Wednesday, December 12, 2018







Black Education: What Makes Sense?

By Walter E. Williams

What do you think of the proposition that no black youngsters should be saved from educational rot until all can be saved? Black people cannot afford to accept such a proposition. Actions by the education establishment, black and white liberal politicians, and some civil rights organizations appear to support the proposition. Let's look at it with the help of some data developed by my friend and colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell.

The Nation's Report Card for 2017 showed the following reading scores for fourth-graders in New York state's public schools: Thirty-two percent scored below basic, with 32 percent scoring basic, 27 percent scoring proficient and 9 percent scoring advanced. When it came to black fourth-graders in the state, 19 percent scored proficient, and 3 percent scored advanced.

Dr. Sowell compared 2016-17 scores on the New York state ELA test. Thirty percent of Brooklyn's William Floyd elementary school third-graders scored well below proficient in English and language arts, but at a Success Academy charter school in the same building, only one did. At William Floyd, 36 percent were below proficient, with 24 percent being proficient and none being above proficient. By contrast, at Success Academy, only 17 percent of third-graders were below proficient, with 70 percent being proficient and 11 percent being above proficient. Among Success Academy's fourth-graders, 51 percent and 43 percent, respectively, scored proficient and above proficient, while their William Floyd counterparts scored 23 percent and 6 percent, respectively, proficient and above proficient. It's worthwhile stressing that William Floyd and this Success Academy location have the same address.

Similar high performance can be found in the Manhattan charter school KIPP Infinity Middle School among its sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders when compared with that of students at New Design Middle School, a public school at the same location. Liberals believe integration is a necessary condition for black academic excellence. Public charter schools such as those mentioned above belie that vision. Sowell points out that only 39 percent of students in all New York state schools who were recently tested scored at the "proficient" level in math, but 100 percent of the students at the Crown Heights Success Academy tested proficient. Blacks and Hispanics constitute 90 percent of the students in that Success Academy.

There's little question that charter schools provide superior educational opportunities for black youngsters. In a story The New York Times ran about charter schools earlier this month, "With Democratic Wins, Charter Schools Face a Backlash in N.Y. and Other States," John Liu, an incoming Democratic state senator from Queens, said New York City should "get rid of" large charter school networks. State Sen.-elect Julia Salazar, D-Brooklyn, said, "I'm not interested in privatizing our public schools." The New York Times went on to say, "Over 100,000 students in hundreds of the city's charter schools are doing well on state tests, and tens of thousands of children are on waiting lists for spots."

One would think that black politicians and civil rights organizations would support charter schools. To the contrary, they want to saddle charter schools with procedures that make so many public schools a failure. For example, the NAACP demands that charter schools "cease expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate." It wants charter schools to "cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious." Most importantly, it wants charter schools to come under the control of teachers unions.

Charter schools have an advantage that some call "selection bias." Because charter schools require parents to apply or enter lotteries for their children's admission, they attract more students who have engaged parents and students who are higher-achieving and better behaved.

Many in the teaching establishment who are against parental alternatives want alternatives for themselves. In Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, 25 percent of public-school teachers send their children to private schools. In Philadelphia, 44 percent of teachers do so. In Cincinnati, it's 41 percent. In Chicago, 39 percent do, and in Rochester, New York, it's 38 percent. This demonstrates the dishonesty, hypocrisy and arrogance of the elite. Their position is, "One thing for thee and another for me."

SOURCE 





‘America Is Trash:’ Liberal University Students Responses To Living in America

It’s well-known that college students lean to the left, but they seem to be getting more radical and hateful with each passing day. In a video published Friday, Slightly Offens*ve’s Elijah Schaffer interviewed students at the University of Southern California and some of them expressed outright disdain for their own country. “America is trash and I look forward to the day it burns down,” one student said while hurrying away.

Only a left-wing college student would be ignorant enough to compare the most prosperous and wealthy country in the world to “trash.”

Currently, there are thousands of people camping out in Tijuana, Mexico hoping to illegally enter this great country.

America has accepted over 3 million refugees since the 1980s. That’s 3 million people who fled their countries to live in the United States. In late October, there were 700,000 immigrants waiting on applications to become U.S. citizens.

As a different student pointed out, the United States is a highly desirable country to live in. “I have a positive opinion,” the student said. “Because I traveled around the world, and it’s pretty s- someplaces, so I like the U.S.”

Unfortunately, most students don’t seem to realize how lucky they are to live here.

“Is America a good country or not?” Schaffer asked one of the students. “It can be. It can be great. Right now it’s meh,” she replied.

Actually, America is great under President Donald Trump. Under Trump’s leadership, unemployment is extremely low, wages are going up and economic growth is beating expectations. Even youth unemployment has plummeted. Students should be celebrating America under Trump instead of bashing it.

When the student asked what it means to be an American, she answered, “not freedom.”

That’s an interesting statement coming from someone who is presumably left-wing. Liberals are constantly clamoring for higher taxation and gun control, which are both attempts to take away freedom.

“All those red states, Republican, conservative, we’re trying to outvote them,” she said. “But it’s not really happening until they die off.”

It’s worrying that these America-bashing students are the nation’s future professionals, teachers and politicians.

SOURCE 






Australian Greens want to SCRAP university fees and increase funding in plan that will cost taxpayers $133billion

Like Leftists everywhere they know no history. Leftist Gough Whitlam  did this in the '70s but the cost made his Leftist successor reimpose fees

The Greens want to scrap universities and TAFE fees, while also increasing funding by 10 per cent in a plan estimated to cost $133 billion over a decade.

The minor party's proposal would generate $139 billion in the same period through whacking offshore gas companies with a 10 per cent tax and ending fuel excise paid to mining companies.

A 10 per cent boost to university funding would be tied to increases in job security, while course fees' abolition would allow 1.3 million to study debt-free by 2023.

The HELP repayment threshold would be tied to the median wage, meaning students with existing debts won't begin giving money back until they earn $52,990 on 2019 figures.

Support payments like Youth Allowance, Austudy and Abstudy would go up by $75 a week with all postgraduate students made eligible for Austudy.

Greens education spokeswoman and former academic Mehreen Faruqi said coalition and Labor governments had cut funds to universities and TAFE while giving massive tax handouts to corporate donors.

'It's time to end the debt sentence. Young people are graduating from university and TAFE with crushing debts that take almost a decade to pay off,' Senator Faruqi said.

'We have universal primary and secondary education. Free public higher education is the missing piece of the puzzle.'

SOURCE 



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