Education
The New York Times found yet another angle from which to attack the Republicans as the 2018 elections loom. Friday’s lead National story concerned various teachers strikes in “red states,” “Teacher Walkouts Threaten Republicans’ Grip on Red States – Years of Budget Cuts Push Education Into Political Fray.”
Whether America is still racist probably depends on how the term “racism” is being defined in the discussion. Are we talking about official government policies? Are we discussing genetic determinism and innate inferiority? Are we referring more broadly to negative opinions about people from different racial or ethnic backgrounds? Or are we simply talking about people who disagree with us on matters involving race.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that illegal immigrants protected from deportation under former President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are not eligible for in-state tuition rates at state universities and community colleges. Press coverage is glossing over the fact that the state's educational establishment unilaterally took obviously illegal actions to institute this practice, directly defying a 2006 measure approved by 71 percent of the state's voters.
While congresscritters expressed outrage at Facebook's intrusive data grabs during Capitol Hill hearings with Mark Zuckerberg this week, not a peep was heard about the Silicon Valley-Beltway theft ring purloining the personal information and browsing habits of millions of American schoolchildren.
I don't mind saying that this column represents a grossly understated review of "Discrimination and Disparities," just published by my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell. In less than 200 pages, Sowell lays waste to myth after myth not only in the United States but around the globe.
It looks like the media and the left have found a new argument in their quest to prove that Republicans hate children. Taking a break from accusing Republicans of hating children for refusing to jump on board with student activists demanding gun control, CNN's At This Hour has found a new sympathetic group to rally around: activist Oklahoma public school teachers.
Here's a question for you: In 1950, would it have been possible for anyone to know all of the goods and services that we would have at our disposal 50 years later? For example, who would have thought that we'd have cellphones, Bluetooth technology, small powerful computers, LASIK and airplanes with 525-passenger seating capacity? This list could be extended to include thousands of goods and services that could not have been thought of in 1950.
Sunday’s New York Times lead story on the multiple rallies of anti-gun kids was reported by Michael Shear and a teeming throng of at least 19 other reporters around the world: “With Passion and Fury, Students March on Guns – Rebuke of N.R.A. by Huge Crowds Across U.S.” This would be the anti-gun March for Our Lives, not the pro-life March for Life, which the Times virtually ignores every year. Almost the same with the paper’s reluctant, hostile coverage of Tea Party protests. But this anti-gun rally received several thousands words in the paper’s lead slot.
Shortly after the Parkland, Florida high school massacre, the Associated Press and New York Daily News treated the fact that the NRA had given $10,000 in non-cash assistance to the school's Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, of which Nikolas Cruz had been a member, as some kind of scandal. Now, buried deep in a Friday Florida Sun Sentinel story, we learn that JROTC's leaders "banned Cruz from firing guns with the group during shooting practice" way back in September, 2016. That's more than a legion of others did to stop Cruz or get him help during the next 17 months.
On Sunday morning's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, during the "Gotcha" segment, host Al Sharpton lamely compared himself to James Bond as he likened conservative donors Charles and David Koch to Bond-type "villains" because of their support for conservative causes.
During an appearance on CNN's New Day Tuesday morning, Former Director for the Office of Government Ethics and Trump critic Walter Shaub suggested that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos lacks the proper expertise required to run the Department of Education, arguing that her expertise "seems to be in being a rich person who didn't attend public schools that she's overseeing." Shaub also said that the appointment of DeVos, as well as other outsiders to cabinet positions, proves that the Trump Administration has "declared war on expertise and denigrated experts."
Less than fifteen minutes into CNN's New Day Monday morning, co-host Chris Cuomo ripped the White House's gun policy proposal while acting as an advocate for gun control. Just minutes later, Cuomo and his fellow panelists criticized Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's performance during a 60 Minutes Interview and seized the opportunity to bash the idea of school choice.