WGBH Journal; METCO, Minority Business, Verrezano Institute

In the fall of 974 Boston began desegregating at schools under a program of mandatory court ordered busing. Busing became a major issue at that time even though it existed on a voluntary basis in Boston since 1966. It was during that year that the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity was founded commonly known as Medco. The program began busing minority children from Boston into a white suburban school systems in the fall of 1066. The plan was completely voluntary for both students and participating schools since 1066 Medco has grown to include over 40 communities and currently in roles over 3000 students METCO was originally founded as a private corporation in 1969. It began receiving funds from the state. Presently the Commonwealth provides all of METCO six point three million dollar budget. And like other state funded programs the recession has hurt Medco. Its allocation from the state has not been increased since 1974. This has profoundly affected Medco as Associate

Director Steven shocks planes. The problem has been something of a recognition that there is such a thing as inflation. And that we have been at a level of funding for the last three years that remains static. And somehow Robert the towns to which we send the kids and this organization which maintains the program. We've made we've managed to keep our commitment. The problem is now that the state has not. Numerous problems have grown out of Mexico's budget squeeze. It has been difficult for the program to replace the spots vacated by students who graduate. There is also been a shortage of funds for an adequate central staff. These problems of strain because resources according to executive director Jean McGuire this program is predicated on growth.

It's now 12 years old. It has had no growth for three years. When you have a budget that remains static or has a cut in it you are in fact shrinking the program to a small level which means we can't replace seniors in the first grade or other replacement grades. That is town may request. We're sure right now the funds that we need to operate in here this is where the children live. And in spite of the staff that's hired in the suburbs with medical funds unless they're regular staff they don't take the place of the staff here at the central organization. We're running a transportation program with three people in a ministry who has to give considerable on a time to maintaining the program dealing with staff and helping with the legislature and trying to run bus routes for 100 plus vehicles in to going to 204 schools from all over the city of Boston and it's just horrendous what people can do in the secretary to staff an administrator that's impossible. Since 1974 efforts have been made to increase MacOS budget but they have

all failed. The program's funds are under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Education. For the last three years the board has petitioned the legislature for an increase in these funds which would allow for a 15 percent expansion in Mexico in a moment. But the legislature's Ways and Means Committee has consistently turned down the requests. Consequently the program has not been able to grow. I asked Gregory enraged the state commissioner of education why the legislature has been reluctant to increase medicos budget when the medico program is experiencing the same difficulty that their all state programs have in the last. Three years and that is that we've gone through a very difficult financial crisis at the state level which has meant that we basically have had to level fund in many cases even the most important of programs like Matt go. And at the same time have had to cut back on many others. The fact that Metro has not been cut back is in itself something that is positive in terms of the period of time we are going through.

MacOS administrators do not feel the problem is so clearly cut. Director Jean McGuire is angered by what she perceives as an insensitive legislature. She feels that the lack of increased funding is not due to budgetary concerns but is the result of a downgrading of medicos importance by the State House. For years we've been the only people talking on a consistent basis between the city in the suburbs and here we have a governor legislature don't even give a lousy million dollars more to make it work properly without stress and strain so that we can focus on programme not to ever be trying to keep the wolf away from the door. I'm may feel very strongly about that but I think that you know after 12 years and seeing people like Ruth that's involve hate in other people put their time and effort into it and to see the legislature play with it like a cat does a little ball of yarn. They have the funds cut that makes it possible to meet us. It's tragic. Commissioner Enrique feels that the legislature is sensitive to met Cose needs and that it does

wish to see its growth continue. According to Enrique Medco has not been subject to any sort of politicking. Well the preparation process by its very nature is a political process the appropriations are decided by the state legislature and approved by the governor. So clearly of course the politics have been in it that's in the very nature of how state government operates. If you mean by that partisan politics I would say no. If you mean by that. Politics in a negative sense of manipulation or. Underhandedness of this kind of thing I have not experienced that in any major degree and maybe a couple of instances of individuals but not that not certainly in terms of the general issue. It's been more a matter of what are the priorities. Do we really support a program like this. Do we think its use of use not only to the students in the city but the students in the suburbs and of the limits of of available resources should an amount in the amount of 5.8 million or 6.3 million of em which are you know

you use go for this program this year. Thats that is decided in the political arena. But thats the appropriate arena. The future of met Cose financial situation is still uncertain. The State Board of Education Plans to again request an increase in the program's budget. Whether the state will appropriate the money is debatable. In his recent State of the state address Governor Dukakis promised more funding for human services programs like Medco. But such money can only come from the legislature and its general sentiments towards Mexico at this time are unknown. The entire situation is probably most dependent upon the state's economic health during the coming year. However the uncertainty of the future budget is of no consolation for over 6000 children who are on the METCO waiting list. The lack of new spaces for these children has only cost frustration as expressed by a prospective Medco parent this is an investment program volunteer program has become a model throughout the

nation. It's being used as a brief rundown of cities just published and in the U.S. move toward more volunteer integrated busing programs in all the cities. And this is the investment in time all the money has been invested in human services and start reinventing the wheel of the year for GBH Journal. This is Mike Marshall. Say. 1.9 million annual profits of one hundred forty eight. That's not a lot of money for a small independent firm like but for a black

run firm. Such profits make it one of the most successful minority run companies in the country. Freedom electronics and engineering incorporated of Dartmouth of Massachusetts is the company Roger Williams is its owner. Mr. Williams claims that his experiences with his own company say a lot about the situation for minority run companies in this country. He spoke recently with a reporter to the new guy. Why do you suppose it's business. Well electronics business we make components for computers and there are no black people making computers therefore we can't make components for computers. We do not make a consumer product like a hand calculator or something that would be bought in the black community. That's simple as that. Have you had problems so into the work you have been prejudiced people. Yes you encounter and enormous amount of sales resistance as a minority business one. Colleague of mine has a distribution business that he's been running for over 20 years and when black economic development became popular

he was encouraged to announce that he's a minority company. He said that things were going very well until he made that announcement and for a period of time his company was buffeted by the fact that the longstanding customers suddenly started ordering less longstanding customer suddenly wanted to make plant visits and they became somewhat in secure. The reason I guess primarily this problem exists we all know about racism in this country. But people who do not live in or associate in the ghetto area have exaggerated attitudes about the conditions in the area. All they see in the Boston papers or the New York papers or the Los Angeles papers are figures on unemployment figures on unskilled. There are companies that are constantly being solicited for monies for ICSA and so forth so their image of the black community here is one of unskilled unemployed poor work habits etc. etc. And

so what. What a black business encounter is when one goes out to sell to a white business is all of these basic prejudices plus their artificial picture of the ghetto area. What about your company's physical location in the ghetto is that a problem. Well initially it it is a problem depending on the product. We had one company in the area that is noted at least public relations wise for being concerned about the inner city about minorities and what have you. And this particular company was looking at doing LAPD watches assembly in packaging and shipping and we had several meetings with them the bulk of those meetings were concerned with security for the watches not so much on our ability to do them or what have you. And so we haven't done anything centrally that would be a high risk item in that it would have high appeal to criminal types.

But I'm sure that had we or if we were to so do this would be a concern. On the other hand we've been there for some in our present location about four years and we've had one attempted break. People know what we're doing. It's not that the criminals are giving us some sort of exemption they know that we have nothing worth selling. Would you ever consider moving a company outside of the black community. Never. Well the primary reason that we're in business is to bring an infusion of cash into the black community. And now you will find that in cities like Lowell Lawrence. And Nashua New Hampshire or wherever you New Bedford they're trying to get industry in the city. They do not benefit from a plant in Pittsfield Massachusetts except indirectly. But the direct straight line benefit is in the minority community. Now let's assume that we were able to succeed well beyond our

dreams and become of 500 million dollar company that required a plant employing four five ten thousand people. Can you imagine the impact on the ghetto area if we were located there and hiring that number of people having that kind of political and cash influence on the improvement of the community. There are companies in which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts built a million and a half dollar access road. So if we were hiring that many people and bringing that much many dollars into the greater Boston area mayors city councils and governors would respond to our needs when we say that community services have to be improved. They would respond to our needs if we said police protection and police services have to be improved. I can't think of any system that would bring about the impact and resolve some of the kinds of problems that we're fighting and have been fighting for years that will be more effective than having a significant or two or

three significant minority businesses in the ghetto area. What kind of people do you want. We import people from the community. We employ people off of welfare we employ people who are unemployed we employ people who are just out of prison we employ people who are in halfway houses out of prison. We employ people or broad ethnic backgrounds from Puerto Rican black Italian Chinese and a whole array of people our model is black is beautiful no matter what the color and what we look for in people. It is a commitment to improving the community you know we're not looking for trained community organizers but we're looking for somebody who has a concern beyond making a payroll or making just for themselves so they can understand what we're doing and it can blossom out from them as well as from the company. And so in that process we have a large number of people to select someone

who we have a vast labor pool to select from. The Benetton o Institute in New York is a recently counted college specializing in Mediterranean studies it offers students the opportunity to obtain an in-depth look at the Italian cultural heritage. Donald Brown Dog and Guy are a go. Spokespeople for the Institute spoke with David teller on the occasion of a fundraising dinner in the institute's honor the Verrazano Institute is there is a division of Mercy College and its concerns itself with Mediterranean studies and the heritage of Americans Mediterranean since it

covers up all of the ethnic groups whose countries washed the minute washed by the Mediterranean Sea. But primarily the central impetus is in Italy. Why do you feel that there's a need for such a place just devoted to that. But we feel that there's a need for Americans of all ethnic groups to learn more about their heritage. There's also a common heritage of our Western civilization that began primarily with the Renaissance in Italy. And we think that the birth son only has to focus attention on these areas and the heritage of the Mediterranean people has been very much ignored. And it's plays a major role in our country there are more than 24 million Americans of Italian extraction alone. How did you two get started.

Well basically it got started. As an idea after talking with several people about the need for such an institute some years previous lay and attempt had been made to start a college for Italian-Americans which was called Verizon a college. This college was started in upstate New York and for a variety of reasons it was sort of to be Italian Brandeis. But for a variety of reasons it didn't work. It was started in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some years ago I was meeting with one of the people who were involved in it. Dominic Massaro who's a Italian civic leader in the Bronx and we were talking about this and that and the concept of Mediterranean studies came up and and to make a long story short we decided to establish this for its own institute at Mercy College. And the logic for doing it at an existing college was that the existing college was financially viable and we felt that starting a college based on just one ethnic group probably

was unwise for a whole variety of reasons. Do you find that most of the people who come to study there are Americans. No we have a great many people of Spanish extraction some of various other girls. Those who were interested in the courses under the aegis of the Verizon Institute a lot of them are of Italian descent but I would say a very high percentage of Spanish descent too. Do you see this is being used as a model for other institutions of this kind. Well I think so I think there is a need for more Americans and know more about their roots. I think just the novel or the biography by that title alone and the tremendous response to Mr. Haley's book shows that people want to know more about where they came from and why and how we developed our American culture and what went into it and I think this kind of venture is very helpful

and I would hope that more institutions would start programs such as our parents on a list to did or psychology. That's where we go as a member. Since I've been there for a long time have you seen a great change you know in the Italian community in Boston over that period that you've been here. Well I have been to Greater Boston all my life and sure there have been changes have been physical changes and possibly changes among some of the people themselves but. Possibly in the second or third generation I think for a child we've been sort of losing that that we all know that private patrimony that was given to us by our fathers and mothers our grandparents and that is our cultural heritage I don't think that the younger children of a child and my heritage and I think the same with other ethnic groups appreciate what is theirs and this is what Winnie ought to sunder the endeavor to Joe and I mean I'm sure that this is what Dr. Gwenn

was endeavoring to do. Advair was on a Wednesday to answer you feel that there's a real mood now in the Italian community also I think I see it more so now in the past few years I say past few years two or three years that there is a great interest and the study of a tide of cultural among low Americans and I'm talking second or third generation chimes. Look at the news. There's a deadly fascination Darrelle eyes that for a month passed a nuclear device has been falling on North America on a disintegrating satellite. While Congress has been exposing spying by our CIA a Soviet spy

ship powered by a nuclear reactor had been breaking up over northern Canada while Congress has been absorbing the Carter budget. The intelligence of the administration has been negotiating with Moscow for focused information about this lethal satellite. The danger was kept secret to prevent public panic. While the governments were informed of what our administration now calls the first nuclear related crisis in space the German government feared a leak would cause the public to believe an atom bomb hung over them yet only secretly put its authorities on a four day alert after the satellite burned out over the remote region of the Great Slave Lake yesterday. We are told there was no danger of atomic explosion of the nuclear reactor itself but that is Cape of radioactive materials could have menaced a populated area. The accident does explode. Hall atmosphere of unsuspected details about our ignorance of the state of the world we've been living in.

The headline inside the New York Times today is surely the understatement of this Atomic Era. Canadians express annoyance at the Soviets. The American government now States its nouns and December 19 that the nuclear powered satellite was wobbling off its orbit a thousand miles or so above the earth that its role was to keep the American Navy under constant scrutiny that the Soviets and set afloat 16 site satellites in the last 10 years powered by nuclear reactors to fly hundreds of miles above the earth where their per Tony M fuel would keep its power for hundreds of years before falling to earth on some future generation. The United States it's now revealed has half a dozen such floating bombs itself in the upper atmosphere to have fallen in such accidents as now befalls the Russian space ship by a lot in equally unpopulated areas. One in one thousand seven day in the South Pacific Ocean one in 1064 off Madagascar. It's explained that

barring such accidents the threat to the future of such sky arsenals could be averted because developing sky shuttles could retrieve them. We learned that a Senate committee on space science reported two years ago that the Soviets had developed a system of Ocean scanning satellite radar because of their worry about the location of American ships capable of launching aircraft carrying nuclear weapons. Especially equipped American planes have been sent to the area where the Soviet satellite debris fell and are now scanning it for deep time for contamination. The satellites wobbling off its orbit was discovered by American tracking stations. The government claims there is no danger of a nuclear explosion and our satellites because they carry their reactors in armored capsules designed to survive re-entry. The two satellites now flying toward the outer planets are powered by such reactors. A few years ago United States weather satellite. So if you were old fell into the

ocean asked Santa Barbara where a submarine equipped with sonar found the reactor intact. The Soviet satellite presumably burned on re-entry. But how long a trail of dribbling debris has dropped and whether any reached the ground. Our guess is that the decontamination teams will test for radioactive leakage from Ottawa now comes the report that the Canadian government will seek stronger international safeguards on space vehicles and ironically a Washington headline also on the front page today. Congress studies a bill to require judicial scrutiny of some spying. This refers to tapping phones and opening mail. In refusing a stay of sentence to Senators Dick Kahlo and Mackenzie on their conviction for extortion the Federal Court of Appeals has a scathing last judicial would on their inventiveness. That is their claim

that their lawyer let them down to protect higher up politicians. The court's words have the sting of a whiplash to the senator's effort to make their extortion trial sound like just a political campaign event. The American Council of education as surveyed for some reason the views of nearly 2 million college freshman and finds most consider themselves neither liberal nor conservative but moderate on public issues. The result of the survey director is that labels don't mean much. So many who did not classify themselves as liberal. Nevertheless expressed views that were recently considered liberal. As for liberalizing laws on marijuana. Well is there anything surprising in this. Isn't it normal for most of us to consider that our attitude is the norm. And then there was that legendary cautious candidate who announced he would lean new that a partisanship on the one hand you know non partisanship on the other. Another poll out out by CBS and The

New York Times finds more people today call themselves conservative but their views don't differ from those calling themselves a liberal on such major issues as that government should provide medical care at low cost and has responsibility to ensure safety standards in industry but there is a shop division on such matters as abortion and pornography. My guess is that saying they have grown while conservative expresses rather a personal distaste to what they perceive as prevalent lifestyles and standards from social sexual conduct to the use of language. GBH journal for today Wednesday the 25th of January 1978 the U.S. Marshall her third engineer Barry Carter both Katniss glad to be back out for some five weeks.