education

Rallying the Ignorant

Dave Davis Commentary, Policy, Uncategorized , , , ,

I woke up on May 1st to a story about the Chicago Teachers’ Union failing to shut down the City’s public school system so students could attend socialist May Day rallies. However, busing many students to the rally will occur after school. As someone born and raised in the Windy City and who lived there for over 30 years, I can’t help but wonder what’s happening there.

What is going on with the schools? Even though the City spends over $30,000 on each public school student, the results are abysmal. Most of the City’s public school students perform below grade level. What’s taught?. Obviously, not the three Rs. In a world that is increasingly demanding greater skills, especially critical thinking, why is the Chicago School system emphasizing a failed form of government, socialism?

To make students believe that socialism’s top-down organization can deliver better results, one must ignore or distort history. Marxism has failed everywhere in every instance, but millions have died in its implementation. Do the kids know the facts, or receiving an alternative, unfounded story? If the schools are discarding historical facts, what other information never reaches the students? Can it even be called education if you’re discarding factual information, or is it indoctrination?

Chicago taxes are among the highest in the nation. Yet students in low-tax Mississippi outperform yours. Surely Chicagoans aren’t happy with schools failing their kids, yet they keep voting for it.

Of course, there are other ways of voting besides the ballot box. The City is only three-quarters of what it was when I left. When one in four leaves, they no longer pay your taxes or invest in your City. How do you justify spending more money on education as enrollment declines? Yet the teacher’s union demands and gets more.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued a stern warning against allowing public-sector unions. President John F. Kennedy disagreed and allowed them, but Roosevelt’s reasoning proved correct. In many cities, the unions are in control, and, like all unions, they exist only to grab more for themselves. Electing those who write your check really works for the unions.

If uncorrected, Chicago and many other cities under the grip of their public-sector unions will enter a death spiral. Paying out ever-increasing amounts from a shrinking tax base. That situation can’t go on forever, and it won’t.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wonderful speech at the University of Texas at Austin. He made clear how incompatible our founding ideals are with progressive socialism. One has to wonder how much these rally-attending Chicago students even know about the radical change our Revolution wrought, lifting us and much of the world, compared with their knowledge of Marxist dogma?

Organized around its ideals, the U.S. is unlike most other nations. Rather than culture, race, ethnicity, or faith groups, we value individual rights, regardless of your background. Life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is about your yearnings, not some groupthink.

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The Forgotten Issue

Dave Davis Commentary, Policy , , , ,

Nothing is more determinative about how well your life will go economically than acquiring valuable skills. Our ability to learn starts with the schooling we get early in life. Basic competence in reading and math allows us to follow our natural curiosity. We measure the success of our educational efforts by how well we impart the tools our children need to achieve their life goals. Understanding that education is the key to economic success and empowering individuals and communities is crucial. We must strive to realize this potential.

Education, a cornerstone of economic success, should be a top priority in any election. Yet, it receives less attention than other issues such as inflation, the economy, the border, or abortion. This disparity is a cause for concern and a call to action. Education is not just a local issue but also carries national implications, as evidenced by the existence of the Department of Education. Our ability to compete globally hinges on the expertise of our people, making it all the more crucial to urgently prioritize education in political agendas.

We hear about this group or that some others fail to do as well economically. Rather than putting down differences in outcomes to things such as discrimination or class, we need to ascribe it more to differences in educational opportunities. The two most identified lagging groups are blacks and Hispanics. Both heavily populate our inner cities, and even though high per capita educational funds are expended, the results are abysmal. Whether it’s Chicago, New York, D.C., Philadelphia, or California cities, all have something in common. They’re ruled by Democrats. On the other hand, Red State, Florida, provides uniformly good schools with solid results even in its big cities.

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A Crack Appears

Dave Davis Commentary, Policy, Uncategorized , , , ,

Within hours of my last post, Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned under fire. I hoped for this first sign of national change, and it happened. Unfortunately, it’s a small step unless her successor brings real change.

Larry Summers, an ex-president of the school, is an obvious candidate. Forced out for noticing differences between men and women by a woke board, his reinstatement signals that the University is moving away from the soup it’s now in. However, he is unlikely to accept an offer from a Harvard Corporation (the Governing Board), composed of the same type of politically correct members that previously kicked him out.

So long as Penny Pritzker leads the corporation as the senior fellow, any reform candidate will unlikely accept the post. The Hyatt Hotel Heiress was behind Gay’s selection. She kept her in place for over a month in the face of the same horrible congressional testimony that caused the immediate ouster of the Brown president. The sister of progressive Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker is loyal to the policies of landing the University in its present fix.

These policies, such as “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (D.E.I.)” and “Critical Race Theory (C.R.T.),” are seen by many as responsible for the rise of anti-Semitism and other ills on the campus. Unless changed, the board can’t attract the needed change agent.  

The job is significant and essential because the rot in academia extends to the humanities and even to the hard sciences. Harvard does considerable research and provides much material to “relevant journals.” We now find out that things other than pure science affect the research in these digests.

Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krause recently looked at how bad the corrosion has become in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. Like the Harvard motto, Veritas (truth), science’s goal is facts we can rely on without extraneous stuff getting in the way. Presently, in many academic fields, this is different. With things such as “Observing whiteness in introductory Physics” published in significant journals, one can only fear for our future progress.

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Looking For Signs in ’24

Dave Davis Commentary, Policy, Uncategorized , , , ,

Two hot wars where our support is needed to sustain our friends, an out-of-control border, rising crime, the continuing crisis in education, and declining disposable income for many Americans are some of the continuing problems we enter 2024. Add an election appearing to feature two Presidential candidates few want or have much faith in to solve our problems. Last year, at least, had some reasons for optimism. ’24 has the elements to be terrible.

What would it take for the new year to exceed expectations? 1980 was dismal but ended on an upbeat note. Then, as now, we knew we were heading in the wrong direction. With the election of Ronald Reagan, the nation not only had a solid leader with excellent communication skills, but it began philosophical changes. Lydon Jphnson’s “Great Society” was founded on the conceit that the Government could cure all society’s problems. The “Best and the Brightest” had the answers. Economic theories such as Phillip’s Curve postulated inflation resulted in more employment, so high government spending is good.

The “Misery Index,” the sum of the current jobless and the inflation rates in 1980, hit a fantastic 21.98. Reagan scored by saying, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help. ” The nation made a 180-degree Philosophical turn. Even when the Democrats returned to the White House after the Twelve Reagan and Bush years, Bill Clinton declared, The Eras of Big Government is over.” From 1980 to the end of the 20th century, it was “Morning in America.”

Could we be on the cusp of such profound change in ’24? There are leaders in three places at the forefront of the progressive movement, which, if they change direction, would indicate significant correction. The New York Times is the table setter for the rest of the “Mainstream media.” Themes and positions pushed by the Times echoed across media. Harvard is the pace-setter for Academia. California has long been the source of significant trends. All three are in the progressive vanguard. Revision in these would indicate change.

James Oakes, writing in the Jacobin, notes the Times wasn’t always this far out. On the 150th Civil War anniversary, the Paper ran a series of scholarly articles representing differing points of view, giving readers a well-rounded look at the era. He found it ” the ideal collaboration of journalism and scholarship.” 

Only a few years later, in 2019, the Paper published the error-filled “1619 Project.” Instead of a broad analysis of our nation’s founding, it presented a narrow, targeted look based on little or no factual research. Even in the face of devasting scholarly criticism, the Times continues to push this trash.

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