Free Republic

CULVER CITY, Calif.—A group of parents stepped to the lectern Tuesday night at a school board meeting in this middle-class, Los Angeles-area city to push back against a racial-equity initiative. The high school, they argued, should reinstate honors English classes that were eliminated because they didn’t enroll enough Black and Latino students. The district earlier this school year replaced the honors classes at Culver City High School with uniform courses that officials say will ensure students of all races receive an equal, rigorous education. These parents disagreed. “We really feel equity means offering opportunities to students of diverse backgrounds, not...

There are all sorts of warning labels on all sorts of products, many of which fall somewhere in between common sense and downright silly. However, as most of us are aware by now, it appears that the makers of Gorilla Glue should have included a warning on their industrial-strength glue: Do not apply to your body or in your hair. The saga began when Louisiana resident Tessica Brown ran out of her usual hairspray, göt2b Glued. So Tessica did what any rational person would do: she sprayed Gorilla Spray Adhesive all over her head. Bad, bad, bad, bad, idea. Which...

Coca-Cola said it will require diversity among law firms who bill it for work in the United States — and reduce payments if they don’t comply. The Atlanta-based beverage giant’s general counsel, a recent hire from the top ranks of Ford, disclosed the changes in a letter Thursday to law firms the company uses. “Quite simply, we are no longer interested in discussing motivations, programs, or excuses for little to no progress – it’s the results that we are demanding and will measure going forward,” Bradley Gayton wrote. And he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he hopes other major companies...

The Seattle City Council unanimously voted Monday to ditch an ordinance allowing police officers to arrest loiterers if they’re suspected of drug dealing or prostitution, citing its racial origins. The rejection of the loitering bill, which reportedly affected black communities at a higher rate, has moved to Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s desk for final approval before the law is no more. The law has been used to arrest about 300 suspected criminals since 2009, according to The Seattle Times. “These laws were never appropriate, they were wrong when they were enacted and they are wrong now,” said Councilman Andrew...

Is anyone else sick and tired of listening to Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee cower in the face of Sonia Sotomayor's sex and ethnicity? Reports out of Washington describe the Republican Senators tiptoeing ever so gingerly around Sotomayor so as not to alienate the female and Hispanic vote. What's worse, the embarrassing sideshow includes the kind of pathetic pandering many Americans have come to expect at these empty political charades. Senator Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, for example said he expected every American to be "proud that a Hispanic woman has been nominated to sit on the Supreme Court."...

WHEN educrats call for "a broader definition of rigor," beware. What they really want is to broaden the definition of rigor until it includes dumbed-down drivel. National Education Association President Reg Weaver used those words in March when he spoke to Congress as it sets out to reauthorize President Bush's No Child Left Behind legislation. The NEA's idea of rigor, of course, is to make it harder to tell if schools are failing students. How? By going after standardized tests, because Weaver regurgitated, their scores "reflect little more than a student's ability to regurgitate facts." As Don Soifer, education analyst...

SACRAMENTO -- Raising questions about racial bias in California's public schools, state schools superintendent Jack O'Connell on Tuesday said low expectations for black and Hispanic students contribute to their persistent achievement gap with whites and Asians. O'Connell said teachers and administrators need "a renewed sense of urgency" to close that gap and must evaluate whether they hold all students to the same standards. "Let's approach the job as if our own child were attending a low-performing school," O'Connell said in his annual state of education address. "We wouldn't be patient with our own children lagging behind. We must not be...

Posted: July 3, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2002 Laurence A. Elder "The soft bigotry of low expectations." President George W. Bush once used this expression to chastise America's education establishment for the underperformance of minorities, specifically blacks and Latinos. Bush urged teachers and administrators to apply high standards, ensuring – as he put it – that "no child be left behind." The "homeownership gap" alarms the president. Bush notes that the homeownership rate for whites stands at nearly 75 percent compared to less than 50 percent for blacks and Latinos. But in tackling this "problem," the president commits the...