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- NATION, Page 23American NotesEDUCATIONBack to Square One
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- In many American cities, young black men are a group in
- critical condition, growing up into lives of poverty, crime and
- early death. In an attempt to stem that tide, the board of
- education in Detroit -- where black males have a 54% dropout
- rate -- decided to establish three all-male public schools. Open
- to all races but focused chiefly on black students, they were
- to feature high academic standards, strict discipline and a
- stress on African-American history.
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- But the Detroit scheme hit a roadblock just weeks before
- school started, when the A.C.L.U. and the NOW Legal Defense and
- Education Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Detroit mother
- with three daughters. The suit argued that the plan would deny
- girls the right to an equal education. Not incidentally, black
- girls in Detroit have a 45% dropout rate. Last week U.S.
- District Judge George E. Woods agreed and ordered school
- officials to come up with a program to accommodate both sexes.
- "The young adolescent black male is most definitely an
- endangered species in this community," said Woods. "But the
- board has not shown the presence of girls would harm the
- learning of boys."
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