BUZZ
33 percent of students are proficient in reading, 20 percent in math
A central California K-8 school district is under scrutiny for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on an “edutainment” program which teaches kids to rap.
The New York Post reports the Merced City School District has paid more than $600,000 over roughly the last year to the company School Yard Rap, which purports to “provide a supplemental curriculum infused with music, lesson plans, videos, and worksheets, making education a thrilling journey” for students.
The district’s contracts with the company include a Rap Camp during the summer, and an African American Affinity Group for “up to 100 African American students.”
At the latter, students “receive hands-on training in DJing, dance, and Hip Hop/Rap songwriting” and record their works in a professional “studio environment.”
Students also “explore identity and community” via “reflect[ion] on personal stories, heritage, and the role of African American culture in shaping resilience and creativity.”
School Yard Rap founder Brandon “Griot B” Brown, “an educator of minds for over a decade,” told the Post that, despite the specific wording it’s for black students, the African American Affinity Group “is open to every single student” in grades 3-8.
Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act prohibits race-exclusive programming in public schools.
Brown said “I think this is politically driven and the reason [the program] is being called out.” He added that giving kids “more information about the culture of others ‘helps eradicate a lot of hate and ignorance in the country.’”
According to its website, School Yard Rap’s “vision” is “Equity all year, Diversity every day.”
One of its “signature programs” called “Moor than a Month” features Brown (as “Griot B”) in the style of the hip hop group Migos and “take[s] direct aim at white patriarchy.”
“History books have a white male skew, but believe me I ain’t blaming you,” the lyrics state. “That’s who wrote it on paper — it’s a cycle by nature. We give what we got, but I’m here to break it and bring education on what is not taught, trust it’s a lot.”
According to Niche.com, 33 percent of students in the Merced district are proficient in reading, and just 20 percent in math. The district’s 11,000 students are overwhelmingly Hispanic (69 percent) with just under five percent African American. Eighty-three percent are eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Erika Sanzi of the advocacy group Defending Education said “If equity was my goal, I’d start with reading and math scores and income level to identify the students most in need of extra support.”
MORE: Harvard student paper asks for reviews of rap concert, editorial board then calls them ‘racist’
