October 2017 Newsletter
Education & Race
As another fall school term begins, here are some facts & figures about racial differences in the educational system that appeared recently in The New York Times magazine:

The unemployment rate for college educated black people is twice that of white people.

37% of black first time college students who enrolled in 2011-12 were no longer in school after 3 years.

30% of Hispanic first time college students enrolled in 2011-12 were no longer in school after 3 years.

National Center for Education Statistics

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Enrollment of black students in majority white Southern schools peaked in 1988 at 43%. In 2011, enrollment of black students in majority white Southern schools declined to 23%.

In 2012, just 6% of public school teachers in the U.S. were black .

25% of black freshmen who started public high school in 2011 didn’t graduate with a regular diploma in 4 years.

                               Civil Rights Project of UCLA
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Minority students are more likely to be taught by inexperienced teachers in 33 states.

Black public preschoolers are 3 times more likely to be suspended as white public preschoolers.

33% of public high schools with high black and Latino enrollment offer calculus, while 56% of high schools with low black and Latino enrollment offer calculus.

33% of students in gifted and talented programs are black and Latino, while black and Latino students represent 42% of enrollment at schools offering gifted and talented programs.

Schools with a high levels of black or Latino enrollment have 2 times as many first year teachers as schools with low black or Latino enrollment.

Black Kindergarten-12 th Grade public school students are 3 times more likely to be suspended as white students and black students are almost 2 times more likely to be expelled as white students.
                            US Department of Education
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Exposure to at least one black teacher in Grades 3-5 reduces the probability of low income black male students dropping out of school by almost 40% .
IZA Institute of Labor Economics
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Nationwide, districts with the most minority students receive 15% less per student in state and local funding than the whitest districts.
The Education Trust
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New Resources
Half of the Inmates Shouldn’t be Here, Says Cook County Sheriff

A CBS 60 Minutes segment about Cook County Jail, one of the largest in the U.S., where Sheriff Tom Dart sees his job as not just keeping people in jail, but helping some of them get out.
For more on the Criminal Justice System ,
click here.
Megyn Kelly Gives Chicago Nun House, Funds for South Side Work

A segment from NBC's The Today Show ; Megyn Kelly interviews Sister Donna Liette , with the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation about her work with gang members and their families on the south side of Chicago. Watch now.
For more on Forgiveness , click here .
Bread for the World --
Scripture Study Guide
By James Martin SJ. A reflection on the parable of the wedding banquet and Matthew 22:1-14. Includes notes for a children's sermon, prayers, and other suggested activities. Learn more.
For more about Hunger click here.
The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith & Reason 1798 to
Modern Times
By Christopher de Bellaigue. Presents an account of the political and social reformations that transformed the lands of Islam in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Shows how Middle Eastern areas have long welcomed modern ideals and practices, including the adoption of modern medicine, the emergence of women from seclusion, and the development of democracy and how the violence of a small minority is a tragic reaction to these modernizing trends. Read more.

Chasing Coral
A documentary from Netflix about a group of scientists working to show one of the effects of climate change: the bleaching and eventual death of many coral reefs around the world -- including the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Watch the trailer.
For more about the Environment , click here.
Jesus and the Holocaust: Reflections on Suffering and Hope
By Joel Marcus. Offers meditations on the relationship between the deaths of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis and the death of one innocent Jew on the cross. Weaves reflection on Bible passages together with poetry and narratives about the Holocaust showing how the hope that Christians have in Christ's darkest hour can shed light on one of the most tragic events in history—and vice versa. Read more.
For more about Religious Intolerance ,
click here.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
By Richard Rothstein. Argues that American cities did not come to be racially divided through de facto segregation -- through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, it shows that that it was de jure segregation― the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments―that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day. Read more.
For more about Racism , click here.
The Vietnam War
A ten-part, 18-hour PBS documentary series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Explores the human dimensions of the war through the testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides—Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Includes photographs, historic television broadcasts, home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations as well as more than 100 musical recordings from the era.
For more on War , click here.
Distant Markets, Distant Harms: Economic Complicity and Christian Ethics
Edited by Daniel Finn. Presents an analysis of moral complicity in markets, employing resources from sociology, Christian history, feminism, legal theory, and Catholic moral theology today. The True Wealth of Nations research project of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies brought together an international group of sociologists, economists, moral theologians, and others to describe causal relationships and articulate how Catholic social thought can use these insights to more fully address issues of economic ethics in the twenty-first century. The result was this interdisciplinary volume of essays, which explores the causal and moral responsibilities that consumers bear for the harms that markets cause to distant others. Read more.
For information on Economic Justice ,
click here.
The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power and Status in the Twenty-first Century

By Ryan Avent. Investigates the meaning of work in the twenty-first century: how technology is upending time-tested business models and thrusting workers of all kinds into a world wholly unlike that of a generation ago and asks the question, Can the modern world manage technological changes that are just as disruptive as those that shook the socioeconomic landscape of the 19th century?
For information on Economic Justice ,
click here.

The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live and Die
By Keith Payne. Examines how inequality divides people not just economically; but also its consequences for how people think, how they respond to stress, how their immune systems function, and even how they view moral concepts such as justice and fairness. Explores why women in poor societies often have more children, and why they have them at a younger age; why there is little trust among the working class in the prudence of investing for the future; why people's perception of their social status affects their political beliefs and leads to greater political divisions; how poverty raises stress levels as effectively as actual physical threats; how inequality in the workplace affects performance; and why unequal societies tend to become more religious. Read more.
For information on Economic Justice ,
click here.

Beyond $15: Immigrant Workers, Faith Activists and the Revival of the Labor Movement
By Jonathan Rosenblum. Tells the story of the first successful fight for a $15 minimum wage, which renewed a national labor movement through bold strategy and broad inclusiveness. Digging deep into the root causes of poverty wages, provides an assessment of the problems facing unions today. Read more.
For more on Labor , click here .
 
Important Dates This Month

Individuals Honored This Month
(October 2nd)
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attitude of the strong.
 (October 4th)
Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; then suddenly you are doing the impossible.
(October 5th)
(October 7th)
We may be surprised at the people we see in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.
(October 9th)
(October 11th)
Economic progress must be accompanied by a corresponding social progress, so that all classes of citizens can participate in the increased productivity. The utmost vigilance and effort is needed to ensure that social inequalities, so far from increasing, are reduced to a minimum.
(October 11th)

Real strength can be found not in power, money or weapons, but in deep, inner peace. When we have enough insight, we are not caught by many difficult situations anymore.
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