Marcus Hiles Works To Better Urban School System
While the many magnet schools located throughout Dallas’ affluential suburbs are regarded among the country’s best public high schools, touting world-class instructors and facilities, the inner city district portrays a starkly different image, and reflects what is becoming an epidemic throughout the nation’s urban communities: an overwhelming majority of children living in dire circumstances. In the Dallas Independent School District (DISD), notes Marcus Hiles, 86 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-price meal plans, and the state considers 66 percent of the district’s students to be at risk for dropping out, according to the New York Times. Furthermore, a report submitted in a recent City Hall Council Meeting concluded that 38 percent of children in the downtown area are either homeless or live in a family that earns a gross income beneath the poverty line, although more than 27,000 of the individuals in these families work full-time jobs.