WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Friday March 28th, 2014 marked the inaugural Summit On Educational Excellence For African Americans.  This PHENOMENAL event was put on by the White House Initiative For Educational Excellence For African Americans.  They partnered with Ebony Magazine (Amy DuBois Barnett) and Morehouse College (Dr. Wilson, President) to bring dynamic thought leaders to Morehouse’s Ray Charles Performing Arts Center for two days of intense conversation about how to close the achievement gap among African American Males.  Just to name a few of the heavy hitters on the panels: Dr. Arlethia Perry-Johnson, Dr. John Eaves, Al Dotson Jr., Jim Shelton, Otha Thorton, and Dr. Ivory Toldson.  There were many more!  The main moderators were Jeff Johnson ( award winning journalist) and David Johns (Executive Director of Initiative) who throughout the conference made sure the panelists gave honest direct answers that would push those of us in the audience toward action!

The topics discussed by various panels were “Challenges and Opportunities Facing Young Men of Color”, “Black Male Success in Higher Education”, “The Benefits of Education and Education Reform”, “College and Career Readiness”, “Cost and Consequence of Gun Violence”, and more.  The reason that I drove five hours down to Atlanta, GA is because after discovering @AfAmEducation on Twitter I have been engaged in their mission of closing the gap for African American Children.  More specifically their priority of increasing the number of African American students who successfully obtain a postsecondary degree, credential, or certificate that leads to a successful career.  The motivation for me traveling all over the country speaking to college students about Financial Literacy is because I know the success that comes with not just getting into college, but crossing the stage at graduation!

The first panel by far was my favorite and the reason that I wrote this blog post.  The first panel should have been titled “This Is Why We Are Here, This Is Our Future!” because on the panel were two high school students Miles Ezeilo (9th grade), Keith Slaughter (10th grade) and three college students Thabiti Stephens, Otha Thorton III, and Joshua Young.  These young men fueled my fire to bring Financial Literacy or more specifically behaving with money into the conversation at the Summit!  Although there was not a panel discussing how money behavior could alleviate or even eliminate a lot of these problems, the first panel brought it front and center.  Morehouse senior Thabiti Stephens who is an entrepreneur himself and the owner of Steps By Stephens a shoe company who donates a portion of its’ sales to help with food insecurity in the Atlanta area actually said the words “Financial Literacy” in one of his comments.  I was already going to ask a question to the panel about the importance of Financial Literacy, but once he said it I understood the need for the subject to be a part of this summit.  This young man along with the other four represent the “dreamers” I speak to across the country.  Students who have ideas that can help others in their community or around the world, but fail to bring those dreams to reality because of financial issues (debt).  Debt or irresponsibility with money could have kept StepsByStephens.com a dream and the money for the food insecure an illusion!  That is why Financial Literacy has to be a part of the conversation when talking about closing the gap and NOT the usual talk about Financial Literacy where people teach students and adults that the credit score is important and a credit card is a tool!  I am talking about showing people how to behave with money.  Showing students and their parents that when you pay off debt you can make money work for you!  When you don't owe the bank money you can save for your child’s college education, you can save for retirement, you can start that business, you can give to that charity that provides quality daycare for low income children, YOU CAN!  Those talented young men were only the beginning.

The next panel consisted of Dr. Perry-Johnson, Dr. Toldson, Dr. Shaun Harper, Dr. Bryant Marks, and Morehouse senior Timothy Spicer Jr. and their task was to discuss “Black Male Success In Higher Education.”  They debunked the common myths about African American male achievement and the true percentage of African American males in college, but what truly caught my attention was a statement made by Dr. Marks.  He said, “what HBCU’s need from alumni is to write checks!”  What made this statement so profound is that first, it’s true, but more importantly the Deputy Director of the White House Initiative On Historically Black Colleges and Universities Dr. Toldson was sitting on the same panel.  The universities that the initiative represents are in dire need for alumni to give back!  Take for example Morris Brown College which is a five minute drive away from Morehouse has at the present time 35 students enrolled and is more that $30 MILLION in debt!  The college is going to have to sell majority of its’ land to stay open!  There is also Bennett College which like Spelman College is an all female HBCU and it is in financial hot water to the point that it had to close one of it’s buildings last Fall.  There are not many all female colleges left, let alone HBCU’s that are all female so it is a situation that needs close attention.  Lastly, there is Howard University and Morgan State University who last Fall seen a drop in students because of changes in the PLUS loans.  Hundreds of students found themselves threatened with dropping out of college because they didn’t have the money to cover the balance they owed.  There were seniors in their last year who had to go home!  These are just a few examples of Higher Ed institutions that are having financial issues and HBCU’s are not alone there are institutions all over the United States going through the same thing.  If Higher Ed institutions want any alum to write a check they should show that alum while they are still in undergrad how to behave with money!  The average student loan debt that a person graduates with is now at $29,000, so these students are grabbing diplomas in red deficit ink!  They go out on their own not understanding delayed gratification which leads to more debt (car loans, house loan, credit cards, etc) and all of a sudden they are up to their eyeballs in debt and have no money to give back to their alma mater who needs it!  I am sure there are plenty of people who have been out of college for over a decade still paying back student loans.  Some critics may say “not everyone graduates with loans.”  They would be right, and I am one of those people!  I graduated debt free and still racked up $48,000 in debt because I didn’t know how to behave with money.  I paid the debt off in 2 1/2 years, but that was lost money for retirement, an emergency fund, or donations to my alma mater South Carolina State University!  An alum who is debt free is an alum who writes checks and writes BIG ONES!  

The last thing that I will touch on from the Summit is the need for more African American male teachers.  A project that Jeff Johnson one of the moderators is the Jeff Johnson Institute For Urban Development which has a goal to recruit and develop 80,000 African American male teachers in 5 years.  Throughout the Summit the same statement was being said “we need more teachers that look like our children especially the male ones.”  The great news is that more and more African American males are going into teaching, but what I fear just like with any other teacher of any race is that the amount of money that they are paid will not keep them in the profession for the long run.  Teachers have an extremely difficult job and they get paid nothing!  I’ve had numerous teachers tell me that they can not get ahead financially because of their salary.  There are groups all over the country fighting for higher teacher pay, but in the meantime show those majoring in education and those who are already teachers how to pay off debt they have and build an eight month emergency fund.  Doing this is not to take the pressure off of lawmakers to do what is right and increase pay, but it is to take the financial burden off that teacher so that they can come to class with a peace of mind and give their best to that student they love to serve!  

I know that this post was much longer than usual, but this event was to important not to show how real Financial Literacy could make a positive impact in majority of the topics discussed.  This Summit was about recognizing the issues, but it also was about ACTION!  My first action was to write this blog post and my next action is to email as many of the over 100 HBCU Presidents to discuss the importance of implementing Financial Literacy (Financial Behavior) at their institutions.  Not just to benefit their undergraduates, but also to benefit their longterm survival!

A special thank you to Dr. Wilson and Morehouse for opening your doors to this event!  A supersize THANK YOU to David Johns and EVERY individual behind the success of the White House Initiative For Educational Excellence For African Americans and @AfAmEducation!

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NOT GOING ANYWHERE

NOT GOING ANYWHERE

A few months ago I read an article discussing the cost of state colleges and how if some of the colleges within a system were consolidated that it would save the state money.  For example in North Carolina there is UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, UNC Greensboro, you get the picture. So instead of all of these Universities under one system the state would close a couple of them and incoming students would have to choose one of the Universities that were left after the cut.  Although this idea is provocative enough, what made me pause was that somehow HBCU’s were added to the conversation.  HBCU stands for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and I personally went to the one and only South Carolina State University.  The reason that I paused when the article mentioned HBCU’s is because these colleges and universities had nothing to do with the concept that the article was speaking of and it just seem like HBCU’s were added just as a suggestion that some of these schools whether they are part of the system or not can be shut down too because they are not needed.  I don’t usually step outside of financial literacy advice and I am not going to in this post either, but this article made me start thinking that HBCU’s and the students that attend them have the opportunity to be taken out of this conversation altogether and it starts with financial literacy.

Why financial literacy?  Majority of HBCU’s don’t have large endowments and they depend on donations from alumni along with other resources, but with alumni comes the issue and also the solution.  HBCU’s mostly consist of African American students who come from lower to upper middle income families.  Usually they are able to attend college through student loans, grants and scholarships (academic and athletic) and without this aid a lot of the students would not be able to afford higher education.  So here is how financial literacy can take HBCU’s out of the “elimination conversation.”

If majority of students at these universities and colleges depend on financial aid then one financial mistake small or large could lead to these students dropping out of college.  A student getting a credit card owing as little as $300 can cause them to drop out of college because they have no way of paying that debt off.  Students can lose a grant and that could lead to dropping out.  I met one student at North Carolina Central that before the fall semester even started she found out that she had lost an $800 grant and she did not know how she was going to get the money so she could start classes the next week.  She asked her mother and her mother could not help because she was struggling herself and just like that here was a student with a bright future at risk of dropping out.  I know that there are a lot of stories just like this one at HBCU’s all around the country and the result is the same. Dropping out.  The student dropping out not only hurts them, but it takes future alumni dollars out of the system making the institution vulnerable.  All universities and colleges must start to educate their students on how to handle money so that students can finish college and attain great paying careers.  HBCU’s much teach students not to spend their refund check, not to get credit cards, and not worry about a credit score because little mistakes like these can lead to a student being financially unstable.

I am sure that there are administrators, professors, student affair professionals, deans and so on who are wondering why should we focus on financial literacy?  Because you can’t afford not to!  The goal of financial literacy is not only to keep retention rates up, but it is truly to benefit the HBCU after the student graduates.  The 2012 college graduate left school with an estimated $26,000 in student loan debt.  This does not include the possibility that the student also had credit card debt or a car loan.  If it is not taught in college that DEBT SUCKS and that once you graduate that you need to pay off ALL debt as fast as you can then you end up with generation after generation that just lives a little bit better than paycheck to paycheck.  Alumni that live like this financially DO NOT AND CAN NOT give back to their alma mater leaving the alma mater to fend for itself.  This may not have been a problem in the past, but with state governments more and more cutting back in the budget when it comes to higher education the dependence on donations from alumni will only become greater.  So as you can see current and future alumni are the issue but they are also the solution, but it starts with financial literacy being stressed to them while they are students.  Trust that not a lot of higher ed institutions are taking on this mission and maybe they don’t have to, but as a HBCU alumni I am here to tell you that you can’t afford not to.  It is time to get off the chopping block and to show the world that you are not going ANYWHERE!