development, and community building—The Futures Academy case

the development ofinner-city youth, especially African Ameri-cans and Latinos, is not a priority in the United States. As a soci-ety, we have chosen instead to pathologize or criminalize manysocial problems, strengthen the criminal justice system, and placethe jailing of troubled youth as a higher-priority solution thanremediation and education, which are much more likely to developproductive citizens.This policy approach has had a devastating impact on AfricanAmerican and Latino students in particular. In a pioneering studyof high school graduation rates, Jay P. Greene found that only 56percent of African Americans and 54 percent of Latinos graduatedfrom high school nationally.