I was watching NBC Nightly News last night and saw a story on education that left me speechless and more pissed off than I’ve been in at least ten years. It seems that in 35 states including the one in which I live, the education system has different standards of achievement for students based solely on the color of a kid’s skin. People, I find this absolutely unconscionable! Essentially what states are saying is that if you’re Black or Hispanic it’s ok not to achieve in life because we don’t expect you to be successful anyway. I remember when I was a kid, my dad always saying “son you can’t settle for being just as good, you have to be better”. Over and over day after day, year after year until the day he died, my dad drilled that message into me and almost 60 years later I’ve never forgotten those words; they helped me to achieve success in life. My dad wasn’t trying to teach me that I was better than anyone else, he was teaching me that based on his experience, Blacks were thought to not be smart or hard working; that others saw us as people who would quit when things got tough, and he didn’t want me to fall into that trap. My dad prepared me for the world by instilling a strong work ethic, he made sure that I studied hard and even when I didn’t get the best grades or win , if I did my absolute best, he knew that working hard and doing my best would get me through. My dad wasn’t an educated man, but he made sure that his children knew the value of a good education, because according to him that was the great equalizer.
State governments in places like Virginia, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Arizona and 30 others have decided that it’s ok to dumb down the education system to pass minority students. They do this for students who can’t make the grade in the classroom. Why you ask? Seems there’s a federal law requiring all states to meet federal education standards that has been in place for more than five years now. This law requires students to meet the federal standards or states have to start closing the failing schools and lose some federal funding. Well I say close the damn schools! If you can’t teach the kids in your school close it! Allow those kids to go someplace else and get a decent education elsewhere. I watched the superintendent of the DC public schools trying to explain why her system needs the waiver to keep her failing schools open and it was so pathetic that I wanted to puke. I don’t mean to pick on DC, but their education superintendent was the person on the news. Fact is, this decision wasn’t made by the school superintendents, it was made by the governors of these states who clearly care more about federal Funding (that they all claim to hate) than the futures of kids in their school systems.
This policy is also blatantly discriminatory towards not just the Black and Hispanic children, it discriminates against the White and Asian children in these school systems. That’s right, why should a Caucasian or Asian child have to achieve 94% on a test that a Black or Hispanic child only needs to score 71 on to pass? Black people in my age group have fought for years to be treated as equals in American society, yet our children now sit by and allow the state to treat our children as unequal. What the hell happened to being better? Isn’t it better for your children to fail while trying their hardest and giving their best, getting up and trying again and again until they succeed than not giving their best because the state says they don’t have to? Trust me, no one succeeds without failure, but failure without trying means failure for life!
In America education has always been the great equalizer! You don’t have to get the best grades, you just have to work hard and do your best. The ability to learn opens doors that might otherwise be closed no matter what your skin color, but for minorities education at least gets you a peek inside that door. This policy sends two messages to two groups who will be responsible for our country in the future. To minority kids it says that you should recognize that you will always be substandard, so don’t even attempt to move up in society because you’re simply not smart enough. It also says that you don’t need to work hard because the system will take care of you, we’ll give you an unfair advantage because of your handicap. This is a welfare state mentality that will keep these kids dependent on the system for life if it’s allowed to continue. To White kids the policy says don’t worry, despite the fact that you were discriminated against, you’re superior, you’re smarter and you’re destined to run the world if for no other reason than because you had to spot those minority chumps 30 points on the test and they still weren’t smart enough to keep up.
If this country is ever going to truly be “Post Racial”, we have to stop having different rules for people based on race! If you start kids out in life with the thought that their different simply because of their skin color, how can you ever expect them to respect one another and live in peace as adults? No one wants to be discriminated against, no matter what your race, but I guess you could say that this policy discriminates against everyone involved. Problem is that it’s a policy that fosters hard feelings between all parties. If you’re Black, how can you expect your White co-worker to teach his kids that they should treat your children as equals in a world where your kids get a 30 point advantage on the test? If you’re White, how do you explain to your kids that race doesn’t matter when they see the Black kids in the class getting an advantage in life just because of their skin color? You may not agree with my analysis of this situation, but I assure you that I am right!!!
If you have children or grandchildren in one of the 35 states who have implemented or plan to implement this policy, you need to follow my lead. Contact your state representatives and the governor of your state and put a stop to this nonsense. We have enough problems in this country we don’t need to create more with idiotic policies like this!
I’m just sayin