Posted on 08/11/2014 11:04:02 AM PDT by jazusamo
New York's mayor, Bill de Blasio, like so many others who call themselves "progressive," is gung-ho to solve social problems. In fact, he is currently on a crusade to solve an educational problem that doesn't exist, even though there are plenty of other educational problems that definitely do exist.
The non-existent problem is the use of tests to determine who gets admitted to the city's three most outstanding public high schools — Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech. These admissions tests have been used for generations, and the students in these schools have had spectacular achievements for generations.
These achievements include many Westinghouse Science awards, Intel Science awards and — in later life — Pulitzer Prizes and multiple Nobel Prizes. Graduates of Bronx Science alone have gone on to win five Nobel Prizes in physics alone. There are Nobel Prize winners from Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech as well.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is a motto that Mayor de Blasio and many other activist politicians pay no attention to. He is also out to curtail charter schools, which include schools that have achieved outstanding education results for poor minority students, who cannot get even adequate results in all too many of the other public schools.
What is wrong with charter schools and with elite high schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech? Despite their educational achievements, they have political problems.
The biggest political problem is that the teachers' unions don't like them — and the teachers' unions are the 800-pound gorilla among the special interests in Bill de Blasio's Democratic Party.
The next biggest political problem is that people who don't pass the tests for the elite public high schools don't want to have to pass tests to get in.
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Communist fascist progressives speak to solve alleged social problems, but their actions create bigger / worse social problems.
as planned.
So, SO FAR, the social experiment hasn't started in these three public high schools YET. Given time, enough pressure and more public money, it will change.
Just like other higher education institutes. Some even do without SAT scores and such, applicants only have to “appeal to” the hearts of those in charge of admission. I don't know why the past alumni haven't started revolting yet.
We have a very elite public high school in my county. For 5 of its first 7 years, the US News high school ranking placed it #1 in the USA. It is now maybe #4, I’m not sure.
What has happened is that the local social engineers decided there were not enough minorities. They changed the admissions criteria to establish, in essence, quotas from each of the geographically (and socially-economically) diverse middle/feeder schools in the county. That backfired somewhat, as the number of Asian students accelerated to produce more than half of the past few incoming classes. It seems the Asian-Americans don’t cluster themselves in a single geographical area. har har!
I have faith that DeBlasio & Co. will figure out a way to screw up NYC’s elite schools.
Their solutions are like finding a moldy wall and painting over the mold. Not only will they not cure the problem causing the mold, their fix will likely make the real problem worse.
” “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a motto that Mayor de Blasio and many other activist politicians pay no attention to. He is also out to curtail charter schools, which include schools that have achieved outstanding education results for poor minority students, who cannot get even adequate results in all too many of the other public schools.
What is wrong with charter schools and with elite high schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech? Despite their educational achievements, they have political problems.
The biggest political problem is that the teachers’ unions don’t like them ....”
Therrrrrrre ya go!
Yep, that nails it.
” If racism is the reason why there are so few blacks in Stuyvesant High School, why were blacks a far higher proportion in Stuyvesant in earlier times, as far back as 1938? Was there less racism in 1938? Was there less poverty among blacks in 1938?”
Try to get this on the evening news......just try.
Achievement, meritocracy, accountability and personal responsibility are all seen as “unfair” by the leftist losers.
Heh.
I heard Dr. Sowell give a radio interview one time, extremely rare, but eye opening. He went through school roughly 20 years later when racism has only progressed slightly from 1938.
In his case, he said the reason he did so well was because uncles, aunts and grandparents acted as if they were extensions of the parents and pushed kids to study and excel. If a parent wasn't present, they could be even more severe. IOW, his particular black family acted like a modern Asian-American family and the results followed.
Imagine that!
Maybe future graduates will win the Nobel Prize for Political Correctness.
Great post!
Letter to editor at Newsmagazine Network:
Bravo, Thomas Sowell
Posted 09/04/14 11:21 am
To The Editor:
Bravo to Thomas Sowell for taking on the DeBlasio left.
My wife and I are both graduates of New York City magnet schools. She graduated from what is now the LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts. I graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.
It is of interest as to how the liberal left defines minorities as African Americans and Hispanics. Are not Jews and Orientals also minorities? That these latter groups have dominated New York magnet school enrollment over the decades is, in large part, because these cultures value study and education, and see those as the path to success in our society.
Perhaps it would be best for the “progressives” to preach that doctrine, rather than their effort to create an undistinguished average for all. Bronx Science graduates have gained eight Nobel prizes, and both schools have contributed greatly, not only to science, but to the arts, music, literature and entertainment. That should suggest a goal for all public education.
Martin J. Bell, M.D.
http://www.newsmagazinenetwork.com/2014090450636/bravo-thomas-sowell/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
