During late January of 1997 our club had a debate which was inspired by an article in the Los Angeles Times which discussed the deteriorating conditions of the Compton School District. The article explained how the schools in Compton had ceilings which were about to collapse, classrooms without books and many other problems which a school would not be expected to have in America. If you don't know about the demographics of Compton, Compton is an extremely impoverished community which is exclusively African American and Hispanic. The question our club sought to answer was, are African American and Hispanic students deliberately given an inferior education and is it fair to say African Americans and Hispanics are not receiving an equal education to that of whites? We had many different opinions on whether or not there is an unwritten policy to deprive African Americans and Hispanics of an equal education to that of whites. There was a large group of the students who believed there was an unwritten policy but there was also a large group in our club who disagreed with this. When it came to the question whether or not African Americans and Hispanics received an equal education to that of white students it was almost unanimous that they don't. After this was decided we next discussed whether it was fair to try and abolish Affirmative Action if this country can't provide an equal education for it's African American and Hispanic citizens? Our clubs overall position on this question was that Affirmative Action can't be abolished until this country makes education and opportunities equal to all of it's citizens.

The main purpose of discussing this article was to show the members of the club that although this country appears to be full of opportunity there are many fellow Americans who are not being given these opportunities and the Compton School District was a perfect demonstration of this.

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