The times they are a-changin'

At one point in our recent history, it was possible for Americans to be not fully cognizant of the growing disparity between rich and poor in this country--what former North Carolina Senator and 2004 Democratic Vice-Presidential Candidate John Edwards calls "the two Americas." The immense size and proportions of our geographical boundaries as well as our growing wealth and prosperity had insulated the vast majority of the nation's citizenry to the despair and degradation that many in America lived from day-to-day. Fortunately or unfortunately, there is a growing consensus that in the America of 2012, "On one side, there are now the rich, the comfortably endowed and those so aspiring, and on the other the economically less fortunate and the poor..." (Galbraith, 1996). According to government data by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the economic disparity between rich and poor has been greater at the start of the twenty-first century than in any other year since 1979, leading to increasing economic polarization (Books, 2004) that is characterized by a concentration of poverty and social needs, with the poor becoming more isolated from the functional economy and the middle class than ever before (Orfield, 1997).

Social researchers and policy activists have documented a growing disconnect among Americans of all classes and races and in all portions of the country. They have shown how this lack of cohesion and developing two-tier economic society have contributed to a myriad of problems ranging from violent crime to substandard housing, from child poverty and child abuse to low levels of community health and affordable health insurance (Miringoff and Miringoff, 1999, Saegert, Thompson and Warren, 2001). Where should we begin to address these problems? Schools seem a logical starting point to begin the transformation of poor, urban communities. Found in virtually every neighborhood, relatively stable in funding and operating procedures, and for the foreseeable future, an undeniable right remaining to all citizens, schools provide a foundation and logistical base from which may emanate communal cohesion.