Do Democrats actually care about educating minority kids?
Leftist outrage greeted the Supreme Court’s recent ruling banning affirmative action. That anger is misplaced; it should be directed at the failing inner city public schools that graduate generation after generation of Black and Brown children incapable of succeeding in college, or in life.
If every child in the United States were receiving a decent education, we would not need affirmative action.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion that the court’s decision blocking race-based admissions “creates a leadership pipeline that is less diverse than our increasingly diverse society, reserving “positions of influence, affluence and prestige in America” for a predominantly white pool of college graduates.”
Specifically, only 37% of Black children at Wakefield’s school were considered proficient in English language arts and only 28% of Hispanic kids made the cut. In math, 33% of Blacks made the grade and only 20% of Hispanics. Wakefield is not unique; New York State data overall is even worse.
School officials in New York and in other Democrat-run states hope to hide such unacceptable performance by eliminating student testing and grades; they have also eased graduation requirements, hoping puzzled parents won’t notice that their children cannot do the work necessary at the next level. Worse, Democrat officials have cruelly blocked the spread of charter schools which, with their documented success in educating minority kids, show what a sham the public system is.
The left says standardized testing is racist, but recent scores posted by minority children at public charter school Success Academy, prove that’s a lie. Eighth graders at all Success schools, mostly low-income minorities, recently took New York Regents tests meant for high school juniors and seniors. Some 99% passed the algebra exam and 95% passed the English test, way outperforming public high school students.
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On Bowman’s website he solicits donations, claiming “that Our movement does not accept money from Corporate PACs or lobbyists, and depends entirely on contributions from people like you.” Except that the teachers unions gave him $22,500 in 2022 alone and more than $33,000 overall, according to Open Secrets.
Of course, that’s just the money part. The teachers unions spends tens of millions of dollars each year funding mostly Democrat candidates also turn out hundreds of thousands of “volunteers” across the nation to harvest ballots and get out the vote.
Jamaal Bowman is not special, except that he outrageously boasts of being an educator; almost every Democrat is complicit in turning a blind eye to the failure of our public schools and the damage done to the hopes and dreams of minority children left behind by that underperformance. Condemning kids to second-class status does not matter; the dollars spewed by the teachers unions are more important.
So, expressing outrage at the Supreme Court for banning colleges’ use of race to admit students is the height of hypocrisy. How about focusing on making sure kids of all colors have the academic preparation necessary to get into schools on their own merit instead? Drop the bigotry of low expectations and enact real reforms in our schools, letting every kid learn and compete.
George W. Bush called education the “great civil rights issue of our time.” He was right; tragically, Democrats do not care.
