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President Barack Obama is backing a controversial campaign by progressives
to regulate schools’ disciplinary actions so that members of major racial
and ethnic groups are penalized at equal rates, regardless of individuals’
behavior.
His July 26 executive order established a government panel to promote “a
positive school climate that does not rely on methods that result in
disparate use of disciplinary tools.”
“African Americans lack equal access to highly effective teachers and
principals, safe schools, and challenging college-preparatory classes, and
they disproportionately experience school discipline,” said the order,
titled “White House Initiative On Educational Excellence.”
Because of those causes, the report suggests, “over a third of African
American students do not graduate from high school on time with a regular
high school diploma, and only four percent of African American high school
graduates interested in college are college-ready across a range of subjects
.”
“What this means is that whites and Asians will get suspended for things
that blacks don’t get suspended for,” because school officials will try to
level punishments despite groups’ different infraction rates, predicted
Hans Bader, a counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Bader is a
former official in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, and
has sued and represented school districts and colleges in civil-rights cases.
“It is too bad that the president has chosen to set up a new bureaucracy
with a focus on one particular racial group, to the exclusion of all others,
” said Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity.
“A disproportionate share of crimes are committed by African Americans, and
they are disproportionately likely to misbehave in school… [because] more
than 7 out of 10 African Americans (72.5 percent) are born out of wedlock…
versus fewer than 3 out of 10 whites,” he said in a statement to The Daily
Caller. Although ” you won’t see it mentioned in the Executive Order…
there is an obvious connection between these [marriage] numbers and how each
group is doing educationally, economically, criminally,” he said.
The order created a “President’s Advisory Commission on Educational
Excellence for African Americans.” It will include senior officials from
several federal agencies — including the Departments of Education, Justice
and Labor — which have gained increased power over state education policies
since 2009.
The progressives campaign for race-based discipline policies also won a
victory in Maryland July 24.
The state’s board of education established a policy demanding that each
racial or ethnic group receive roughly proportional level of school
penalties, regardless of the behavior by members of each group.
The board’s decision requires that “the state’s 24 school systems track
data to ensure that minority and special education students are not unduly
affected by suspensions, expulsions and other disciplinary measures,” said
a July 25 Washington Post report.
“Disparities would have to be reduced within a year and eliminated within
three years,” according to the Post.
The state’s new racial policy was welcomed by progressives, including
Judith Browne Dianis, a director of the D.C.-based Advancement Project. “
Maryland’s proposal is on the cutting edge,” she told the Post.
Dianis’ project is also a law firm that litigates race-related questions,
and it gains from laws and regulations that spur race-related legal disputes.
“The combination of overly harsh school policies … has created a ‘
schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track,’ in which punitive measures such as
suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests are increasingly used to
deal with student misbehavior,” claimed the group’s website.
This “is a racial justice crisis, because the students pushed out through
harsh discipline are disproportionately students of color,” the group
insisted.
The administration had previously advertised its support for the campaign to
impose race-based discipline policies.
In February, Attorney General Eric Holder claimed that “we’ve often seen
that students of color, students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and
students with special needs are disproportionately likely to be suspended or
expelled.”
“This is, quite simply, unacceptable. … These unnecessary and destructive
policies must be changed,” he said in his speech, given in Atlanta, Ga.
Holder’s speech did not, however, include any evidence of discrimination
toward any individual African-American student. For example, he offered no
evidence that school infractions by African-American students prompt stiffer
punishments than similar infractions by white, Hispanic or Asian students.
The progressive campaign to impose race-based rules on schools relies on
various judges’ decisions, which penalize so-called “disparate impact” in
hiring.
According to progressive lawyers, “disparate impact” may occur when
companies or state and local governments hire and promote people at rates
different from their percentage in the local population.
Because of judges’ decisions, juries can force companies and state agencies
— such as city boards that hire police officers and firefighters — to pay
heavy financial penalties to plaintiffs, even when hiring policies are
recognized as color-blind.
When facing a disparate impact lawsuit, employers have to justify their
hiring practices, for example, by showing that the job demands special
skills possessed by relatively few members of a racial or ethnic group.
In 1997, however, the Seventh Circuit appeals court barred the practice of
racial balancing in school discipline to avoid disparate impact lawsuits,
said Bader.
Progressives say the “disparate impact” claims are supported by the 1964
Civil Right Act.
Critics, such as Clegg, say “disparate impact” law is used to trump
popular and effective color-blind practices, such as civil-service tests by
governments and employment-suitability testing by companies.
Another critic, David Rettig, head of the National Character Education
Foundation, told The Daily Caller in February that apparently-
disproportionate school discipline practices can be a reflection of local
crime reports.
“Outside the walls of the school, how many of these kids are coming from
not just dysfunctional homes, but homes that are not supportive of their
children?” he told TheDC.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/27/obama-backs-race-based-school-discipline-policies/#ixzz21siPJpdC
to regulate schools’ disciplinary actions so that members of major racial
and ethnic groups are penalized at equal rates, regardless of individuals’
behavior.
His July 26 executive order established a government panel to promote “a
positive school climate that does not rely on methods that result in
disparate use of disciplinary tools.”
“African Americans lack equal access to highly effective teachers and
principals, safe schools, and challenging college-preparatory classes, and
they disproportionately experience school discipline,” said the order,
titled “White House Initiative On Educational Excellence.”
Because of those causes, the report suggests, “over a third of African
American students do not graduate from high school on time with a regular
high school diploma, and only four percent of African American high school
graduates interested in college are college-ready across a range of subjects
.”
“What this means is that whites and Asians will get suspended for things
that blacks don’t get suspended for,” because school officials will try to
level punishments despite groups’ different infraction rates, predicted
Hans Bader, a counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Bader is a
former official in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, and
has sued and represented school districts and colleges in civil-rights cases.
“It is too bad that the president has chosen to set up a new bureaucracy
with a focus on one particular racial group, to the exclusion of all others,
” said Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity.
“A disproportionate share of crimes are committed by African Americans, and
they are disproportionately likely to misbehave in school… [because] more
than 7 out of 10 African Americans (72.5 percent) are born out of wedlock…
versus fewer than 3 out of 10 whites,” he said in a statement to The Daily
Caller. Although ” you won’t see it mentioned in the Executive Order…
there is an obvious connection between these [marriage] numbers and how each
group is doing educationally, economically, criminally,” he said.
The order created a “President’s Advisory Commission on Educational
Excellence for African Americans.” It will include senior officials from
several federal agencies — including the Departments of Education, Justice
and Labor — which have gained increased power over state education policies
since 2009.
The progressives campaign for race-based discipline policies also won a
victory in Maryland July 24.
The state’s board of education established a policy demanding that each
racial or ethnic group receive roughly proportional level of school
penalties, regardless of the behavior by members of each group.
The board’s decision requires that “the state’s 24 school systems track
data to ensure that minority and special education students are not unduly
affected by suspensions, expulsions and other disciplinary measures,” said
a July 25 Washington Post report.
“Disparities would have to be reduced within a year and eliminated within
three years,” according to the Post.
The state’s new racial policy was welcomed by progressives, including
Judith Browne Dianis, a director of the D.C.-based Advancement Project. “
Maryland’s proposal is on the cutting edge,” she told the Post.
Dianis’ project is also a law firm that litigates race-related questions,
and it gains from laws and regulations that spur race-related legal disputes.
“The combination of overly harsh school policies … has created a ‘
schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track,’ in which punitive measures such as
suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests are increasingly used to
deal with student misbehavior,” claimed the group’s website.
This “is a racial justice crisis, because the students pushed out through
harsh discipline are disproportionately students of color,” the group
insisted.
The administration had previously advertised its support for the campaign to
impose race-based discipline policies.
In February, Attorney General Eric Holder claimed that “we’ve often seen
that students of color, students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and
students with special needs are disproportionately likely to be suspended or
expelled.”
“This is, quite simply, unacceptable. … These unnecessary and destructive
policies must be changed,” he said in his speech, given in Atlanta, Ga.
Holder’s speech did not, however, include any evidence of discrimination
toward any individual African-American student. For example, he offered no
evidence that school infractions by African-American students prompt stiffer
punishments than similar infractions by white, Hispanic or Asian students.
The progressive campaign to impose race-based rules on schools relies on
various judges’ decisions, which penalize so-called “disparate impact” in
hiring.
According to progressive lawyers, “disparate impact” may occur when
companies or state and local governments hire and promote people at rates
different from their percentage in the local population.
Because of judges’ decisions, juries can force companies and state agencies
— such as city boards that hire police officers and firefighters — to pay
heavy financial penalties to plaintiffs, even when hiring policies are
recognized as color-blind.
When facing a disparate impact lawsuit, employers have to justify their
hiring practices, for example, by showing that the job demands special
skills possessed by relatively few members of a racial or ethnic group.
In 1997, however, the Seventh Circuit appeals court barred the practice of
racial balancing in school discipline to avoid disparate impact lawsuits,
said Bader.
Progressives say the “disparate impact” claims are supported by the 1964
Civil Right Act.
Critics, such as Clegg, say “disparate impact” law is used to trump
popular and effective color-blind practices, such as civil-service tests by
governments and employment-suitability testing by companies.
Another critic, David Rettig, head of the National Character Education
Foundation, told The Daily Caller in February that apparently-
disproportionate school discipline practices can be a reflection of local
crime reports.
“Outside the walls of the school, how many of these kids are coming from
not just dysfunctional homes, but homes that are not supportive of their
children?” he told TheDC.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/27/obama-backs-race-based-school-discipline-policies/#ixzz21siPJpdC
