Reversed discrimination
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
February 12th marked the 60th anniversary of my arrival to this country; it was a tumultuous time dealing with racism and school segregation. Those were ugly days filled with street violence against Blacks.
Everyone hoped and prayed for everything to change and eventually, the Civil Rights Movement triumphed and things appeared to improve. There was still reluctance from white families to desegregate schools and they fought back.
Then, through the years, the pendulum has gone to the other extreme; colleges and universities started holding separate commencement exercises at the request of Black students and later for different language groups as if they want to segregate themselves.
California is now planning to pay millions in restoration to Blacks, and many things demonstrate that we are not equal which is what Martin Luther King, Jr. hoped for in his famous speech.
But, what is really ticking me off is the creation of this new profession “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) that organizations, universities, school departments, etc. feel the need to hire consultants to devise a system to assure that their workforce is made up by people of different races, genders and physical capabilities, resulting in the mess we have today.
The quality of production has decreased because we don’t have the best-qualified people for jobs. Take a look at customer service: There is no training available and people holding those jobs have no common sense to know better. With DEI, people only mark boxes on the employment application.
When it comes to the nation’s schools, the status of the United States in the world has been brought down to an embarrassing level. We know that high schools graduate students who can barely read and cannot balance a checkbook.
This week, it was made public that 23 schools in Maryland showed that not one student passed math at their own level. That’s 23 schools where students cannot do math at their level.
Now, I recommend that you read the article Massachusetts Educator Diversity Act is Reintroduced for 193rd General Court on page 14 of this edition. The purpose of that legislation is to make it possible those students to be taught by people of their race, nationality, etc. to be role models for them. It doesn’t say anything about selecting among applicants the best-qualified teachers in the hope that is also a match for that requirement.
I mentioned customer service because sometimes I dread the thought of having to deal with salespeople in stores. This week, I needed to send some money fast to somebody in need and went to a local store. The only employee at the cashier told me that I had to do it on a machine similar to an ATM. The machine instructed me to call the central office.
After a 26-minute conversation with someone in India who barely spoke English, my transaction wasn’t finalized. I called again and got somebody else on the phone. After some 10 minutes of explaining what I needed, she gave me a confirmation number and I went to deposit the money with the cashier who then told me he didn’t know how to do that. He called his manager and she also said that she didn’t know how to process it.
There is no need to mention the establishment where it happened because the intention is not to hurt the business or the employees since this is a chronic problem found all around us in the entire country.
Oh yes, my blood pressure made me blush!
In previous editions, I have touched onother serious problems in the schools such as Critical Race Theory and Gender Studies which are being imparted in local schools. We are poisoning the minds of young children with that. Why not teach them math and to read and write, instead?
And now, the U.S. Department of Education announced first-ever awards, totaling over $18 million, for the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program grants to increase high-quality teacher preparation programs for teachers of color, strengthen the diversity of our teacher pipeline, and address teacher shortages.
Between drugs and the lack of education in schools, we are losing an entire generation.
Below is a portion of an article published on the website www.thebalancemoney.com entitled U.S. Education Rankings Are Falling Behind the Rest of the World, How It Hurts the Economy and You
Updated on April 13, 2022
Reviewed by Somer G. Anderson
The Program for International Student Assessment tests 15-year-old students around the world and is administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2018, when the test was last administered, the U.S. placed 11th out of 79 countries in science. It did much worse in math, ranking 30th.
The U.S. scored 478 in math, below the OECD average of 489. That’s well below the scores of the top five, all of which were in Asia: Singapore at 569, Macao at 555, Hong Kong at 551, Taiwan at 531, and Japan at 527. China was not included in this ranking, since only four provinces participated.
In science, the United States scored 502, above the OECD average of 489. The top five highest scorers were Singapore at 551, Macao at 544, Estonia at 530, Japan at 529, and Finland at 522.
Many companies simply outsource their tech jobs overseas. The result, however, is the same: There are fewer high-paying jobs going to American citizens, because they may not be qualified.
An economist from the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, Eric A. Hanushek, estimated that the U.S. economy would grow 4.5% in the next 20 years if our students’ math and science skills were as strong as the rest of the world’s.
However, this statement would likely come as a shock to many Americans who believe that our students’ skills are already among the best in the world.
Biden’s Rent Control
Anyone living here for over 30 years remembers the rent control era in Massachusetts. Cities under this measure had nice communities that became slums because property owners could not charge more than the rent stipulated by the authorities.
The result was that they could not sell their buildings and they didn’t collect enough to pay their mortgages and taxes, so they could not afford to perform any repairs and not all tenants were willing to do anything on a property belonging to someone else.
Still, they didn’t move away because while they were paying $200 each month, it would have meant having to pay $700 someplace else. That is an example of real cases that I know.
That was the reality of rent control.
When the Legislature passed the end of rent control, rents went up, people moved out and Boston became what it is today.
Now, there’s a new book that describes the president’s plan to establish some sort of rent control in the country as Biden’s Rent Control Plan is Stone Cold Marxism by Murray Sabrin, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey.
Dr. Sabrin said that “The Biden administration is considering imposing nationwide rent control because rents have been rising faster than incomes over the past couple of years. Rising rents is another inevitable consequence of the Federal Reserve’s super easy money policies that were implemented to stimulate the economy to deal with the Covid lockdowns in 2020.
“Rent control has destroyed housing units in every city it was tried–New York City has been the poster child for “temporary” controls that were introduced in 1943. Once price controls are introduced they are hard to remove, even after they cause widespread economic harm. The solutions to high rents are straightforward.
“More supply by removing barriers to the construction of moderately priced apartments and ending the Fed’s manipulation of interest rates. In time, supply and demand will be in balance and rents would come down, especially in communities where the building restrictions have been the most draconian.”
Be careful what you wish for because the solution could be worse.
This was published by The Publius National Post. Murray Sabrin, Ph.D., author of From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story.
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