The featured speaker for this year's ISAAC Banquet in Kalamazoo says the "Pittsburgh Promise" and similar programs create "wonderful opportunities." But the Reverend John C. Welch says challenges remain for poorer families to take full advantage of free college.
The "Pittsburgh Promise" is similar to the Kalamazoo Promise which provides college scholarships for graduates of the city's public school system. Pittsburgh's program, announced about a year after the Kalamazoo Promise, includes minimum grade point average and attendance requirements. Welch says that gentrification (people moving back from the suburbs) is driving up the cost of living in the city. Welch says that's forcing some poorer minority families to move out of the Pittsburgh Public School District. Welch says there should be a mix of subsidized and market housing. But he says it's also a question of available jobs, and how well those jobs pay.
Welch is the Dean of Students at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He is also the Chairman of the Board of the interfaith organizing network the Gamaliel Foundation, of which ISAAC is a an affiliate. The annual ISAAC Banquet is being held Saturday March 14th at the Bernhard Center at Western Michigan University.
The theme for this year's ISAAC Banquet in Kalamazoo is "On the Road to Justice." Welch says "it's a very long road." He says we've made it down the path a ways, but still have a very long way to go. Welch says progress made during the civil rights movement could be undone by rolling back affirmative action policies and the Voting Rights Act.
Welch says the issues of justice and race are still closely tied together. "They're like Siamese twins." He says President Obama's election has not brough the "post-racial" society many people hoped it would. He says statistics related to economics, education and incarceration all show that race is still a central issue in the United States. But Welch says he does have hope for a "post racial" society. He says younger people have not divided themselves along racial lines the way past generations have.