Dr. Walter Allen, who has studied the dilemma of Black post-graduate education as a professor in the University of California at Los Angeles' School of Social Work, says that the current condition reflects another wrinkle in what he feels is the effort to roll back the gains of Blacks in higher education. "I definitely see this as part of the assault on affirmative action," he says.
He says that the impact of the cut back of graduate student money will speed the erosion of the number of Blacks with graduate degrees which, in turn, reduces the number of Blacks teaching Blacks, triggering a downward spiral for Black participation in higher education.
Wise is more concerned about the impact at the elementary and secondary school level. "A well-trained teacher is likely to emerge from graduate school $60,000 in debt and it will take 15 years of teaching to pay it off," he says. That condition is not an encouraging sign at a time when highly-skilled teachers are needed to reverse the downward trend in the nation's cities. "It's all so infuriating when you realize that our urban high schools are going to pot," Wise says.
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