Moscow Education (Idaho)

How to bring in stupid white students? Lower the number of brilliant Asian students while holding black and Hispanic numbers constant.

Priceless.

From Reason Foundation:

California voters banned state universities from using race-based admissions 13 years ago. But anybody who thought that this would prompt university officials to give up their grand diversity designs and admit students based on merit had to be living on Forrest Gump Land. Everybody else on Planet Earth should not be surprised that the admissions policies recently announced by the University of California will continue to play racial favorites. The surprise only is that the group that they appear designed to help this time is not some socially victimized, historically discriminated, politically marginalized, economically depressed minority. Rather the anointed group this time is none other than majority whites. (Yes, whites are still a majority in the Golden State – although barely!)

The new policies – that represent the biggest change in UC admissions since 1960 – were announced without much advance notice a couple of months ago. They will no longer require prospective applicants to take two subject SAT exams. And they will reduce the number of students guaranteed admission based on grades and test scores. Instead, the policy will consider anyone who completes the required high school courses, takes the general SAT or ACT exams and maintains a 3.0 GPA.

The big losers under the new policy will be Asian Americans. They constitute only 12% of the Golden State’s population. But thanks to their nasty tendency to ace standardized tests and school exams, they account for 40% of the students at UCLA; 53% at Berkley; 50% at UC-San Diego and 54% at Irvine.

Naturally, diversity-minded officials can’t have that. A study they commissioned before they diluted the admission standards -- but have since tried to bury -- found that by using the new criteria they could cut Asian American numbers from 36% to 29-32%, keep black and Hispanic numbers flat; and raise white numbers by 6 to 10%!

A majority of New Jersey students who failed the high school exit exam (described by state education commission as “middle school level”) had passed courses in Geometry, Algebra I and II, and Biology.

From Derrell Bradford of Excellent Education for Everyone

We have argued that New Jersey has two education systems. One you attend if you are white and live in an affluent suburb, and one you attend if you are poor, minority, and live in a city. The DOE report frames this differently. There is one system you attend where the classes are what they say they are, the teachers understand the subject, and students actually pass the classes. And there is one–typified by urban high schools that abuse the [Special Review Assessment]–where the name of a course is just “a name.” Where, as Assistant Commissioner Jay Doolan describes, schools can “call a course anything they want.” One where students “take” and “pass” college prep classes despite having learned nothing. And one where a teacher-quality vacuum likely staffs these classes with adults who know little more than the students.

More evidence of rampant social promotion in the system.

HT: Heritage Foundation

Excellent and still relevant advice in a 2003 interview with a 5th grader.

This video should be mandatory for Congress as well…

Neal McCluskey over at Cato-at Liberty has a great observation on why not every should go to college.

According to a new report from Public Agenda, while college presidents blather on about their impoverished schools and what a tremendous public good higher education is, the professors (at least those that Public Agenda interviewed) are pretty darn realistic about the real problems in academia. This quote, echoed in professorial statements throughout the report, captures exactly what a lot of us libertarian types have been saying for years:

I think a big problem facing higher education is the idea that everybody should get into college. I don’t think everybody is designed to go to college. Not everybody needs to go to college. I know that’s shooting ourselves in the foot, because that’s where our jobs are. The more people show up at our schools, the more jobs we get. Not everybody needs to go to college. Not everybody should. Not everybody’s prepared.

The following article ran in the Lewiston Tribune.

Even though it doesn't officially know what its state appropriation will be, the University of Idaho won't likely cut salaries in the next fiscal year, its interim leader said Tuesday.

More likely are furloughs for selected employees, leaving certain positions vacant, carrying over money from some accounts and reducing other expenses "in every way possible," said UI interim President Steven Daley-Laursen.

"We have to be wary, watchful and diligent to sustain our position and direction," Daley-Laursen said in a half-hour state of the university address.

 

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Traditional high school wasn't working out for Christopher and Charles Harris.

The Moscow brothers had a terrible time getting up and going to school in the morning, and the development of bad eczema on their hands just made it worse.

"I had a hand condition, and I didn't want to walk around school with it," said Christopher, a junior.

Charles said he was "really shy" about the condition, so in January they decided it was time to try something a little different.

The Harris brothers enrolled in a new online high school called iSucceed Virtual High School.

iSucceed is a public charter school operated by the state of Idaho. There are about 600 students enrolled in the program.

"And it's free," said Charles and Christopher's mother, Charlotte Lynch. "I was really excited because they provided a brand-new computer, printer with ink, they got the headphones. You know, the only thing that I bought was paper for the printer."

It’s “free”?

They clearly have a different definition of “free” than I do.

TANSTAAFL.

The economy will give the UI some breathing room. But with all the cuts going down at the UI, I seriously doubt anyone is discussing a law school in Boise right now.

From the Associated Press:

A private Lutheran university has delayed plans to open a law school in Boise next year.

Andrea Bruno, vice president for advancement at Concordia University in Portland, Ore., says school officials want more time to develop the law degree program, secure a location and raise money.

In December, the university had brought in about $1.5 million of the $7 million it needs for the project.

Bruno says the university has since made progress, but she declined to give a specific amount.

The University of Idaho also wants to expand legal education in Boise, the state's largest population center. So far, the state Board of Education has agreed only to let the UI College of Law open a third-year program in Boise.

THIS FRIDAY: Idaho Mock Trial Champions at UI Law School

"Flat Amazing!" --Hon. Joel Horton of the Idaho Supreme Court

Logos's own Idaho State Champion Mock Trial team competes at nationals next week in Atlanta, Georgia. The team is preparing testimony and arguments for /Georgia v. Dougherty,/ a fascinating case about art forgery, theft, and murder. This Friday the team argues this case before a distinguished jury panel, including Rep. Tom Trail, Idaho House of Representatives; John Weber, Moscow City Council (and candidate for Mayor of Moscow); Holly Chetwood, President, Moscow Chamber of Commerce; and Steven Hacker, Director, Moscow Chamber of Commerce. Latah County Prosecuting Attorney, Bill Thompson, will preside.

Come and fill the Law School's large courtroom gallery, and show the team members and our distinguished guests how much we love and support Idaho's State Champion Mock Trial team. This year we celebrate our 11th Idaho State Championship. This your only opportunity to see the case the team will present in Atlanta.

Friday, May 1, 7:00 p.m. at the University of Idaho Law School Courtroom. The event is free and open to the public.

"Logos School’s Mock Trial program has quite a tradition to uphold,” said the Hon. Joel Horton, Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, who sat on the judging panel that awarded Logos School its 6th consecutive and 11th overall Idaho State Championship on March 17. Horton summarized Logos’s performance as “flat amazing.” He added, “I am amazed at the quality of their preparation and presentation year in and year out.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Here's a quiz: Which of the following rejected more than 30,000 of the nation's top college seniors this month and put hundreds more on a waitlist? a) Harvard Law School; b) Goldman Sachs; or c) Teach for America.

If you've spent time on university campuses lately, you probably know the answer. Teach for America -- the privately funded program that sends college grads into America's poorest school districts for two years -- received 35,000 applications this year, up 42% from 2008. More than 11% of Ivy League seniors applied, including 35% of African-American seniors at Harvard. Teach for America has been gaining applicants since it was founded in 1990, but its popularity has exploded this year amid a tight job market.

So poor urban and rural school districts must be rejoicing, right? Hardly. Union and bureaucratic opposition is so strong that Teach for America is allotted a mere 3,800 teaching slots nationwide, or a little more than one in 10 of this year's applicants. Districts place a cap on the number of Teach for America teachers they will accept, typically between 10% and 30% of new hires. In the Washington area, that number is about 25% to 30%, but in Chicago, former home of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, it is an embarrassing 10%.

This is a tragic lost opportunity. Teach for America picks up the $20,000 tab for the recruitment and training of each teacher, which saves public money. More important, the program feeds high-energy, high-IQ talent into a teaching profession that desperately needs it. Unions claim the recent grads lack the proper experience and commitment to a teaching career. But the Urban Institute has studied the program and found that "TFA status more than offsets any experience effects. Disadvantaged secondary students would be better off with TFA teachers, especially in math and science, than with fully licensed in-field teachers with three or more years of experience."

It's true that only 10% of Teach for America applicants say they would have gone into education through another route, but two-thirds stay in the field after their two years. One program benefit is that its participants don't have to pass the dreadful "education" courses that have nothing to do with what they'll be teaching. Those courses are loved by unions as a credentialing barrier that makes it harder to get into teaching.

Some districts may be wising up. Mississippi's education superintendent has asked Teach for America to double the size of its 250-member corps in the poor Delta region and is encouraging local superintendents to raise hiring caps. Since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has also sharply increased the percentage of corps members among its new teachers, to 250.

But why have any caps? Teach for America young people should be able to compete on equal terms with any other new teaching applicant. The fact that they can't is another example of how unions and the education establishment put tenure and power above student achievement. 

From the Sacramento Bee:

Typically, about 60 percent of freshmen on CSU campuses have needed remediation in English or math – or both.

"Their high schools told them that they were successful B students, but their colleges told them that they were not ready to do college level work," the report says.

Isn’t that great? California schools spend nearly $20,000 per year per kid, and only 40% of their college applicants do not need remediation. Note: that’s the college-bound students.

Well, it does keep the educational-industrial complex funded and running. It’s like mandating that every American buy cars from a manufacturer in which 75% of all cars made are lemons. Oh, and that car costs more than a Cadillac but runs like a Ford Pinto…

Here are some interesting facts:

First, Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the Wall Street Journal that School Reform Means Doing What’s Best for Kids.

We need solid, unimpeachable information that identifies what’s working and what’s not working in our schools.

Second, The Washington Post reports that Duncan admits he moved to Arlington, Virginia because he didn’t want to “jeopardize my own children’s education.”

Third, Duncan’s Education Department tried to bury the release of a “congressionally mandated study showing that, measured by student improvement and parental satisfaction, the District’s program works.” From the WaPo:

The department could not suppress the Heritage Foundation’s report that 38 percent of members of Congress sent or are sending their children to private schools.

The Senate voted 58 to 39 to kill the program. Heritage reports that if the senators who have exercised their ability to choose private schools had voted to continue the program that allows less-privileged parents to make that choice for their children, the program would have been preserved.

As George Will notes, Dems are all for helping kids, as long as what works a) isn’t vouchers and b) doesn’t cross the teachers’ unions.

When will they realize that what’s best for the teachers isn’t best for the kids.

Intermediate Algebra (Math 111) is the “most failed” class at Oregon State. 

One instructor says that the students aren’t prepared:

“If you never had to memorize your times tables, how do you factor a number with a calculator?” (Peter) Argyres said. “I see people fail Math 111 for arithmetic issues all the time.”

When students never learned the basic information appropriately in high school, or earlier, it is significantly more difficult for them to succeed when they get to college algebra.

And only half of incoming students place into college math.

This goes way back to teaching “new math” methods; and it’s one reason that the US lags behind the rest of the 1^st world countries in math (and science) skills.

If the US wants to compete with the rest of the world, we need to teach math skills the same way, at the same level, and expecting the same skills that the rest of the world does.

For instance, I know a young Korean student who is a 10th grader here in the US. His classmates in Korea finished Calculus in 10th grade. Here in the US, you are lucky to even get Calculus by 12th grade. And that is common in Japan and China as well.

21.5% isn’t the predicted 20% budget cut. But it’s devastating enough.

And since the most expensive line-item in the university’s budget (tenured faculty wages) cannot be touched, they have to cut where they can least afford it.

As reported in today’s online edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Washington State University would see its 2009-11 operating budget appropriation reduced by 21.5 percent, or about $112 million, under the legislative compromise operating budget released today.

WSU spokesman James Tinney said the 21.5 percent reduction is the best the university could expect considering the financial situation the state is facing.

The combined budget will now go to Gov. Chris Gregoire for consideration.

WSU was looking at a reduction of 29 percent, or $151 million, under the preliminary House budget proposal and a 20 percent, or $104 million, reduction under the Senate budget proposal. 

As reported in today’s online edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Duane Nellis from Kansas State will be named the new UI president.

Duane Nellis is expected to officially be named the University of Idaho s 17th president at a news conference this morning.

The former provost and senior vice president at Kansas State University, 54, was seen this morning posing for pictures in front of the UI Administration Building.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Idaho State Board of Education has scheduled a special telephone meeting for 10:15 a.m. Wednesday to discuss the selection of a new president for the University of Idaho.

A news conference will take place immediately following the meeting in the Administration Building auditorium on the Moscow campus.

"I don't know how many candidates will be considered," board spokesman Mark Browning said. "But I am told that we will have a vote on a candidate (Wednesday)."

…

UI College of Law Dean Don Burnett and former Colorado State University President Larry Penley remain in the running, though Nellis has been heavily championed by alumni and boosters. They have urged board members and lawmakers to up the presidential pay, which was estimated at about $270,000 at the beginning of the search.

Nellis and Dooley were the only two finalists who were invited to meet the public at the UI's statewide campuses.

Former board president Milford Terrell said last week that he was in ongoing negotiations with one or more candidates, and confirmed that no one outside of the original five finalists was being considered at the time.

That put to rest rumors of the naming of interim President Steven Daley-Laursen, and other names such as former Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

The following is from the online edition of the Lewiston Tribune.

The State Board of Education will hold a special telephonic meeting Wednesday morning to name the next University of Idaho president.

The leading contender appears to be Kansas State University Provost Duane Nellis, who earlier turned down the job, citing salary issues. But earlier this month, UI alumnus and former U.S. Sen. Steve Symms mounted an effort to raise private funding to supplement Nellis salary.
 

The following is from the online edition of the Lewiston Tribune.

The State Board of Education will hold a special telephonic meeting Wednesday morning to name the next University of Idaho president.

The leading contender appears to be Kansas State University Provost Duane Nellis, who earlier turned down the job, citing salary issues. But earlier this month, UI alumnus and former U.S. Sen. Steve Symms mounted an effort to raise private funding to supplement Nellis salary.
 

Update #1: Thanks to Gary C. for this great quote:

Go into any inner-city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can't teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white."

—Barack Obama, Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention, 2004

Once BO speaks the word, will Hansen believe?

Now watch Hansen backpeddle and deny that he said what he said. That’s his typical MO.

Update #2: The circus gets even better.

Professional Philosopher Joe Campbell weighs in:

Obama calls this "slander".

And your point ... (fades off into the distance ...)

You would think that a professional philosopher would realize that it’s a slander to believe the lie; but it’s factually true that many do believe the lie.

Such complex logic is often lost on the professional academicians.

Less than an hour after I posted this, my favorite blog-stalker pops off with:

I am 57 years old.  I have attended public schools in Los Angeles and North Idaho.  While attending these public schools I NEVER heard or read the "taunt" that "doing well in school is a white trait."

Tom Hansen needs to get off the computer a little more often and do some reading and research.  There has been three decades of research concerning racial identity and school success.

Do some reading, Tom-Tom. You’re an expert Googler and web-freeloader downloader. Here’s a place to start: "Racial Identity" "School Success" 

Put that government school education to good use, Tom-Tom. Try doing some real reading and studying for a change.

Update: Less than an hour after I posted this, my favorite blog-stalker pops off with:

I am 57 years old.  I have attended public schools in Los Angeles and North Idaho.  While attending these public schools I NEVER heard or read the "taunt" that "doing well in school is a white trait."

Tom Hansen needs to get off the computer a little more often and do some reading and research.  There has been three decades of research concerning racial identity and school success.

Do some reading, Tom-Tom. You’re an expert Googler and web-freeloader downloader. Here’s a place to start: "Racial Identity" "School Success" 

Put that government school education to good use, Tom-Tom. Try doing some real reading and studying.

The current theory is that boys are failing in school because doing well in school is perceived as a feminine trait, prompting the “You’re so gay” harassment. 

It’s similar to the taunt among African-Americans that doing well in school is a white trait.

From the New York Times:

Early this month, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old boy from Springfield, Mass., hanged himself after months of incessantly being hounded by his classmates for being “gay.” (He was not; but did, apparently, like to do well in school.)

In March, 2007, 17-year-old Eric Mohat shot himself in the head, after a long-term tormentor told him in class, “Why don’t you go home and shoot yourself; no one will miss you.” Eric liked theater, played the piano and wore bright clothing, a lawyer for his family told ABC news, and so had long been subject to taunts of “gay,” “***,” “queer” and “homo.”
…
Being called a “***,” you see, actually has almost nothing to do with being gay.

It’s really about showing any perceived weakness or femininity – by being emotional, seeming incompetent, caring too much about clothing, liking to dance or even having an interest in literature. It’s similar to what being viewed as a “nerd” is, Bennington College psychology professor David Anderegg notes in his 2007 book, “Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them”: “‘queer’ in the sense of being ‘odd’ or ‘unusual,’” but also, for middle schoolers in particular, doing “anything that was too much like what a goody-goody would do.”

It’s what being called a “girl” used to be, a generation or two ago.

“To call someone gay or *** is like the lowest thing you can call someone. Because that’s like saying that you’re nothing,” is how one teenage boy put it to C.J. Pascoe, a sociologist at Colorado College, in an interview for her 2007 book, “Dude, You’re a ***: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School.”

The message to the most vulnerable, to the victims of today’s poisonous boy culture, is being heard loud and clear: to be something other than the narrowest, stupidest sort of guy’s guy, is to be unworthy of even being alive.

From Shikha Dalmia in Forbes:

The most blatant hypocrisy involves Obama's personal parental decisions. He chose to send his own daughters to Sidwell Friends, a private school among D.C.'s most exclusive institutions whose annual tuition runs around $30,000. If he felt so strongly that offering children an exit route would stymie the reform of public schools, then why not put his own daughters in one? Jimmy Carter did. This would not only please unions--prompting them to open up their war chest even more in the next elections--but also signal his resolve about reform. If he didn't, that's presumably because his daughters' futures are too precious to be sacrificed on the altar of politics. But, evidently, the futures of other children are not.

Incidentally, among the children who will have to return to public school once this program is scrapped are two of his daughter's schoolmates, who were using their vouchers to attend Sidwell. It's sad that Obama's message of hope and change doesn't include children like them.

Those with power and influence know better than to send their own kids to the government schools. They would rather sacrifice others’ kids on that alter.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Latah County school districts are preparing cut lists as they await levy elections and a final appropriation from the state.

Some districts are preparing to cut staff positions and increase athletic and activity fees, while others are preparing to run higher supplemental levy elections next month. They won't set their budgets until the end of the school year, but school officials and school board members are getting prepared.

Fortunately, MSD is behaving sanely and is not asking for yet another supplemental levy. I think they know they would go down in flames since for their size, they are already the most expensive school district in Idaho.  

The Moscow School District will not run a levy election this year but will cut parts of its budget.

Superintendent Candis Donicht said earlier this week that no matter where the board decides to cut, there will be some staff reductions.

The April 28 school board meeting is expected to provide a clearer picture of the cuts that will be made and how many positions will be eliminated.

A press release from Bob Hieronymus, Executive Vice President of Administration and Advancement at New Saint Andrews College:

Noted author and biochemist Dr. Michael Behe will give a short talk and participate in a question and answer session with students at New Saint Andrews College Thursday, April 23, from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Nuart Theatre in downtown Moscow. The event is open to the public.

Dr. Behe is one of the leading proponents of intelligent design. His book, "Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution," is a New York Times best-seller that discusses the limitations of neo-Darwinism and argues that living systems are best explained by an intelligent designer.

Dr. Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, will also be addressing student groups at Washington State University and the University of Idaho as part of a series of presentations sponsored by the Sciphre Institute and Campus Crusade for Christ. His talk at WSU, titled "Answering Objection to Intelligent Design in Biology, will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, in the CUB Auditorium. On Friday, April 24, Dr. Behe will deliver his presentation "The Science of Intelligent Design" at the University of Idaho SUB Auditorium at 7 p.m. Both of these talks are also open to the public.

From the Associated Press:

Administrators at Idaho State University plan to lay off 73 employees because of a $17 million shortfall expected during the next fiscal year.

In addition to cutting those employees, which should save an estimated $2.5 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1, the eastern Idaho school plans to eliminate 77 unfilled positions, said James Fletcher, the university's vice president for finance and administration.

The 150 jobs include temporary faculty members, administrative personnel and classified workers such as secretaries and maintenance staff.

Faculty and staff on the Pocatello campus largely blamed state lawmakers, not university administrators, after the layoffs were announced Monday.

Tough times everywhere.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Washington State University announced Monday it will no longer accept admissions applications from first-time freshmen to its Pullman campus.

Vice President for Enrollment Management John Fraire said the deadline usually is May 1.

University officials decided to close the admission period at the Pullman campus about three weeks earlier for better planning because the university expects less state money for the next two years, Fraire said.

Officials have indicated that WSU would accept about 1,500 fewer students universitywide under the budget proposals presented by the Legislature.

The House budget proposal calls for a 29-percent reduction, or $151 million, while the Senate's budget proposal asks for a 20-percent reduction or $104 million for the university's 2009-11 biennial budget.

Fraire said the final budget figures ultimately will drive the enrollment decisions.

"Our final enrollment decisions can't be made until we have a better clarity of the budget," he said.

To date, 12,338 first-time freshman students have applied for admission to WSU for fall 2009.

Last fall, the university had a record-breaking freshman class of 3,411.

 

When the union drives up costs so that 85% of your expenses are salaries/wages/benefits, you need to start asking the hard questions: have the unions priced education out of the market? Have the unions established mediocrity for a high cost?

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Moscow School District parents don't want to lose staff, and there's quite a lot they'd rather give up before they see that happen.

"I can't imagine not having those people there; I think they're so valuable," said McDonald Elementary School parent Malia Odberg. "We love the teachers."

Parent groups at each Moscow school sent home lists of possible budget cuts and asked parents to rank each idea in order of which areas they could live without.

The survey indicated staff cuts and textbook replacements were the last things parents were willing to see go.

Superintendent Candis Donicht said she knows she will have to make some staff cuts because personnel costs make up as much as 85 percent of the district's annual budget.

"And I would have guessed that (reducing staff) would be last, though everyone knows that that's going to have a piece as well," Donicht said. "But we can certainly go through these other areas and make reductions before we have to get to personnel." 

During recessions, enrollment is typically up; but revenues are down. It’s a difficult paradox for universities. But what it means is that they can be more exclusive as to which students they enroll.

From today's Spokesman Review.

Because of expected budget cuts, Washington State University is no longer accepting freshman applications for the fall at its Pullman campus.

We are trying to strike the proper balance between accommodating the growing demand for a WSU education and protecting the quality of the educational experience those students will receive at a time of limited resources,  said John Fraire, vice president for enrollment management.

WSU, which has received more than 12,000 applications for freshmen, typically cuts off new applications on May 1. The university s Pullman campus expects to accommodate 3,300 to 3,400 freshmen in the fall. It admitted 3,411 freshmen in fall 2008.

Its Spokane, Vancouver and Tri-Cities campuses are still accepting freshman applications, and the Pullman campus will continue to review applications from transfer students, but is no longer making enrollment offers.

The Legislature, which remains in session, has proposed cutting as much as $683 million from all of the state s four-year institutions. Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed to offset cuts by raising tuition.

 Once WSU has more complete budget information, expected by May 1, the university will likely reopen admissions only to transfer students who have already earned their associates  degree,  according to the announcement by the university.

Opponents of school vouchers don’t want to snuff the life out of this program because they think it’s failing, but because they fear it’s working.

From Greg over at Pajamas Media:

If evidence were going to decide the voucher debate, there wouldn’t be a debate any more. And in fact, we were repeatedly promised that evidence would decide the debate. The president, his education secretary, the head of the Senate subcommittee overseeing the program, and a host of others all promised that they would evaluate vouchers guided solely by evidence… The rest of the country is watching. If the politicians in Congress prove that they can get away with destroying the lives of 1,700 children while suppressing vital information showing that the program works, all in order to please their home-state unions, that sends a message to fifty statehouses. Conversely, if the word gets out about what’s happening and the program is restored, that sends the opposite message.

As I’ve said many times, this is not “about the kids.” It’s not “about the evidence.” It’s about keeping the status quo, and keeping the teachers unions fat and happy.

If it were about anything else, the politicians wouldn’t be out to destroy the lives of 1700 inner city black children.

Right?

There are two excellent resources concerning black males.

The first deals with the problems faced by black boys: Success For Black Boys

The second deals with the lack of black men graduating from college: Paucity of black male students

Deroy sounds like he’s been channeling me.

From Real Clear Politics:

Follow the money: Teachers’ unions’ paid $55,794,440 in political donations between 1990 and 2008, 96 percent of it to Democrats. Senator John Ensign’s (R – Nevada) March 10 amendment to rescue DC’s vouchers failed 39-58. Among 57 Democrats voting, 54 (or 95 percent) opposed DC vouchers.

As the late Albert Shanker, former American Federation of Teachers president, once said: “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”

When poor, black school kids start making political donations, Democratic politicians will start fighting for them.

—Deroy Murdock, New York-based columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service

From KREM News in Spokane:

Construction crews are starting on renovations at the University of Idaho’s Kibbie dome.

However, some people question whether the $17 million project is appropriate during these tough economic times.

Crews will replace every one of the plywood sheets on the east end of the dome with fiberglass panels. Those new panels will let in more light.

They will also add 3,600 more seats and upgrade the Kibbie Dome’s air handling systems.

The project is expected to take months. The total renovation will be done with a combination of University and donor money.

Eventually the University hopes to replace the west wall too, and update everything inside the Kibbie dome.