the mold the carpet the walls itself the classroom the teachers everything that
you need in the school or could use in the school it's not there at this point
it's just like a daycare for teenagers students at block High School in rural
Louisiana say conditions at their school are so bad that they're struggling to
get an education that building there be building it is completely unsafe but we
still do go in there as far as using the auditorium these are the textbooks they
were given at the beginning of the school year teachers across the country
continue to go on strike but public education in rural areas gets little
national attention we traveled to Catahoula Parish Louisiana one of the
poorest parishes one of the poorest states in the country to see why
students are speaking out in what conditions and deep south schools are
like more than six decades after desegregation they try to make you a
world history teacher geography teacher and a a CT prim and a standardized test
you prep teacher and are you certified free I'm almost certain I the physical
education their athletic coats Bennie volt inspired his students to speak out
I thought history for a while I thought I taught the amendments you know the
First Amendment you have the right to protest it made you teach history so you
said okay I'll teach him history I'll teach him the history of protein history
world's a coverage sign of the protest and black high school
you know what you're doing how you expect me to do block high school is
situated in Jonesville the poorest section of Catahoula parish nearly 70%
of seniors are black and about 60% of students here do not go on to college
after graduation but 13 miles away there's another school in the same
school district that looks a lot different nearly 90 percent of the
senior class here is white they perform better academically and enroll in
college at a higher rate so we just tried to film inside Harrisonburg high
school but the superintendent won't let our cameras inside they don't want the
principal's to talk to us on camera but there's a clear notable difference in
how the school looks compared to black high school dr. Gilley Freeman is in
charge of all schools in the district including block and Harrisonburg high
school when we talked to students and we talked to families at black high school
they compared it to Harrisonburg they say Harrisonburg has beautiful
facilities why do you think they're saying there's such a difference several
of the other schools communities with past Bondi's she's specifically around
facility renovation and refurbishment and in the recent years Johnsville
hasn't passed any such issue to address their schools Freeman says that the
state of Louisiana gives a set amount of money to school districts but individual
towns can raise additional money by issuing a bond or a tax this has allowed
them to do is to create inside a single school district high schools that are
really inequitable in terms of their funding when it comes to facility
maintenance in a way that creates schools that are economically segregated
and usually segregated Belinda Davis is a public policy professor in education
advocate at Louisiana State University we showed her video from inside block
high school the entire school board a Catahoula parish ought to be ashamed
halli school and that district that is in that kind of shape do you think it's
fair the system as it is right now well that's a perception issue overall
funding for public education for a district has reduced over the period of
time the demographics and the population of our parish has decreased and quite
frankly because of economic conditions are a lack of business and industry
Block high school graduate Tomiko blood saw works as an accountant at a local
sheriff's office she says the school districts budget
shows how unequal the funding is this is their 2018-2019 budget Jonesville has
three schools that they're funding this is some amount of revenue that's brought
in for just Jonesville schools upkeep for the building and the grounds come
out to be about $22,000 you have to divide that by three schools is that
enough money no it's going to get fixed no not compared to the other schools but
you come to Harrisonburg one school they get a total of $20,000 $20,000 whereas
black high school is getting like 7,000 yes
these parents are getting ready to meet with school board members in the
superintendent to demand that block High School get fixed how did that meeting go
what's gonna happen is to a matter of integrity and
accountability are they going to be a board and district of their word is
thought to do what we need them to do for the vision of our children and
whether or not they're going to hold the necessary people accountable one
potential solution that people talk about to fix the schools here is just to
consolidate all the schools in the district but we just got off the phone
with a school board member who says that parents at Harrisonburg high school
don't want their kids going to the same school as bloc students because of their
quote moral character I have some friends to go to Harrison Berry school
but they've talked about this in and came back and my friends are no longer
friends with them because of the comments and things that they've said
what kind of comments racial comments students there have said things about
students and teachers look what kind of things like I'm not coming down to teach
those animals or you know stuff like that
sure cold wants to go to college but she says she's not ready honestly I don't
know what I'm going to do after high school I might go to college and I might
go into the army because I don't think I'm mentally prepared for college as far
as the education that I've lacked so far and I just don't want to really go
through that struggle so you don't you don't feel like this school has prepared
you for college no sure you don't feel like you've gotten the education you
need who do you think should be held
accountable for this honestly I think they all should be held accountable
because it starts at the top it takes us children to protest to have
people like you come down and talk to us it's been going on far too long and they
go a little too late