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Airick West, already a community activist, said being member a of the Kansas City, MO. School Board gives him a much larger soapbox.

New KCMO School Board member speaks at UMKC

By: Teresa Sheffield

Posted: 4/14/08

Fresh off an election victory as member of the Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO) School Board, Airick West came to UMKC Wednesday afternoon to speak at the Honor's Program colloquium in Cockefair Hall. He spoke about links between poverty and education.

He began by giving his definition of poverty.

"[Poverty] is a persistent state of financial instability. The word I would lift up the most is persistent," West said. "I would strongly encourage you to differentiate between being poor and the experience of being in poverty. I would differentiate between being … There are many people who have missed a meal at one point or another but for whom there was a clear expectation that this wasn't the state of their life."

West said the ways people react to poverty influence their lives in the future.

"Poverty, as I see it, is most debilitating in the lives of those who see nothing else in the foreseeable future," West said. "[For] people who see nothing else in the foreseeable future, the reality they know right now is the only reality they can expect to exist any time to come. It's a state of hopelessness."

West said he believes this aspect of poverty directly impacts education.

"…There are students who sense that something else is coming, that there will be other opportunities a part of their life, that the current situation is simply that, current," he said

West gave two main reasons for running for the school board.

He said he now has a child in the KCMO School District, and being involved in his own schooling, he has found ways to help beyond being a parent.

Another reason he ran is because of the recent decision to annex some Independence schools from the KCMO School District.

West said he wasn't bothered by the annexation, but the reasons behind it. From what he interpreted from political ads mailed to him and others, white people wanted to get their kids away from the black people, and black people wanted to get their kids away from the white people.

"That's the type of cynical conversation that got me involved," West said. "They say in politics you have to sometimes get angry before you can get active. That got me angry."

West said one of the main problems facing the KCMO School District was having 23 superintendents in 39 years.

"If we know what we're doing now doesn't work, there's no need to demonize it and point fingers and blame, but simply just to say, that's not working what can we do that will work?" he said. "We tried the get rid of the every-two-years strategy, and that hasn't worked. I'm suggesting we try the keep them for 10 years and see if that works."

Another problem the school district faces, West said, is being provisionally accredited.

West said because they're on the cusp of not being accredited, they have difficulty attracting high caliber teachers. West said students who graduate have almost a worthless diploma and teachers have less time to spend on students because they're taking federal teaching qualifying tests.

West said now that he's a member of the school board, he wants to help the community be involved with the students' education.

"Having the community see itself as an active partner of education and taking every available opportunity to invest in that way, is a large part of what I can do," West said.

tsheffield@unews.com