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Graduation Day |
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by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings |
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A couple of weeks ago, I was honored to join Baltimore City Community College President Caroline Williams and other educators as we celebrated a very important achievement. Applauded by their families and friends, 70 students were being honored for successfully earning their Graduate Equivalency Diplomas (GEDs).
While I waited for my time to speak, I looked out at the graduates and could not help but smile. We so often emphasize those things that are wrong within our community – while failing to acknowledge all that is good and right.
Clearly, this graduation exemplified something good that is being accomplished in our community. Our colleges and other organizations are working together to help our neighbors succeed.
I do not know what obstacles had once caused these GED graduates at BCCC to leave high school without graduating. What I do know, however, is that they now have picked themselves up and are doing all that they can to move forward with their lives.
Many will be continuing their education at BCCC in the fall. Others have already obtained better jobs.
Their progress and their example to others in our community will be an uplifting influence in our region for years to come.
We are living in a time of both opportunity and challenge – both for African Americans and for everyone else in our country.
Americans of Color are now succeeding in every area of human activity. Yet, the economic divide between the successful and those of us still mired in poverty is wider than at any time in recent memory.
For them, and for all of us, the empowering promise of education is the key.
As a nation, we devote billions of dollars to educating our children – as we should. Yet, all too often, we underestimate the importance of “re-educating” the adults in our communities who need further training.
I was heartened to see neighbors of every age receiving their GEDs there at BCCC’s Graduation Day. Some were in their 20s, like my older daughter, while others were closer to my age.
All had grasped an essential reality of life in this 21st Century.
In a world where those who know how to keep our automobiles and our computers running can earn as much as do those who have earned a Ph.D., anyone lacking a high school degree and marketable skills will be excluded from the promise of opportunity.
A high school diploma – or a GED – is the first step toward achieving success in this country. The community colleges and other organizations that are preparing these students to take – and pass – their exams deserve our continuing support.
In a very real sense, they are building our economic future. Consider these facts.
Here in the Baltimore Region, our location offers the potential of near-universal prosperity for those of us who have gained the ability to grasp that opportunity. Our proximity to Washington, D.C. and major high-tech institutions assures us that good jobs, paying exceptional wages, will continue to be just a “stone’s throw away” from where we live.
These economic realities highlight a very basic challenge that, as a community, we must face and overcome.
As of Year 2000, more than 100,000 African American adults in the Baltimore Region had not yet earned either a high school diploma or a GED.
Eight years later, most of these under-educated neighbors of ours are working hard. We can see them taking the buses to their jobs, early each morning and late into the night.
Yet, despite holding down 2 or even 3 positions, far too many are finding it impossible to earn a living wage. Most cannot afford health care coverage. They do not have the resources to buy their own homes.
Trapped in the jaws of economic despair, these neighbors of ours are searching for a way to build better lives for their families. We all have a vested interest in helping them on this journey.
A better-educated work force is central to long-term prosperity for all of us. We know this – but we must also come to terms with the reality that re-educating so many of our neighbors will require a sustained and extraordinary level of effort by every segment of our community.
BCCC and our Region’s other community colleges are leading the way. Offering free or affordable GED preparation courses – as well as the college-level and high-technology training for which they are better known – our community colleges are on the front lines of re-creating the Baltimore Region as a Community of Learning.
By calling the State of Maryland’s toll-free adult learning hotline [888-464-3346] anyone interested in finding a GED course can learn about all of the programs in our Region.
Adult education needs and deserves expanded state and federal funding. We also can contribute as individuals through supporting GED preparation programs in our own neighborhoods.
By actively supporting GED preparation classes at our community college, the Baltimore Urban League and the other organizations now offering them – and by creating additional GED classes within our churches and social organizations – we have the power to create a more prosperous community.
Allow me to reemphasize this message. We, ourselves, have the power to re-educate our community. We do not need to wait for someone else to intervene.
Right here within the Baltimore Region, we can create a future Graduation Day when every Baltimore family will be smiling.
Congressman Elijah E. Cummings represents Maryland’s Seventh Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.
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