Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has some scathing commentary on the race-baiting politics that infest K-12 public education, and she holds civil rights activists like Jesse Jackson to blame for "Why Johnny Can't Read":
Just once, I'd like to see black civil rights activists take to the streets to protest schools that miseducate black children...But that's not the typical story line of black protest in matters related to education. The plot, ever so predictable, usually goes like this:
A black teacher or principal is fired. Black activists call a press conference to denounce the alleged racism of white school officials. Or, school officials propose that new teachers be required to pass a standardized test. Black activists immediately declare the requirement racist...
She calls this one right. Virtually any standardized test that is introduced nowadays carries with it the stigma of "racial bias," mostly because the more extreme civil rights activists consider any educational process which can result in inequality of outcome to be "unfair."
In the last decade or so, Clayton County has undergone a rapid demographic transformation from a majority white population to majority black; blacks now hold five of the nine seats on the school board. Given that power, you'd think that black board chairwoman Nedra Ware and her colleagues would devote their time and energy to raising test scores, lowering the drop-out rate or increasing the rate of college attendance.
Oooh nooo. Instead, in a clumsy coup attempt, the Ware-led majority moved in secret to try to fire the white superintendent, though they never publicly disclosed his shortcomings, if any...The Ware junta then hastily appointed a lower-ranking black administrator...[and] they seem intent on naming a black administrator from another metro Atlanta school system...
The politics of black protest too seldom seem aimed at improving the scholarship of black children...the public face of black activism in education is concerned...with jobs and titles, not children. The voices of public protest are more likely to demand an incompetent black teacher be rehired than to insist that no incompetent teachers, black or white, be allowed to cripple black children.
(From Devoted Reader Michael S., who notes that Ms. Tucker is often cast in the "liberal" role on political talk shows. If the black activists in Atlanta are alienating the liberals, that doesn't bode well for them.)
Posted by kswygert at August 18, 2003 09:42 AM