Black Students Lose Again
Posted on January 8th, 2006 in General, Politics, Education by ComptonFellah ||
John Tierney of The New York Times writes:
Black Students Lose Again
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: January 7, 2006Democrats once went to court to desegregate schools. But in Florida they’ve been fighting to kick black students out of integrated schools, and they’ve succeeded, thanks to the Democratic majority on the State Supreme Court.
The court’s decision on Thursday was a legally incoherent but politically creative solution to a delicate problem. Ever since Florida’s pioneering statewide voucher program began, Democrats have been struggling to deal with the program’s success.
Most of recipients have been black students like Adrian Bushell, whom I wrote about last year. Without a voucher, he would have attended Miami Edison, a big public high school in a poor area with a 94 percent black student body and a total of six non-Hispanic white students.
Instead, he’s now a 10th grader at Monsignor Edward Pace, a Catholic school that is 24 percent black. His experience is typical. In other places that have tried vouchers, like Milwaukee and Cleveland, studies have shown that voucher recipients tend to move to less segregated schools.
Besides helping Adrian (who’s got a 3.1 average and plans on college), the Florida program has also benefited students in public schools like Miami Edison. Because each voucher is worth less than what the public system spends per student, more money is left for each student in the public system. And studies have repeatedly shown that failing Florida schools facing voucher competition have raised their test scores more than schools not facing the voucher threat.
A program that desegregates schools and improves test scores wasn’t easy to attack in the Legislature, but the courts offered a more promising battleground for the teachers’ unions trying to stop it. Florida’s Constitution has a version of the Blaine Amendment, a ban on aid to religious institutions that might be construed in some states (but not in others) to prohibit school vouchers.
A lower court in Florida ruled that the voucher program violated the ban on religious aid. The State Supreme Court could have simply affirmed that conclusion, which would have been legally defensible (although mistaken, in my view). But then it would have faced a messy new set of questions.
If the Blaine Amendment prohibited vouchers, couldn’t it also prohibit the state aid now going to hospitals, colleges and preschool programs run by religious institutions? Would the court have to end programs that were popular with the public and inoffensive to Democratic teachers’ unions?
The judges ducked these inconvenient questions by ignoring the Blaine Amendment and using another rationale. They ruled that the voucher program violated a state constitutional requirement to provide a “uniform” system of public schools.
The majority’s decision was eviscerated in a dissent by two Republican judges who use adjectives like “nonsensical” to describe the legal reasoning. The dissenters argue persuasively that nothing in the Constitution forbids the Legislature from setting up other programs beyond the public school system.
The decision has disillusioned Adrian and his grandmother, Ramona Nickson. “I just don’t even want to think of sending him back to public school,” she said. Other parents in Florida worry that more programs are in jeopardy, like the scholarships given to thousands of disabled students in private schools. Or the many charter schools in the state, which may not suit the judges’ personal vision of a “uniform” system.
“It’s difficult to predict what will happen next after a decision as devoid of legal principle as this one,” said Clark Neily of the Institute for Justice, which represented the voucher recipients in the case. “The judges decided what decision they wanted to reach and worked backward from there.”
Adrian was supported by the Urban League of Miami and other advocacy groups for blacks and Latinos, but not the N.A.A.C.P. It abandoned him - and the majority of African-Americans, who favor school vouchers - and sided with the teachers’ unions.
The group that once battled the segregationists’ fiction of “separate but equal” schools signed on to the legal fiction that there’s something admirably “uniform” about a public school monopoly that keeps students in Adrian’s neighborhood trapped in a segregated, inferior school.
It’s sad to see the N.A.A.C.P. working to keep them there, but it’s not surprising now that the group is virtually an arm of the Democratic Party. The unions dominating that party have no qualms about sending Adrian back to a segregated school that has just lost its chief incentive to improve. The party now has a new educational motto: separate but uniform.
January 10th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
NAACP has sold the future of Black America out to the Dem Party, the leadership of the NAACP is only looking out for their own individual interest.
January 10th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Data from U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration @ www.msha.gov
United States mining fatalities in the last four years of the Clinton administration and the first four years of Bush’s administration.
year - fatalities
2004 - 54
2003 - 56
2002 - 67
2001 - 72
Bush’s administration
2000 - 85
1999 - 90
1998 - 87
1997 - 91
Clinton’s administration
Liberals are trying to blame the Bush administration for the deaths of the 12 coal miners in West Virginia because they say Pres. Bush relax safety regulations but look at the numbers. Despite the fact that coal production is up in the mining industry now over 4 years ago (result of the boom in the energy sector) less people are dying.
I guess less regulation equal less deaths in mines! Who knew?
January 15th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
parents should try homeschooling
February 18th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Myron my man, you have got to stop the gang banging. I know you are not wearing colors in South Central LA, but you might as well be. You, my man, wear the blood (RED) colors of the Republican party no matter what, and at all cost. How could you politicize the deaths of these poor minors by injecting politics into the equation? I mean come on; Clinton, Bush, what’s the difference? The truth of the matter is these men died because of the negligence of the companies they worked for. This could have happened on anybody’s watch. Then again, If you are that pathetic that you would actually find statistics to back up your pathetic point, you are probably beyond help.
April 7th, 2006 at 2:57 am
bank maskan.ir news and reviews
April 30th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
cell phones news and reviews
May 3rd, 2006 at 12:16 pm
Feeling Lucky? news and reviews
May 9th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
iPod Giveaway news and reviews
May 9th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
iPod Giveaway news and reviews
May 10th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
iPod Giveaway news and reviews
May 20th, 2006 at 1:43 am
mesothelioma-zz.com
May 29th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
June 3rd, 2006 at 6:39 am
nice
June 7th, 2006 at 6:35 am
Visit clear history trail
June 7th, 2006 at 8:05 am
adipex Phrm889NetW0rkJP
June 7th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Visit beer homemade making
June 7th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Visit gardening supply catalog
June 7th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Visit alpha kappa sorority
June 8th, 2006 at 2:57 am
Visit 25 american april idol performance
June 8th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Visit ball ball by cricket live
June 9th, 2006 at 12:38 am
Visit fireman fund
June 9th, 2006 at 5:41 am
Visit halloween movie with michael myers
June 9th, 2006 at 6:18 am
Visit microwave oven safety
June 11th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
ottbmycp
June 13th, 2006 at 1:24 am
The first time I see a jogger smiling, I’ll consider it.
June 14th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
How hard it is, sometimes, to trust the evidence of one’s senses! How reluctantly the mind consents to reality.
June 15th, 2006 at 6:00 am
Here is hold em !
June 19th, 2006 at 5:19 am
camper and trailer outlet
June 20th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
zinc rich food
June 21st, 2006 at 12:27 am
Come and Pay me a visit!
June 21st, 2006 at 6:44 pm
3 cheat code episode ps2 star war
June 23rd, 2006 at 2:07 am
TrAm-Pam-Pam-000912223×3234 click here
June 26th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
xaomodbh
June 27th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.
June 28th, 2006 at 11:40 am
If you observe a really happy man, you will find… that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours each day.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
article on teen parenting
June 29th, 2006 at 12:11 am
If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists.
June 29th, 2006 at 5:44 am
Before hold em tilt ?
June 29th, 2006 at 7:04 am
scavenger hunt at school
June 29th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.
July 1st, 2006 at 8:08 am
Eventually roulette rule .
July 1st, 2006 at 11:16 pm
phonak hearing aids
July 2nd, 2006 at 3:55 am
courtney love drunk
July 2nd, 2006 at 1:42 pm
world hardest riddles with answer
July 2nd, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Descriptions of pubs their atmospheresms
July 3rd, 2006 at 6:19 am
bvvkqvas
July 3rd, 2006 at 7:15 am
criss angel
July 4th, 2006 at 12:41 am
If someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists.
July 4th, 2006 at 4:18 am
Very Interesting!get out of debt
July 6th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
forex trading
July 7th, 2006 at 4:09 am
There are always survivors at a massacre. Among the victors, if nowhere else.
July 8th, 2006 at 11:13 am
Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man.
July 14th, 2006 at 11:24 am
I’m as pure as the driven slush.
July 14th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
vfgipspa
July 14th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
yanjodfp
July 15th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
black ass buyer
July 16th, 2006 at 12:03 am
neds atomic dustbin
July 16th, 2006 at 7:15 am
ass in thong auction sites
July 16th, 2006 at 8:40 am
ati
July 16th, 2006 at 9:35 am
bachelor moana
July 16th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.
July 16th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
nice ass add to cart
July 17th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
bride stacy
July 18th, 2006 at 12:16 am
40th anniversary
July 18th, 2006 at 3:02 am
browning duchess last robert
July 18th, 2006 at 5:25 am
animal braxtons name works
July 18th, 2006 at 8:45 am
movie autograph
July 18th, 2006 at 9:44 am
beaded napkin ring
July 18th, 2006 at 10:06 am
To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it.
July 18th, 2006 at 10:46 am
wal mart application
July 18th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
mteoupkx
July 18th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
red lobster coupon
July 18th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
association national saleswomen
July 18th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
ca land lego
July 18th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
csi spoiler
July 19th, 2006 at 1:07 am
blink 182 mutt
July 19th, 2006 at 5:36 am
bang big busta rhyme
July 19th, 2006 at 7:33 am
truck bed liner
July 19th, 2006 at 8:49 am
banana republic outlet
July 19th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
frcaedzo
July 20th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Likewise lottery blackjack strategy !
July 20th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
However tipping yahoo bingo raise !
July 21st, 2006 at 12:24 am
Find royal 7 card stud rounder !
July 21st, 2006 at 12:46 am
It omaha hi lo baccarat .
July 21st, 2006 at 1:58 am
July 21st, 2006 at 4:55 am
Welcome craps odds !
July 21st, 2006 at 10:12 am
As mentioned hole keno games .
July 22nd, 2006 at 3:18 am
After that roulette rules !
July 27th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
srmttzlf
July 28th, 2006 at 1:32 am
apparel minneapolis womens
July 28th, 2006 at 2:51 am
carolina cheerleader panther
July 28th, 2006 at 4:46 am
ugg australia
July 28th, 2006 at 7:01 am
artificial clinic fit limb manufacture manufacture prosthesis prosthesis prosthesis prosthesis prosthetic prosthetic
July 28th, 2006 at 7:21 am
car spinner
July 28th, 2006 at 8:26 am
brand new lyric
July 28th, 2006 at 8:46 am
booth dunking
July 28th, 2006 at 9:13 am
craigs list sf bay area
July 28th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
maya angelou biography
July 28th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
author brakefield gallery tom type
July 28th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
solitarie mah jong
July 28th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
john harvards brew house
July 28th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
auto
July 29th, 2006 at 1:32 am
July 29th, 2006 at 1:46 am
adventure airwaves angel
July 29th, 2006 at 2:19 am
animation in inc monster
July 29th, 2006 at 4:16 am
dragonball city.nl
July 29th, 2006 at 7:23 am
windmill farm
July 29th, 2006 at 8:52 am
beauty and the beast lyric
July 29th, 2006 at 9:17 am
pokemon emerald walk through
July 29th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
dog food bowl
July 29th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
wzopluqy
July 31st, 2006 at 1:38 pm
eluwgneb
August 5th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
actor born new romper stomper zealand
August 8th, 2006 at 8:41 am
120 300,height blank no,width ren scrollbars
August 9th, 2006 at 3:51 am
17 hmr ammunition
August 9th, 2006 at 11:11 am
lightweight travel trailer
August 9th, 2006 at 11:55 am
body
August 9th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
senopol cattle
August 9th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
citation traffic
August 9th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
bug zapper