Tuesday, March 07, 2023


Bank of England discriminates against private schoolchildren

Lawrence Goldman

Let me begin with a recent experience of my own. I intend to take a group of my students to the ‘Slavery & the Bank’ exhibition at the Bank of England’s museum which runs until the end of April 2023. The Bank itself did not trade in slaves as an institution, but some of its earliest Directors certainly did on their own account, and in 2020 it ‘commenced a thorough review of its collection of images of former Governors and Directors to ensure none with any such involvement in the slave trade remain on display anywhere in the Bank’. The exhibition contains much more than this about its involvement in slavery, right up to the Bank’s role in the payment of compensation to slaveholders in the 1830s and 1840s after the Emancipation Act in 1833.

Looking through its website to find out about group bookings, I read the following: ‘Can I bring a state school or community group? Yes, we welcome state school and adult community groups. We can offer you a free group talk or presentation…’. Can that really mean that the Bank doesn’t welcome groups from independent schools, I wondered? (Declaration of interest at this point: I have been a governor of two private schools, one of which I attended myself long ago before it became independent). I sent off an email to find out. What came back was even more astonishing than the specific reference to ‘state’ schools: the museum was open to all but “it’s the presentations that are only available to state primary and secondary schools’”. You can look but you can’t touch, is about the size of it. We’ll let you in if you’re from a private school, but we’ll reserve the special educational experience for some other children.

Set aside any views you might hold about private education in general. This is not about the rights and wrongs of that. This is simply about discrimination, and a type of discrimination which makes it less easy for some children to learn than others. Why should children learning history be divided in this way? And who made the decision to treat children from one type of school differently from children from another? Would the Bank discriminate among people coming to its exhibition on grounds of colour, or race, or religion, or sexuality? I would hope not. Why then does one group of children get treated better than another?

The exhibition is designed to explain the Bank’s role in slavery and the slave trade. I commend their honesty. But how can the Bank mount such an exhibition while brazenly treating two groups of children differently? If it has a mission to explain, that mission must be for everyone, and for everyone’s children.

I have asked for an explanation and I’ll keep our readers updated.

The incident may be small but it’s a remarkable illustration of the double standards in so many of our institutions which focus on past wrongs while oblivious to their present vices and failings. Is this a case of virtue-signalling, therefore? Probably. At the very least a museum engaging with the subject of slavery in particular should be very clear that it is not itself perpetuating division and discrimination.

The Bank has been criticised severely in recent months for its abject failure in controlling inflation, its primary responsibility. Institutions that fail in small things tend to fail in big things as well. Many have called for the resignation of the Governor of the Bank. I call for the resignation of whoever devised this particular form of discrimination among children learning history.

One final thing. The Bank of England has taken down the portraits of those of its Directors who were involved with the slave trade. That is to hide from its history, a cowardly and altogether convenient method of covering up the truth. No one need ever know because the evidence has been removed. The morally correct course of action would have been to keep the portraits visible and explain who the subjects are using plaques, perhaps even with a permanent exhibition on the history of the Bank, including any links to slavery. It would have reminded the Governor and his staff that all economic decisions have moral consequences, and it would have made them better bankers.

*********************************************************

Teachers union head Randi Weingarten mocked for blasting DeSantis in ill-formed tweet

Teachers union boss Randi Weingarten lashed out at Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — firing off a tweet riddled with grammatical errors that accused the potential 2024 presidential hopeful of “banning everything he dislikes.”

“DeSantis should be fixated on the cost of living issues in Fla – housing is unaffordable, home insurance even worse, but instead he is exanding gun access, defunding, public schools, & banning everything he dislikes – teachers, journalists & the vulnerable,” Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote Sunday.

Her claims — as well as the misspellings and misplaced commas in her tweet — generated criticism on social media, with DeSantis’ deputy press secretary arguing Weingarten should instead focus on why so many parents have left New York for the Sunshine State.

“Maybe it’s because they wanted to be as far away as possible from schools where Randi has influence,” Jeremy Redfern wrote on Twitter.

Carlos Lopez-Cantera, former lieutenant governor of Florida, ripped Weingarten for her spelling and grammar mistakes.

“My teachers always called me out for not proof reading my spelling and grammar, and they were right in doing so,” he tweeted. “Below is from the president of the national teacher’s union.”

Actor Dean Cain, meanwhile, quipped, “Why is she always commenting on everything? I thought she was the head of the mafia — I mean teacher’s union.”

Last week, Weingarten went viral for a speech on the student loan crisis in front of the Supreme Court described by critics as a “meltdown”

The teachers union prez punctuated her angry remarks to demonstrators with a series of wild body movements and frantic pointing gestures.

“During the pandemic, we understood that small businesses were hurting, and we helped them, and it didn’t go to the Supreme Court to challenge it. Big businesses were hurting and we helped them, and it didn’t go to the Supreme Court to challenge it,” Weingarten said as she began to jump up and down.

“All of a sudden, when it’s about our students, they challenge it! The corporations challenge it! The student loan lenders challenge it! That is not right! That is not fair! And that is what we are fighting for when we say cancel student debt!,” she screamed, her voice cracking at times

***************************************************

Hundreds of parents, kids to rally at City Hall to push Dems for more NYC charter schools

Hundreds of parents, kids and educators are expected to rally Tuesday at City Hall to demand lawmakers lift the cap and open more charter schools in the Big Apple.

The pro-school choice push comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to lift the cap has faced fierce resistance from state Democratic legislators allied with the anti-charter teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, including state Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), who chairs the committee on New York City education.

Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams has gone wobbly on school choice, complaining about the additional costs that could be imposed on the city to open more charters.

He testified at a recent budget hearing that the state should help pay the bill.

Parents who will attend the 11 a.m. rally said it’s time for politicians to listen to the parents.

“Parents like me want the best for their child. Right now, there’s so many families where I live in Central Brooklyn that don’t have access to high quality schools,” said Brooklyn public school mom Natasha Cherry-Perez.

“More public charters means more access to a great education that can change your child’s future. Parents need their choice respected and supported.”

The head of one of the organizing groups, the pro-charter Democrats for Education Reform, also said it’s time for lawmakers to do the right thing.

“This rally is about empowering parents who overwhelmingly want and deserve the right to choose the best school for their child,” said DFER NY Executive Director Jacquelyn Martell. “It’s time to change history and expand options for these families!”

A recent Morning Consult/DFER survey found that nearly two-thirds of parents — 64% — said they support increasing the charter school cap, while just 23% of parents said they were opposed, with the remainder undecided.

Charter schools are publicly funded, privately run schools that typically have a long school day year and school year that traditional public schools students.

Students at charter schools largely outperform neighboring district schools on the state’s standardized Math and English Language Arts exams, a Post series revealed.

The overwhelming majority of charter schools are non-union and have more flexibility to operate and set their own curriculum.

About 90 percent of students in charter schools are black and Latino. pro-charter advocates, among them former three-term Republican Gov. George Pataki, who approved the original charter school law, said it’s racist to deny minority students the opportunity for a better education.

Former Gov. David Paterson, who expanded charter schools when he was in office, also supported Hochul’s cap lift.

Critics have also accused some lawmakers, including Sen. Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), of being hypocrites for sending their own kids to private school while opposing the charter school option for mostly poor and working class minority parents who can’t afford private school tuition.

Opponents complain that charter schools divert resources from traditional public schools amid declining enrollment.

***********************************

My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

*******************************

No comments: