CM: I graduated in 1988 from University High School in West Los Angeles.

TCLA: Did students at your high school receive roughly the same resources as students attending school in other parts of the city?

CM: You would hear rumors that schools in poorer neighborhoods did not have as many resources, such as, good textbooks, etc. Our school didn’t seem particularly “rich” in terms of the things we got for free, but it didn’t seem undersupplied either. We had enough. I had a friend who had transferred to our school from Beverly Hills High and, according to her, Beverly had the finest of everything.

TCLA: Did all students at your high school receive the same resources as each other?

CM: The students who were in “remedial” tracks seemed to be placed in the portable classrooms away from the main building. If you were in regular or honors classes, you were in the main building and you got a “give and take” as far as the teachers. The honors teachers were generally very good and regular classes probably received about 50-50 in terms of good and not-so-good teachers.

If your parents were forceful enough you could be changed out of a class with a poor teacher. I had an awful math teacher and tried on my own to get out of the class, but it didn’t work.

TCLA: How about today, do you think that students across the city receive roughly the same resources?

CM: At the high school level, there is no way that they can be receiving the same services. The best and most qualified teachers are going to be in the nicest areas and are not going to choose to go into the “ghetto” to teach in that school when they don’t live in that area. The teachers with good qualifications can get positions at charter schools, magnet schools, accelerated schools, etc.. Unless a teacher has a definite desire to want to help the underprivileged, the best teachers are going to go to the best schools. The people that are left are going to fill in the spots at the underprivileged schools.

So in terms of human resources, I would say that schools in areas where people have more money and where parents are more involved are going to be [staffed by] better teachers. As far as facilities and supplies, I would say it depends. I’m teaching in many schools that are in poor areas but have tons of supplies and pretty nice facilities. They’re like havens from the surrounding areas. So if the school is well-run in terms of administration, the resources are there. But if it’s poorly run, a lot of the money just sits there or gets wasted.

TCLA: Is there one resource inequality that particularly concerns you—and if so, what is it and why do you think it is important?

CM: The human resources area and also, the choices available for classes at the high school level. For example, when I was a student, schools with more money like University and Palisades tended to have a wider variety of classes and AP courses; arts, extra-curricular, etc. I noticed at the high school, where I formerly taught in Compton, there weren’t a lot of choices and very little honors courses and the human resources were limited in terms of the people that were really qualified and really knew what they were doing.

TCLA: What should be done to achieve equality in this area?

CM: On the human resource level, there needs to be incentives for the best of the best teachers to want to work in the poorer areas. They need to know that they wouldn’t need to worry about their own personal safety, they would have all the supplies they need, that the campus would be kept up and clean, that students would be disciplined at a certain level, and that the school would be tightly run. Not like a prison, but organized well.

Incentives could be used to lure good teachers into these areas. They might include bonuses, loan forgiveness, and a real housing program, such as, down payment grants versus current programs, which, basically, restrict teachers to purchasing dilapidated shacks. Once teachers are in the schools, every effort must be put forth to keep them there.

TCLA: What actions would you recommend to students or parents interested in joining this struggle?

CM: They need to be in contact with people in the state government and local governments and apply pressure to them for these changes. Parents can vote and have influence on officials in terms of assisting or preventing their elections.

For students, I’d encourage them to write letters to officials, make videos, and invite the media to help expose the difficulties at their schools. Media can often help to get things going.

TCLA: The Brown decision held out the broad promise of a society no longer shaped by the racism of Jim Crow segregation. What difference could equal educational resources make in today’s struggle against racism?

CM: If everyone was able to receive a decent, equal education across the board regardless of race, income, and whether or not English was your first language and the people, who wanted to, were eligible to go to college then everyone would be on an even playing field. They’d have the same basic qualifications for higher education and employment. No one would have an unfair advantage.