Posted on 03/19/2018 8:38:24 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
In 2014, the Obama administration promulgated a “guidance” to America’s public schools that threatened federal investigations and litigation against schools where black students are disciplined (e.g., by suspension) more often, on a pro rata basis, than white students, on the ground that such numerical discrepancy is evidence of discrimination. Many schools responded by adopting discipline quotas, which meant in practice that after a certain number of students of a particular race had been suspended, teachers and administrators were helpless to enforce any kind of discipline in classrooms.
The Obama administration is gone, thankfully, but its “guidance” has not been revoked. Meanwhile, state governments and federal courts that are in liberal hands have taken up the claim that disparate incidence of discipline must be discriminatory, a theory that flies in the face of common observation that misbehavior in school is not randomly distributed in the student population.
In Minnesota, the Department of Human Rights has reportedly sent letters to 43 school districts and charter schools, telling them that they are under investigation because of racial disparities in discipline. There is an added Orwellian element in that news of the letters has leaked out, but no one knows what 43 school districts have gotten the letters, or what the letters say. Under Minnesota law, it apparently is difficult if not impossible for the public to get that information. So the far-left administration of trust fund billionaire Mark Dayton is able to bully school districts in the shadows, without public knowledge or recourse.
My colleague at Center of the American Experiment, Katherine Kersten, has a brilliant op-ed on the Dayton administration’s phantom letters in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Brace yourself, parents of Minnesota. Here’s what’s coming soon to a school near you: increased violence, brazen challenges to teachers’ authority and a chaotic environment where learning is an uphill battle. Teachers who try to exert control will find their hands tied, and some kids — no longer accountable for their behavior — will feel free to provoke mischief and mayhem.
If this happens at your school, you’ll be able to thank the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR). In fall 2017, the department sent letters to 43 school districts and charter schools across the state, announcing that the schools are under investigation because their student discipline records suggest that black and Native American students are disciplined at a rate that exceeds their proportion of the student population. *** Here, in essence, is MDHR’s position: The primary cause of racial discipline gaps in schools is racist teachers and discipline policies, not differing rates of student misconduct. Schools must move to end these statistical group disparities. If administrators don’t agree to change their practices in ways that reduce black and Native American discipline rates, according to MinnPost, “[Human Rights Commissioner Kevin] Lindsey says the state will initiate litigation.”
We’ve seen this movie before, most recently in the St. Paul Public Schools. There, it had devastating consequences for students of all backgrounds. MDHR bureaucrats must have been the only people in St. Paul who weren’t paying attention to this debacle.
In St. Paul schools — as virtually everywhere in the country — black students, as a group, are referred for discipline at higher rates than other students. Starting around 2012, the district’s leaders tried to narrow this gap by lowering behavior expectations and removing meaningful penalties for student misconduct. For example, they spent millions of dollars on “white privilege” training for teachers, and dropped “continual willful disobedience” as a suspendable offense.
Violence and disorder quickly escalated. In some schools, anarchic conditions made learning difficult, if not impossible, according to teachers. In December 2015, after a vicious attack by a student left a high school teacher with a traumatic brain injury, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi labeled the trend of violence a “public health crisis,” according to news accounts.
By that time, suspensions — which had initially fallen — had surged to their highest rate in five years. Black students, about 30 percent of the student body, were 77 percent of those suspended. The St. Paul teachers’ union threatened to strike over safety concerns, and families who valued education began flooding out of St. Paul schools. In June 2016, the school board voted out the superintendent.
Today, MDHR seems intent on duplicating this failed social experiment throughout Minnesota.
It’s a funny thing about liberals–they are undaunted by failure. It’s almost as though they don’t really care whether their policies work or not.
Kathy talks about the fact that the Minnesota Department of Human Rights’ power grab is being carried out in secrecy, and continues:
The fact is, public scrutiny is vital here, to expose the three deeply flawed premises on which MDHR’s race-focused discipline campaign is based.
The department’s first faulty premise is that teachers, not students, are to blame for the racial discipline gap. MDHR bureaucrats’ key (if unspoken) assumption is that students with widely different socioeconomic and family backgrounds — as groups — all misbehave in school at the same rate. Relying on this premise, the department attributes any significant group disparities to discriminatory teachers and discipline practices, by default.
But consider this: Nationally, white boys are suspended at more than twice the rate of Asian and Pacific Islander boys, while boys in general are suspended much more often than girls.
Is this because teachers are biased against white students and boys? Or does it reflect real differences in conduct?
Liberals who claim that disparate discipline rates must be evidence of racist teachers never want to talk about the fact that Asian students are suspended much less often than whites.
There are, in fact, real differences in group behavior. For example, nationally, young black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at 10 times the rate of whites and Hispanics of the same age. Behaviors that lead to criminal conduct are also likely to produce school misconduct. Tragically, black students’ discipline rate is most likely higher than other students’ because, on average, they misbehave more.
A groundbreaking 2014 study by J.P. Wright and colleagues in the Journal of Criminal Justice appears to confirm this. Using the largest sample of school-aged children in the nation, the authors found that teacher bias plays no role in the racial discipline gap, which is “completely accounted for by a measure of the prior problem behavior of the student.”
What accounts for group differences in behavior? A primary factor appears to be profound demographic differences in family structure. Nationally, about 72 percent of African-American and 66 percent of Native American children are born out of wedlock, as opposed to 29 percent and 17 percent of white and Asian children, respectively. Young people who grow up without fathers are far more likely than their peers to engage in antisocial behavior, as voluminous research makes clear.
These facts are well known, apparently to everyone except the Obama Department of Education and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
MDHR’s second flawed premise is that black students’ higher suspension rates give rise to a “school to prison pipeline,” which reduces their chances for future success. Lindsey told MinnPost that kids who miss school because of suspensions aren’t as likely as others to learn or graduate, and so are more likely to land in prison.
But the problem of missed school days goes far beyond days missed for suspensions. Chronic absenteeism, defined in Minnesota as missing more than 10 percent of school days, is linked with poverty and home conditions. In 2015-16, 37 percent of Native American and 21 percent of black students were chronically absent, compared with 11 percent and 8 percent of white and Asian students, respectively.
The whole “school to prison pipeline” myth is disingenuous. It shouldn’t be surprising that teenagers who bring weapons to school, get into fights, assault teachers, are chronically disobedient and disruptive, take drugs on school property, and so on, are disproportionately likely to commit crimes that land them in prison. Only a liberal could be surprised at this correlation.
MDHR’s third flawed premise is that discipline policies that focus more on race than on a student’s actual conduct somehow benefit poor and minority children.
In fact, the greatest victims of such policies are the children — many poor and minority — who come to school ready to learn. The classroom disorder these policies promote can add insurmountable obstacles to their quest for a decent education.
There is more to Kathy’s column, which you can read here. As you know, if you are a regular Power Line reader, I am now President of Center of the American Experiment, Minnesota’s pre-eminent conservative voice. If you would like to support the work of policy analysts like Katherine Kersten, and help us to reform a backward blue state, you can go here to donate. All contributions are appreciated!
affirmative action kills.
This is why Cruz didn’t show up on background checks. Thanks to Obama.
But it was the NRA’s fault.
Don’t you listen to the skinhead girl who is head of her school’s Dike club?
on the ground that such numerical discrepancy is evidence of discrimination.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A patent racist falsehood.
The idea is to “educate” students into a culture which has one set of laws for white people and a second set of laws for black people.
Not only is this unconstitutional, but it is politically wrong in America to create the social and legal basis for black nationalism, which constitutes the basis for much of the liberal fascist Obama movement.
We need to put this Obama liberal fascist movement into the dust bin of history where it belongs.
“Not only is this unconstitutional, but it is politically wrong in America to create the social and legal basis for black nationalism, which constitutes the basis for much of the liberal fascist Obama movement.”
Farrakhan?
Keith Ellison?
Andre Carson?
Danny Davis?
Black Caucus?
Elijah Cummings?
Maxine Waters?
New Black Panthers?
Obama?
Eric Holder?
Susan Rice?
Cheryl Mills?
Van Jones?
The list is very long. All of them are race mongers. But why should we have two sets oflaws in America, one for blacks and one for ehites.
There is no constitutional basis for it, so that makes it easy to destroy these little men and women with small, little hearts. They aren’t even Americans IMHO.
The liberal fascist movement must be destroyed utterly:
Why? Good read:
The Quintessential Liberal Fascist:
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html
“They aren’t even Americans”
They HATE the US and want it wiped out.
this is simply to make white kids afraid of black kids. then you’ll have white adults terrified to speak against a black. This is the plan. I’m not playing the game.
CIRCA 2016---Obama administration unveils new guidelines for school policing
Dept of Education Sep 21, 2016 10:45 AM EST
SOURCE https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/obama-administration-schools-clear-limited-roles-police
With the goal of protecting students’ civil rights and limiting unnecessarily harsh school discipline, the Obama administration is calling on schools to ensure that the role of on-site police is limited and clearly defined.
The U.S. departments of Education and Justice has released new resources related to the hiring and training of school resource officers, which come amid national discussions about school discipline and the role of law-enforcement officers following several high-profile student arrests. They are the latest efforts by the administration to reshape school discipline by pushing back against zero-tolerance policies.
“Communities that do not trust cops in their neighborhoods do not want to invite them into their schools with their children.” — Jonathan Stith, Alliance for Educational Justice
Among the resources are guidelines for crafting agreements between schools and local law-enforcement agencies, monitoring the actions of school-based police officers, and training police in such areas as child development and conflict de-escalation.
Those recommended practices will now serve as requirements for agencies that hire school resource officers through Justice Department grants, said Ronald L. Davis, the director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services at the agency.
Local law enforcement agencies around the country use those grants, administered on a three-year cycle, to hire between 100 and 150 school resource officers every year, which means about 450 positions are funded by the grants at a given time, a small fraction of officers in schools nationwide, Davis said.
NEW GUIDELINES FOR POLICING IN SCHOOLS
Seek community input when drafting agreements with law-enforcement agencies that detail officers’ roles in schools and limit their involvement in disciplinary issues. Incorporate local, state, and federal civil rights laws into those agreements and establish processes for monitoring compliance and receiving complaints about potential violations.
Set policies for hiring and training school resource officers on issues like appropriate use of restraints, child development, and the effects of youth involvement with the justice system.
Train teachers and staff to avoid calling on school officers to assist with nonviolent disciplinary issues. Establish a process for evaluating school resource officers.
– Source: U.S. departments of Education and Justice
But federal officials hope the heightened requirements will serve as an example to all schools with on-campus law enforcement, whether or not they use federal grants to hire officers, he said. The new requirements build on a condition that the Justice Department introduced in 2014 that police agencies receiving the federal grants must have clear agreements with districts that outline their responsibilities within schools.
Federal officials said they are concerned about violations of students’ civil rights by school-based officers if schools don’t clearly define their role and review their practices.
While school resource officers “can help provide a positive and safe learning environment and build trust between students and law-enforcement officials in some situations, I am concerned about the potential for violations of students’ civil rights and unnecessary citations or arrests of students in schools, all of which can lead to the unnecessary and harmful introduction of children and young adults into a school-to-prison pipeline,” U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. wrote in a letter to states and districts.
“As education leaders, you can empower schools, educators, and staff with the skills and capacity to avoid relying on [school resource officers] in the first place, and also eliminate SRO-related school discipline policies and practices that may harm young people and needlessly contribute to their involvement with the juvenile- and criminal-justice systems.” Police Presence Expands
Thirty percent of public schools reported having at least one resource officer in 2013-14, according to the most recent federal data, and 11 percent reported the presence of at least one sworn law-enforcement officer that is not designated as a school resource officer.
The presence of school-based law enforcement has grown alongside concerns about student safety, but some civil rights groups have said officers often threaten students’ civil rights by being involved in routine disciplinary matters that should be handled by school personnel. Their presence disproportionately affects students of color, who are more likely to be arrested or referred to law enforcement, they note.
Black students were more than twice as likely to be referred to law enforcement or arrested at school than their white peers in 2013-14, according to the latest data from the Education Department’s office for civil rights. Black students were more are twice as likely to be referred to law enforcement or arrested at school than their white peers.
“Communities that do not trust cops in their neighborhoods do not want to invite them into their schools with their children,” Jonathan Stith, the national coordinator of the Alliance for Educational Justice, said in a statement.
Karol Mason, the assistant attorney general for the office of justice programs at the Justice Department, told reporters in a call that student-arrest rates are fueled by policies and practices that “hustle kids out of school and into the court system for minor infractions.”
The guidelines released last week encourage schools to take a number of steps that federal officials say would improve the practices of school-based officers.
A similar document for local and state policymakers, also released last week, includes examples of state statutes and local policies that require schools to take such actions. Just 12 states have special training requirements for school resource officers, according to a 2015 report by the American Institutes for Research. Some states have worked to amend laws that contribute to high student-arrest rates for vague and subjective infractions like “disturbing a school.” ‘Communitywide Effort’
One policy held up as an example by federal officials is an agreement that the Broward County, Fla., district drafted with law enforcement agencies from 31 municipalities that employ their school resource officers. The document—created with input from judges, public defenders, law enforcement, social service groups, civil rights organizations, and others—requires educators to try to resolve non-violent incidents before consulting law enforcement.
“The success of our children is a community-wide effort…so the way we went about this is through a very collaborative effort with our entire community,” Superintendent Robert Runcie said.
The agreement, part of Broward County’s broader effort to improve school climate, has helped contribute to a 60 percent decline in student arrest rates, from 1,170 arrests in 2010-11 to 469 arrests in 2014-15, state data show.
Even if school-based officers are employed by an outside law-enforcement agency, schools are responsible for ensuring that they do not violate students’ civil rights, the Justice and Education departments said in 2014 civil rights guidance on school discipline. The agencies have enforced that position through investigations and complaint resolutions, including a recent agreement with the Richland County, S.C., sheriff’s department, which came under fire last year after one of its officers violently arrested a girl, dragging her from her desk after she refused to put away her cellphone in math class. The officer was fired, but faced no criminal charges.
Some civil rights groups have suggested that schools shouldn’t have police at all, citing research that shows higher student-arrest rates in schools with on-site officers. The Dignity in Schools Campaign, a coalition of civil rights and student groups, said in a statement that “the guidance should go further to promote substantive solutions and alternatives to police presence in schools, such as redirecting funding from school police towards more counselors, peace builders, and positive discipline.”
Secretary King stressed in a call with reporters that decisions to hire school resource officers are local. If police are in schools, they should operate under carefully crafted policies, he said. He also said schools should weigh how to appropriately spend resources so that students feel both safe and supported. He noted federal civil rights data showing that in 2013-14, 1.6 million students attended a school that had a law-enforcement officer but no school counselor.
Davis of the Justice Department said school resource officers can form positive relationships with students so that when there’s a need for police to respond to a school, they are familiar with the unique needs of students.
This story was produced by Education Week, a nonprofit, independent news organization with comprehensive pre-K-12 news and analysis. Read the original version here (link at web site).
snip... In 2014, the Obama administration issued a “Dear Colleague” guidance that threatened school districts – whose disciplinary measures showed a disproportionately greater number of minority students affected – could be subject to investigation by the Departments of Justice and Education, regardless of whether the behaviors leading to the discipline were unacceptable.
Snip... At RCI, journalist Paul Sperry reviewed documents related to the Broward County Public Schools PROMISE program, the aim of which, he says, was to allow “thousands of troubled, often violent, students to commit crimes without legal consequence” in the name of saving minority and low-income students from the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
In place of suspensions, expulsions, and arrests for delinquent and violent behavior, the policy called for interventions such as “teen court” and “restorative justice.”
“The Florida Legislature … has instructed school districts ‘that zero-tolerance policies are not intended to be rigorously applied to petty acts of misconduct and misdemeanors, including, but not limited to, minor fights or disturbances,’” says the PROMISE agreement, signed onto by the school district and law enforcement.
In 2015, during a panel of the National Urban League Conference, Black Broward Supt Runcie, formerly of Chicago, (hand-picked by Obama) said Broward County Public Schools had “the determination and tenacity to become the national leader in closing the achievement gap, and we will get this done … helping our kids in our classrooms and not sending them to courtrooms.” (Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
================================
(FREEPER Flintlock NAILS THE BROWARD MASSACRE PERFECTLY)
The Broward cops hid outside while 17 kids got slaughtered and many injured .....as shots rang out, kids screamed and bodies fell.
These Broward pansies with perks hid b/c they had orders:
<><>(A) to adhere to federal/state-approved OBAMA-ERA PROGRESSIVE SCHOOL POLICY,
<><>(B) to make sure NOBODY was caught, and,
<><>(C) that nobody got arrested.......
<><>(D) b/c an arrest statistic would turn off the federal money spigot.
It depends on how you define "failure" and "working".
In their minds, everything is proceeding splendidly. They want to destroy Western Civilization in general, and this country in particular.
And, as was shown in Florida, when the school-to-prison pipeline is closed, the school-to-graveyard pipeline is opened.
Every White Christian nation is being slowly displace with Islam by the leaders of those white Christian cultures, only Satan has that kind of power.
Sweden is marketing rape resistant under garments to women because they have told the women that they must abide the rape culture that has invaded them.
England protected the rape and enslavement of hundreds of children by these invaders for 30 years and no one will be punished, except maybe those that revealed the crime.
We are rapidly approaching a time in this country where Islam is a religion of peace and Christianity is a mental disease.
Bookmark
Why hasn’t this outrage been corrected?
Yeah, but apparently it didn't do anything to reduce student crime rates.
And didnt prevent a massacre.......
Especially so.
NYC schools put a similar program into place under the imbecile Comrade Bill DeBlASSio, with the predictable results. There is now a complete lack of discipline, lack of respect for teachers, plummeting grades-—a complete stinking cesspool. Thanks, moron.
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