NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
Demographic update courtesy of the New York Times:
America’s population of white children, a majority now, will be in the minority during this decade, sooner than previously expected, according to a new report.
And this is disconcerting news indeed, explains the Times, because whites -- being the racists that they are -- might not want to fund education for children who do not look like themselves.
Will the older generation pay for educating a younger generation that looks less like itself? And while the young population is a potential engine of growth for the economy, will it be a burden if it does not have access to adequate education?
Let us all take a moment to appreciate the singular honesty of this piece of journalism -- it isn't all that often that the Times so blatantly exposes its rabid prejudice.
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Aug '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
You could also ask the converse question, "will the younger generation pay for exponentially escalating Medicare for an elderly cohort that looks less like itself?"
If the result of demographic change is a decrease in the welfare state for the old and public employment for services to the young then I will gladly affirm that diversity is truly our greatest strength.
Edited on Apr 6, 2011 at 10:38amMar '11
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
The Times proceeds from a false assumption. I wanted to shrink the "public education" sector years ago. Race has nothing to do with it.
Sep '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
I just finished listening to a City Journal/Manhattan Institute podcast interview with E.D. Hirsch by Sol Stern. ED Hirsch is not a conservative but more like an old school classical liberal (I guess a Democrat back before Democrats went Daily Kos on us) and it was illuminating to hear what made Hirsch develop the core cirriculum and how he thought it was a grave social injustice that poor inner city kids didn't have the same cultural literacy as suburban middle class kids. He and Sol Stern are quite convinced that its a lousy cirriculum which is the quickest win for education reform, particularly in the poor inner cities.
Sep '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
Evidence from a state where Latino kids are the majority: We old fogey white people always vote for education bonds. Even tho we think the public ed system here sucks.
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
Gosh did we all miss you while you were lost at sea. Glad you and your smartness are back!
Jul '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
The Times proceeds from a risible premise. Again. Dog bites man. Of course, in the case where the Congress and President combined to reach down and strip minority supplicants of the insanely popular DC charter school option, Eric Holder was silent in defense of Eric Holder's people and hope was slaughtered and change beheaded.
The message to DC parents? Shut up and sing the Obama Song, peasants.
Edited on Apr 6, 2011 at 12:38pmSep '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
The subtext of the argument about education is fundamentally racist in this sense: teachers' unions oppose vouchers and charter schools even though the main beneficiaries are disproportionately non-whites. Perhaps it is more accurate to say the subtext is classist, rather than racist. People with money can afford to buy education outside the state schools or they buy real estate in expensive neighborhoods where the schools are better, which is essentially the same thing.
If you have any doubts about this, see Waiting for Superman. I leave you with the following quote from teachers' union leader Albert Shanker: "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." At least he's honest. I never thought I'd be nostalgic for the days when people like Shanker were the face of teachers' unions.
Sep '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
Just finished listening to that podcast. Thanks for the recommendation. Hirsch doesn't like Dewey, nor do I. I also liked the Northrop Frye quote, "A text is like a picnic: the author brings the words and the reader brings the meanings."
Dec '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
In any real sense, we are long past voting to spend our own money and already voting to spend the money of the generations to come. It's the only reason I can imagine that anybody over a certain age votes to grow government, as that voter will never have to pay the bill.
The ultimate in taxation without representation; the spending of money to be paid by those too young to vote, or not yet born.
May '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
Yesterday, I heard Paul Ryan use the word "bipartisan" at least three times. Today, the Grey Hag reminds us that any interest in true bipartisanship exists solely on the Right.
Jul '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Demographic update courtesy of the New York Times:
Sweet. I thought I was going to have to wait until grandkids came along for my family to benefit from affirmative action.
Will the older generation pay for educating a younger generation that looks less like itself?
No.
As CJRun rightly notes, they may or may not force that younger generation to pay, but the older cohorts won't be paying.
May '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
The older generation will refuse to be taxed for a system that fails to provide an education to the younger generation no matter what the younger generation looks like.
Public funding of education must be separated from public provision of education. Vouchers are the only way to enable families to get a real education for their children.
Dec '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
As with all things with the Left, especially race, it's projection.
I'll bet $100 Sabrina Tavernise, the author, has no children. She spends a lot of time overseas.
If I'm wrong, I'll go double-or-nothing that her kids go to a school where the only minority is the daughter of a "Tiger Mom."
The Left are full of the most bigoted people in the world. In 2 minutes they want to know what your parents did, where you went to school, what are your political opinions, what you read and whether you're (gasp) religious.
They live in a shallow world more appropriate to the court at Versailles than the United States. They posture and preen hoping to get themselves praise from their peers. I'm in academia and I see it so much. It's all the worst social aspects that happen in religious communities but without the ennobling uplift of the faith.
The irony, of course, is that the Left are the ones who see public education as the sacred cow but they project onto the Right the same values.
Oct '10
Re: NYT: Will Racism End Public Education?
AmishDude, I completely agree with you there. This article is insulting, especially given our demographic time bomb. Even highly racist people have a self-interest in economic growth, to pay for all those Social Security checks. I bet if we sent quality teachers to every poor black community in the country, we'd make up a significant portion of the skilled labor gap we face. The black middle class is, what, only 30% or so of the black population? What if it were 70%?
Imagine the economic growth we'd have if we could pull up the underclass?