A Call for Segregation

Reader Advised by Wolves alerted me to a post by Jane Galt in which she addresses her support for vouchers. My attention is drawn to this single sentence in her rather long and well-reasoned post:

I want a voucher system not because I have it in for teachers, but because I want a school system that is more responsive, child focused, creative, outcome-oriented, and effective.

Not entirely unexpectedly, I have some thoughts on the matter.

Jane's first point (with 24 to follow) is:

1) The American educational system sucks.

I would like to point out that the American educational system has many very fine schools. I will go further to explicitly state that once you take minority schools out of the equation, there are many, many good schools that turn out legions of shiny new college students every year.

For instance, the Shelby County schools system attracts and keeps good teachers, pays them above average wages yet spends less per student than every other school system in Tennessee (which consistently ranks at the bottom in the nation for dollars per student spending). Further, three years ago they achieved one parent in the PTA for every student in the system – something that has not been achieved in any school system before or since. But parent participation remains high and the school system consistently receives “A”s from the feds and the state.

But in inner city schools, even the brightest of kids aren’t allowed to learn because a black child that tries to pay attention is ostracized for “acting white”.

And so in the city of Memphis (which lies within Shelby county but has a different school system), teachers are little more than embattled babysitters, parents are largely indifferent and kids are growing up stupid.

White flight – and affluent black flight – continues to tax the county’s resources, while Memphis is increasingly a majority poor, black community.

It’s not the school system, folks. It’s a culture thing.

The bottom line is that culture of Black America is sick. We can’t fix the educational system without that particular subculture taking a long, hard look at itself and addressing some fundamental issues. Yes, you can blame decades of welfare for decimating the strong family values that once were the mainstay of the Black community. Children are having children and fathers are absent. It’s a pit from which few escape.

But White Guilt is powerless to fix this problem from the outside.

If that makes me a racist, so be it. But then so is Dr. Bill Cosby (and I’ll be proud to stand with him any day of the week). Blacks may say I have no right to say such things because I am not one of them (and many do). Tough. An outside observer can see that there is a problem – you’d have to be blind not to see it.

I call for segregation. That’s right, the scary “S” word.

No child left behind is crap, because year after year we are leaving legions of children behind.

It’s time to recognize that fact and separate the ones that have the necessary support system, whether it is involved parents or just a hard-working single mother that insists that her child works hard, passing on the work ethic that made this nation great.

How do we segregate these future successes from the influence of their life-sucking peers?

Vouchers.

We must remove the bright minority students from their I-am-a-victim culture and put them in private schools where they are given a chance to succeed. Those kids that fail, become disruptive, succumb to gang pressures – kick them out and make them go back to the current failing schools. (This is a vital element; the private schools must have the freedom to deny service to anyone. Over-regulation will kill the effectiveness of the voucher initiative!)

We’ll never separate the wheat from the chaff from within “the system”. Vouchers will allow kids with promise, drive and determined parent(s) to extricate themselves from the culture of failure. Vouchers will give them a chance.

Call me an optimist, but I believe vouchers and capitalism will fix our problem.

In a dozen years, we will have a generation of black students going to college. Not because they are black, but because they are bright and ambitious and prepared and capable.

In two decades we will see the reemergence of the black family. Educated, successful fathers tend to stick around when they father children. Educated, successful men tend to stay married. Color has no bearing on these facts.

In a quarter century we will have blacks succeeding in our workforce, entering the ranks of executives or starting businesses. Not because they are black, but because they are smart and educated and have learned to think.

In a half century, affirmative action will be a thing of the past and racism will have dropped to a mere murmur compared to the constant, deafening cacophony that we have now.

We can’t save everyone, so let’s start by saving those we can and increasing that percentage every year. Eventually, we won’t need to save anyone.

If we don’t do something different, we’ll just have 50 more years of failure.

Blog post #6519 in category Education
posted 20 March 07