in the Houston Ship Channel region aren’t breaking federal or state pollution laws with their current output. Not all hope is lost, however, as Houston Mayor Bill White announced intentions to “[expand] the city’s nuisance laws to impose stiff fines on industrial plants that do not reduce their toxic emissions” (Witt, 2007).
Obesity
Outsiders to Houston have held the stereotype that the city is composed of an incredible amount of obese people. Unfortunately, this stereotype may not be that far from the truth, as almost two-thirds of Houston residents fall in the categories of overweight or obese. Some speculate this is because of the spread-out nature of Houston, where expressways and long drives in the car are a part of Houstonians daily life and thus reduce the chances for exercise via walking about the city.
A study conducted by the University of Illinois looked in-depth at each ZIP code within Chicago and found results contrary to the above. The Chicago study found the factors of race, income, and education to be stronger correlates with obesity than the density of a particular neighborhood. Interestingly, those residing in Chicago’s suburbs (which require longer commutes by car or train) are actually more fit than those in the city itself. Not only this, but they are also white, wealthy, and highly-educated. This same pattern can easily be applied to Houston. The White population of the Houston area is more likely to be thin because they will have more money, and therefore be able to afford healthier food and time to exercise. It’s not hard to imagine how many of the hard-working minority families, struggling to bring in enough income to provide the necessities, don’t have proper nutrition at the top of their priority list.
With Houston’s geographic location so near the U.S.-Mexico border, it’s no surprise that nearly a million of Harris County’s 3.8 million residents aren’t U.S. natives, according to U.S. Census Data from 2006. The Houston Area Survey, conducted in early 2008, examined Houston residents’ views
on immigrants, and provided fascinating results. Overall, the attitudes toward the area’s immigrants were negative, with many saying that they added to crime levels and put burdens on tax-funded public services like schools and hospitals.
63% of those surveyed said all immigration should be limited, while 61% agreed that illegal immigrants posed a “very serious” problem. Hispanic immigrants have been moving out of poverty and learning English just as rapidly as the Greek and Italian immigrants did when they arrived in America nearly a century ago. But this has not been quelling the “deepening anti-immigration attitudes” of many Houston-area residents. Part of the reason for the current attitude toward immigrants could be due to the economic slowdown combined with security concerns.
