Higher Education Racism and De-Escalation Training

The Georgia Board of Regents, which oversees the university  system, has instituted a policy barring undocumented students from the state's top five public schools. Georgia has thirty-five public colleges, serving about three hundred and ten thousand students, of which some five hundred are undocumented; only twenty-nine undocumented students are enrolled at the top five schools. Only two other states -- South Carolina and Alabama -- ban undocumented students from public universities. [1]

"Each year, about three thousand undocumented students graduate from high school in Georgia, but their opportunities for college are severely limited. At the public universities they're still allowed to attend, they must pay out-of-state tuition, more than double what state residents pay. To matriculate at private colleges, they have to apply as international students."

"The University of Georgia in Athens, did not accept  black students until 1961. The following year, in an effort to maintain segregation, the state spent four hundred and fifty thousand dollars on grants and scholarships to send black students from Georgia to institutions in other states."

"Between 1954 and 1965, black children in Mississippi made up fifty-seven per cent of school-age students, but received only thirteen per cent of the state's spending for education." "In Prince Edward County, Virginia, in 1959, the local government shut down the public school system in order to resist integration." [2]

Police Need De-Escalation Training
Diane Dimond's  Saturday column for the Albuquerque Journal often focuses on law enforcement issues, which, to my mind, too often reflect the "them against us" mentality of police officers; moreover, she adheres to Jeff Sessions's strong opposition to consent decrees. Yet, at times, she can present an informed insight into law enforcement failings, such as the article on de-escalation training appearing in this past Saturday's issue.  

"Databases maintained by the Washington Post and the Guardian newspaper conclude that there were about 1,000 fatal encounters between police and civilians in 2016. So far this year, the Post reports more than 350 people have died at the hands of a duly sworn officer of the law. " Mental health figured into one in five of the fatal cases. [3]

"According to a recent American Public Media analysis, 34 states do not offer or require officers to take courses on the best ways to defuse a potentially explosive situation." "Teaching law enforcement recruits to demand immediate  and total compliance from a citizen or that they should always 'shoot to kill' are outdated strategies."

ADDENDUMS:
*Mexican Economy Minister Guajardo told the Mexico Business Forum that "if you guys [the U.S.] think we're going to start negotiations with a trigger pulled on a U.S. exit in six months, forget about it." He added: "If you do that, just get out already -- because there's no way we're negotiating under those conditions."

*Despite Trump administration claims that the raid in Yemen netted extensive intelligence, reports surfaced that there were at least 30 civilian deaths. According to Reuters, U.S. military officials said that Trump approved his first counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparation.

Footnotes
[1] Jonathan Blitzer, "American Studies," The New Yorker, May 22, 2017.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Diane Dimond, "Officers need better de-escalation training," Albuquerque Journal, May 20, 2017.