Posted by
Defend America on Friday, March 26, 2010 11:54:08 PM
Democrats miss an obvious lesson plan for deprived children
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Education Secretary Arne Duncan, like many liberals, seems afflicted by
Sixties Nostalgia Syndrome, a longing for the high drama and moral
clarity of the civil rights era. Speaking this month in Alabama at
Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the
"Bloody Sunday" march, Duncan vowed to unleash on public schools
legions of lawyers wielding Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They
supposedly will rectify what he considers civil rights violations, such
as too many white students in high school Advanced Placement classes.
Duncan said that "the civil rights struggle" has become "more complex
since the days of Selma." He seems not to understand that today's
complexities of equity are complex because they are not about "rights."
He says his rights enforcers -- 600 of them, with a $103 million budget
-- will "remedy discrimination," such as students being "treated
unequally" by policies that have what is called a "disparate impact" on
certain groups. For example, Duncan asks: "How can we assure that
low-income Latino and African-American students get the same access to
a college-prep curriculum, AP classes and college as other students?"
But "access" obscures the problem.
The Supreme Court has held that Title VI bans "disparate treatment,"
meaning intentional discrimination such as denying access to
minorities, not policies that have a "disparate impact" on minorities.
No policy denies minority or low-income students "access" to AP classes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR2010031903679.html