PUBLIC EDUCATION PROBLEMS/PRIVATE SOLUTIONS:

Where teens matter (David Elfin, September 11, 2005, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

It's a steamy summer afternoon at the Public Idea Charter School in Northeast, just down 45th Street from the storefront New Beginnings church.

Nineteen teenagers, most of them wearing T-shirts and jeans, are gathered around the guest speaker. He is a young man who grew up in a similarly tough neighborhood and already has written a book, even though he still is a student in college.

Trying to spur a discussion, he boldly says, "If you want to hide something from black people, put it in a book."

No one objects -- until, that is, Aloris Wilkins speaks up in a tone that verges on anger. The 17-year-old reels off a list of her favorite books and authors to show that she isn't buying it.

"Some people see African-American kids from Southeast and think we don't matter," Aloris said. "They're wrong. Then there are people who want to work with younger kids because they think they can change them, and they forget about us older kids."

That moment was one of the payoffs of more than a decade of work by Charles Mann and Art Monk, former Washington Redskins stars who with teammates Earnest Byner and Tim Johnson co-founded the Good Samaritan Foundation in 1993.

The foundation is an after-school program that works with students from high schools in impoverished neighborhoods in the District. It ensures that students do their homework each day, gets them summer internships, makes sure they get paid work experience and helps place them in colleges. [...]

The foundation requires a four-year commitment from its ninth-grade enrollees and expects them to study at Idea Charter for 2½ hours each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and 4½ hours each Wednesday. They also get together each Friday at Good Samaritan's downtown office to talk.

Despite those requirements, 65 percent to 70 percent stay in the program until graduation. And unlike most of their peers at Idea or Anacostia High -- the program's base schools -- the vast majority of Good Samaritan students go to four-year colleges.

"GSF gives young people a sense of hope and purpose," said Julienne Johnson, president and founder of Front of the Bus, a youth leadership development program that employs an intern from Good Samaritan every summer, as do Canon, Choice Hotels, the Salvation Army and the law firm of Latham & Watkins. "They provide life skills and the practical application through employment that other groups don't.

"I've seen huge changes in the GSF students from freshman to senior year. The maturity and poise these young people have is unusual for their age," Ms. Johnson said.

To understand the modern Left and Right all you really need to know is that conservatives support such programs but public teacher unions and civil rights groups oppose them.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 11, 2005 12:00 AM