Senator Ted Kennedy uses the recent Supreme Court decision restricting race-based forced busing to rail in an op-ed [excerpt]:
Thursday's decision reminds us why Brown v. Board of Education was so important. The tragedy at the core of Brown was society's abandonment of African American children to second-class schools.What you’ve just read comes from a man who sent his own children to private schools.
Today, too many students remain stuck in segregated schools that limit their opportunities. The harm to those children is not less just because this new segregation is the result of housing patterns rather than discriminatory laws. A majority of the Supreme Court understood that we cannot afford to ignore that reality by pretending that Brown was concerned only with formal consideration of race, rather than with the harm minority children suffer if they must attend segregated schools. (emphasis added)
In the more than 50 years since Brown declared that "separate but equal has no place" in our society, voluntary efforts by local school boards have benefited all of us.
As explained in a brief to the court in Thursday's cases that was written by more than 500 social scientists, the work of local school boards such as Seattle's to overcome segregation has helped children enjoy the enormous benefits of diversity in education -- including enhanced academic success for African American students, greater parental involvement in public schools and cross-cultural understanding. . . .
For more than 40 years Ted Kennedy has been the most powerful figure in Massachusetts politics.
During those 40 years liberal Democrats have dominated the elective offices in the state.
Boston is home to a number of universities with Education Departments or Schools of Education.
MIT and Harvard with its School of Education are nearby.
Among all those universities and colleges there must be many more than 500 social scientists.
And you know what: The Boston public schools are places where “too many students are stuck in segregated schools that limit their opportunities.”
Most social scientists at Boston area universities and colleges have hit on only one solution to help kids avoid getting stuck in the Boston public schools; and that solution helps only a very small number of the kids needing help avoiding public schools in Kennedy’s Boston fiefdom.
The solution is to send their own kids to private schools if they live in Boston or live in one of Boston’s toney and overwhelmingly white suburbs, where the kids can go to school while their social scientist parents commute to Boston.
Advice for Teddy Kennedy:
1) Stop trying to bus other peoples’ kids when you wouldn’t let your own be bussed.
2) Support voucher programs that will let some of those kids now stuck in Boston’s public schools get out of them.
3) Stop pandering to teachers’ union and that Democratic Party adjunct, the National Education Association, who oppose vouchers.
4) Call a meeting of 500 Boston area social scientists and Boston's elected officials, and say, “Look, we really need to stop blaming Bush for how bad things are in Boston’s public schools. They’ve been bad for decades. And people like us have been the dominate policy makers here. I’m beginning to think we’re the problem and we need to do much better.”
That’s what I think. How about you, folks?
PS – Some of you may be thinking: “Surely those folks in Boston and the surrounding area don’t blame the Boston public schools' problems on Bush.”
Folks, I go up there a few times a year. Many of the people I speak to have in the last 3 or 4 years taken to blaming him for their schools’ failings.
When I point out that the failings go back generations I’m told: “Yes, but they’re so much worse now since Bush came in.”
Kennedy's entire rail is here.
8 comments:
It really soiunds to me that teddy is saying that only white people are smart enough to teach "others". I am thinking that if teddy drank less through most of his life he would know that if segragation is really gonna be a time of the past then what the supreme court is doing and will do will benefit more people than he hopes it will hinder. After all wasnt he against taking poor people off the welfare roles and telling them to get a job to make themselves a life? I hope I am wrong, but I think this dufus is afraid of losing the vote of people who want to improve their own life without governemt interference.
What, exactly, did this rant do except bash Kennedy?
Right v. Left or Right v. Wrong.
What do you really want.
while the 3 duke lacross players have settled with the university
isnt there a larger issue still unsettled
isnt there a way that other students and their parents can still have a suit,sort of a class action suit against the 88 for this unjust behavior?? and bring brodhead to answer for his
Edward Moore Kennedy has done more to destroy the fabric of society than perhaps any other senator. Most recently, he used his considerable influence to promote the so-called "immigration reform bill" that was just deep-sixed in the senate. I can't think of anything this man has done that benefits anyone other than fellow leftist, elitist snobs and such groups as the evil twins National Endowment for the Arts (NEA-1) and the National Education Associetion (NEA-2). He and his fellow leftists have hoodwinked the gullible among us into believing that only integration through bussing and throwing piles of money at public education will improve them. We are now paying over 400% more than we were spending in the 1960's (in 1960 dollars) and the quality of public education has actually gone down. Yet this profoundly unprincipled man wants more bussing and more taxpayer dollars to be pissed away so his pals in NEA-2 can take home bigger paychecks. All of his elitist country-club snobs send their kids to oh-so-private schools because they don't want to rub elbows with those common folk. I guess the common folk are only good for their votes in November. Kinda like the old plantations, isn't it? Except now the Kennedys are the "Massas" and we all the slaves. My warmest greetings to Teddy @ 10:52. How do ya like THIS rant?
10:52
The left has had virtually complete control over public education for the past 25 years. The unions reign supreme and are a reliable Democratic voter bloc. There have been few limits on budget growth. There is little competition available for parents to choose, unless you have the big bucks, like the Kennedys. Year after year its more of the same.
Yet year after year inner city schools fail their students.
The left is wrong. The trouble is, it suits them so.
TombZ
John - I was a life long Kennedy Democrat until Roberts hearing for the Court. What a shock - Roberts is of course brilliant. Almost none of the Senators even knew what he was saying -me either. All Teddy wanted to do - like Biden and a few others - was make abortion speechs. With all the serious issues facing America, abortion is the least of our concerns. Teddy needs to retire and a few others with him.
Glad the immigration deal did not pass - build the hight tech fence first and then we will talk ammnesty.
I can't find the link, but I once read a research report generated by the Harvard Civil Rights Project bemoaning the end of forced busing in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Schools and the gradual partial resegregation based on neighborhoods. They went on to admit that CMS had numerically perfect integration for 25 years yet a gap in academic achievement still remained. IOW, it wasn't working but we need to keep it up anyway.
Continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result is called what again?
Anon @ 9:25,
You’re right that Kennedy basically wanted to keep welfare.
And he sure does think it’s government that can improve people’s lives. I agree with that which is why I raised the issue of why hasn’t Ted Kennedy and his fellow Democrats who’ve controlled Boston for decades done anything to make the Boston public schools better than they are.
Anon @ 10:52,
Did you read the post? Did you see the suggestions regarding vouchers and paying less attention to those Democratic Party adjuncts, the teachers’ unions?
Anon @ 8:19,
You ask important questions but they are not on point to this thread. Look for me to answer at least some of them by July 7.
As I say, your questions are important.
Anon @ 10:39,
You say: “Edward Moore Kennedy has done more to destroy the fabric of society than perhaps any other senator.”
That is an extreme statement but a case can be made for it, and I wouldn’t disagree with it out of hand.
TombZ @ 11:56,
I wanted to underline every word you said and add: I agree.
Anon @ 4:35,
I’m with you on Roberts’ brilliance.
And yes, all Kennedy wanted to do was posture. He was pretty awful during the Roberts hearings but he was much worse during the Bork, Thomas and Alito hearings.
LB @ 9:48,
I don’t know the detail of the Charlotte/Mecklenburg research report you cite. There have been many such reports/studies of Char/Mech often presenting conflicting findings.
On you second point, there’s no doubt that if you always do what you’ve done, you’ll always get what you got.
Thank you to all of you for commenting.
John
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