What Trump has not done is deliver on the 3% growth he promised the tax cuts would achieve.
Year 10 of an economic recovery and the trillion and a half dollar tax cut for the 1% barely moved the needle.
Here is a RAGING INDICTMENT of the Baltimore education system!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With some comments of my own in brackets):
GUEST COLUMN: Black self-sabotage
Special to Postmedia Network. Published: November 27, 2017. Updated: November 27, 2017 4:15 PM EST
Filed Under: Toronto SUN/Opinion/Columnists
By Walter E. Williams
The educational achievement of white youngsters is nothing to write home about, but that achieved by blacks is nothing less than disgraceful.
Let’s look at a recent example of an educational outcome all too common. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s mathematics exam. In six other high schools, only 1% tested proficient in math. In raw numbers, 3,804 Baltimore students took the state’s math test, and 14 tested proficient. Citywide, only 15% of Baltimore students passed the state’s English test.
(These sort of numbers are WAY BEYOND anything that a teacher can resolve! In fact I defy anybody to point to another time in history when such a large part of the population simply dropped out and refused to participate! This stuff is a form of collective madness- and it is cops who get to deal with the fallout!)
Last spring, graduation exercises were held at one Baltimore high school, 90% of whose students received the lowest possible math score. Just one student came even close to being proficient. Parents and family members applauded the conferring of diplomas. Some of the students won achievement awards and college scholarships.
(One really has to aks if it is helpful to respond to total failure in such a delusional fashion! No need to be insulting to kids bedevilled with social problems and dysfunctional families but such massive pretending is not useful either! Surely it is insulting to DENY on such a scale? Praise un-deserved is sarcasm veiled?)
Baltimore is by no means unique. It’s a small part of the ongoing education disaster for black students across the nation. Baltimore schools are not underfunded. Of the nation’s 100 largest school systems, Baltimore schools rank third in spending per pupil.
(That Baltimore fact gives the lie to Ontari-owe teachers claims they would get better results with more money! Throw money at teachers and all you get is massive debts and wealthy teachers!)
Baltimore’s black students receive diplomas that attest that they can function at a 12th-grade level when in fact they may not be able to do so at a seventh- or eighth-grade level. These students and their families have little reason to suspect that their diplomas are fraudulent. Thus, if they cannot land a good job, cannot pass a civil service exam, get poor grades in college and flunk out of college, they will attribute their plight to racism. After all, they have a high school diploma, just as a white person has a high school diploma. In their minds, the only explanation for being treated differently is racism.
(Is this educational FAKERY at the heart of the racial divide? Are Black people that profoundly ignorant of the world? Much has been made of the failure rate of black kids in college- it seems they get in on a quota system- that the college SHOULD have a certain number of blacks- so the “best educated” blacks are allowed in on that basis- and then THEY FAIL because they cannot do the work and NOT because of racism!)
Let’s look at math. If one graduates from high school without a minimum proficiency in algebra and geometry, he is likely to find whole fields and professions hermetically sealed off to him for life. In many fields and professions, a minimum level of math proficiency is taken for granted.
Let’s look at just one endeavour — being a fighter jet pilot. There are relatively few black fighter jet pilots. There are stringent physical, character and mental requirements that many blacks can meet. But fighter pilots must also have a strong knowledge of air navigation, aircraft operating procedures, flight theory, fluid mechanics and meteorology. The college majors that help prepare undergraduates for a career as a fighter pilot include mathematics, physical science and engineering.
What’s the NAACP response to educational fraud? At a 2016 meeting, the NAACP’s board of directors ratified a resolution that called for a moratorium on charter schools. Among the NAACP’s reasons for this were that it wanted charter schools to refrain from “expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate” and “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.” Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys is a charter school. In 2016, 9% of its students scored proficient on the state’s math test. This year, over 14% did so. It’s in the interest of black people for more of our youngsters to attend better schools. However, it’s in the interest of the education establishment — and its handmaidens at the NAACP — to keep black youngsters in failing public schools.
Few people bother to ask whether there’s a connection between what goes on at predominantly black high schools and observed outcomes. Violence at many predominantly black schools is so routine that security guards are hired to patrol the hallways. The violence includes assaults on teachers. Some have been knocked out, had their jaws broken and required treatment by psychologists for post-traumatic stress disorder. On top of the violence is gross disorder and disrespect for authority.
The puzzling question for me is: How long will black people accept the educational destruction of black youngsters — something that only benefits the education establishment.
(The ugly reality is that black kids are apparently being streamed into select schools largely to PROTECT white students from black kids carrying a hopeless and destructive attitude! The nation NEEDS well educated and disciplined school graduates to keep the economy functioning- dumping black kids with what amounts to mental health issues into other classes where the students are actually learning will HARM the more successful kids- and hurt the main stream economy! The hard question is what to do with black kids whose attitudes are so poisoned? The LIE-beral habit of bleating about systemic racism is NOT HELPING! Letting black kids off the hook- for their own failings by encouraging them to think of themselves as victims ENTITLED to some sort of blood money from white people will NOT encourage blacks to move ahead in any sensible way!)
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.