Outsourcing Our Public Education

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

America doesn’t just outsource its customer service and factory jobs anymore, now we’re outsourcing our public education. The Baraka School is a Kenyan boarding school for at-risk, African-American boys from inner city Baltimore, and it’s also the subject of “The Boys of Baraka,” a documentary short-listed for an Academy Award.

Baltimore boasts a 76% high school dropout rate for black males. For the four ghetto kids that star in this film, the Baraka program is their only shot at graduation. There’s big-mouth Montrey, who’s been suspended eight times but nevertheless wants to earn “a MBA, a Ph.D., and a KFC.” Richard and Romesh are two brothers who have tragically different trajectories, and Devon is a child preacher whose regularly incarcerated mother is a source of constant humiliation.

Confronted with a rural environment free of screaming police sirens and drug dealers, the boys overcome some initial fear and homesickness, then blossom. Most surprising is how much healthier poverty-stricken Kenya looks than inner city Baltimore. Until they arrive in Kenya, the boys have the dead eyes of convicts, but Africa seems to make all the difference. But this isn’t a standard-issue inspirational doc.

Halfway through, just when things are going well, prepare yourself for one of the greatest acts of betrayal you’ll see on screen this year. No matter how immune you are to yet another tourist-trap documentary about our lousy inner cities, watching these boys be let down by absolutely everyone in their lives – from city leaders to their parents – is a special brand of pain. As Romesh says after his last gleam of hope is snuffed out, “I think all our lives are going to be bad now.” And he’s right.


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