Alman’s conjecture: The more expensive a college’s tuition is, the more insane its students are.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
November 8, 2024
Alman’s conjecture: The more expensive a college’s tuition is, the more insane its students are.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1854964493484179776
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1854964493484179776
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/11/7/harvard-students-react-donald-trump-reelection/
Harvard Professors Cancel Classes as Students Feel Blue After Trump Win
Students awoke to a somber campus following Donald Trump’s reelection to the presidency early Wednesday morning. “My heart dropped a little bit,” one student said.
By Madeleine A. Hung and Azusa M. Lippit
November 7, 2024
At 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sophia R. Mammucari ’28 woke up to a phone call from her mom — and the news that Donald Trump had been officially reelected.
“I still had some hope that she was going to win by a small amount. And then I woke up this morning, and that’s not what happened,” Mammucari said. “I probably cried for like an hour.”
On election night, students gathered at viewing parties hosted by friends, House tutors, the Institute of Politics, and the Harvard Republican Club to watch results roll in.
The next morning, they woke up to a somber campus.
When Samantha M. Holtz ’28 googled the presidential election’s outcome before her Wednesday morning swim practice, her “heart dropped a little bit.”
“Being at Harvard, I was surrounded by a lot of people who were very pro-Harris, so in my mind it was already a decided election,” Holtz said. “It was a little bit shocking to me.”
Luke P. Kushner ’27 said he was “really, really disappointed” by the presidential election results.
“Very early on in the night, it became pretty clear that it was going to go in the direction of Trump,” Kushner said. “I went to bed before they called it, and at that point I was pretty resigned.”
‘Space to Process’
In Harvard’s freshman dining hall Wednesday morning, Holtz joined a teammate to eat breakfast with College Dean Rakesh Khurana.
According to Holtz, Khurana told students to “let yourself feel a bunch of emotions about how this is going to impact us in the future, and listen to other people and how they feel about it too.”
Some professors also encouraged students to process in the aftermath of the election, adjusting course requirements in kind.
Courses such as Sociology 1156: “Statistics for Social Sciences” and Applied Math 22a: “Solving and Optimizing,” as well as several General Education courses — 1074: “The Ancient Greek Hero” and 1111: “Popular Culture and Modern China” among them — canceled their Wednesday classes, made attendance optional, or extended assignment deadlines.
The move echoes the aftermath of Trump’s first win in 2016, when professors postponed exams and changed lesson plans to lighten students’ schedules.
Economics lecturer Maxim Boycko wrote in a Wednesday email to students in Economics 1010a: “Intermediate Microeconomics” that the course’s typical in-class quizzes would be optional.
“As we recover from the eventful election night and process the implications of Trump’s victory, please know that class will proceed as usual today, except that classroom quizzes will not be for credit,” Boycko wrote. “Feel free to take time off if needed.”
Jack A. Kelly ’26 said he “was tempted to say ‘no’ to class today.”
“I had some professors that have been like, ‘If you need to not come to class, that’s understandable,’” he added. “This definitely takes a toll on people’s mental wellbeing.”
Throughout Wednesday, student organizations, faculty, and House tutors also offered chances to come to terms with the election results.
Physics professor Jennifer E. Hoffman ’99 wrote in an email to physics students and faculty that her office would be “a space to process the election.”
“Many in our community are sleep-deprived, again grieving for glass ceilings that weren’t shattered, fearful for the future, or embarrassed to face our international colleagues,” she wrote. “I stress-baked several pans of lemon bars to share.”
A ‘Very Dark Moment’
For many College students, Trump’s policy proposals mark a source of despair for the next four years.
“Long term, I’m very concerned about Trump’s policies and the things that he has endorsed,” Kushner said. “Trump’s attitude towards democracy and the norms that we have in this country are really, really concerning.”
Kelly, who is enrolled in a class about healthcare, said he is particularly aware of Trump’s potential impact on American medical systems.
“We have an exam next week about the Affordable Care Act and other kinds of healthcare policies,” he said. “A lot of what we’re learning might become moot if the ACA and the progress that was made under that law is repealed in the second Trump administration.”
Eleanor M. Powell ’25 said she is especially worried about Trump’s impact on the judicial system.
“I’m really worried about the court — and not just the Supreme Court, all of the courts where he will be able to appoint judges,” Powell said. “I think we’re in for a very dark moment in the 21st century’s history.”
Several students attributed their emotional reactions to Trump’s rhetoric toward minority groups across the U.S.
“I just couldn’t believe that Donald Trump won, because he is literally a felon, he’s a criminal, and he’s a racist,” Rachele D. Chung ’28 said. “I just can’t believe America voted that way.”
“I feel really sad for the state of women,” Claire V. Miller ’28 said. “If the candidate hadn’t been a Black woman — like if it had been a white man who was just younger than Trump and mentally sharp — I think they could’ve won.”
Victor E. Flores ’25, co-president of the Harvard College Democrats, said he was afraid for the “countless people” who could be affected by Trump’s policies.
“There are marginalized communities across the country that are waiting and watching to see what will happen,” he said. “I am certainly disappointed by these results.”
‘We’re Not Going Anywhere’
For politically engaged Harvard students in groups like Harvard College Democrats and the IOP, Trump’s win marked the conclusion of months of heavy campaigning.
Harvard College Democrats Co-President Tova L. Kaplan ’26 praised the students who have been “working incredibly hard” campaigning for Kamala Harris.
“Those networks that we’ve built and the skills that we’ve built — in students organizing, canvassing, political communications, community building, issue area, advocacy and more — are going to be all the more crucial in this fight ahead,” she said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Alexander H. Lee ’27 said while results were not what he was hoping for, he is motivated to focus on local politics and “make the best out of what we have right now.”
Though students on both sides of the political aisle fought hard for their preferred candidate, IOP President Pratyush Mallick ’25 said he enjoyed seeing bipartisan “unity” at the IOP watch party and “super high” voter turnout.
With the end of the presidential campaigns, Mallick added that students interested in careers in presidential administration have entered a “transition process.”
“Many people who are thinking about pursuing careers in a Harris administration might explore opportunities and other avenues of public service and walk down those pathways,” he said. “And people who are kind of doing the vice versa might look to transition over to the Trump administration.”
‘A Lot More Vocal’
With Trump’s return to the Oval Office, some students said, Harvard’s campus may see a surge in conservative activism despite its usual “blue tint.”
Many students agreed that support for Trump is strong in limited conservative pockets, including the Harvard Republican Club — which endorsed Trump in July — and the Salient, a conservative student magazine which has published pro-Trump content this year.
According to Chung, Harvard students with more conservative beliefs tend to be quieter, but student Democrats “scream it from the rooftops.”
But in the aftermath of the election, some students predict a change.
“I’m very clear eyed about what this election means in terms of emboldening misogynistic, racist, hateful rhetoric,” Kaplan said.
“I don’t know to what extent that will trickle down to Harvard,” she added, but “we’re going to do our best to make sure that it doesn’t.”
“I think that the Trump supporters will now be a lot more vocal on this campus which, free speech is great, but there might be more animosity,” Mammacuri said.
Jara A. Emtage-Cave ’25, a student on the women’s rugby team, said pro-Trump sentiment seemed to gain traction even before November.
“In the past two weeks before the election, I’ve encountered a lot more people who are pro-Trump, specifically in the athletics community,” Emtage-Cave said.
Following the election, Akash D. Anandam ’28 said he assumed a handful of Harvard students were “popping champagne.”
On Tuesday night, HRC was indeed gleefully ushering in a second Trump presidency.
“It is morning again in America!” HRC President Michael Oved ’25 wrote in a statement to The Crimson Wednesday morning.
“I am pleased that the Harvard Republican Club played a part in this remarkable victory and historic comeback of President Trump,” Oved wrote. “It’s now time for us all to come together, unite around our new President, and tackle the issues that face our country.”
Legos, Cocoa, and Coloring Books for Georgetown Students: At the McCourt School of Public Policy, officials are offering ‘mindfulness’ options to cope with the election. The only thing missing is a blankie.
https://www.thefp.com/p/georgetown-election-safe-space-trump-kamala
Legos, Cocoa, and Coloring Books for Georgetown Students
At the McCourt School of Public Policy, officials are offering ‘mindfulness’ options to cope with the election. The only thing missing is a blankie.
By Frannie Block
November 4, 2024
On Wednesday, the day after the election, most of us are going to roll out of bed, have our breakfast, and get on with our day—no matter which presidential candidate wins. But students at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy—where diplomats and policymakers are molded—have another option: They can play with Legos. Seriously.
In an email to McCourt students, Jaclyn Clevenger, the school’s director of student engagement, introduced the school’s post-election “Self-Care Suite.”
“In recognition of these stressful times,” she wrote, “all McCourt community members are welcome to gather. . . in the 3rd floor Commons to take a much needed break, joining us for mindfulness activities and snacks throughout the day.”
Here’s the agenda (and no, you can’t make this up):
10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Tea, Cocoa, and Self-Care
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Legos Station
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Healthy Treats and Healthy Habits
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.: Coloring and Mindfulness Exercises
2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: Milk and Cookies
4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.: Legos and Coloring
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.: Snacks and Self-Guided Meditation
I wanted to ask Clevenger why college and graduate students needed milk and cookies to recover from their stress—and how being coddled in college might someday affect American diplomacy—but she didn’t respond to my calls or emails.
Of course, Georgetown is hardly the only school fearful that their students will be traumatized after the election. At Missouri State University, the counseling center has set up a post-election “self-care no phone zone space” with calm jars, coloring pages, and sensory fidgets.
And just last week, The New York Times reported that Fieldston, the elite New York City private school, was making attendance the day after Election Day optional for “students who feel too emotionally distressed.” Fieldston has also eliminated all homework requirements that day, and is even providing psychologists for “Election Day Support.”
Jerry Seinfeld told the Times that his family found such decisions so aggravating that it caused his youngest son to withdraw from Fieldston and switch to a different school in the eighth grade. “What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people?” he said. “To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.”
I couldn’t agree more.
What to Know About the University of Michigan’s D.E.I. Experiment: A Times investigation found that the school built one of the most ambitious diversity programs in the country — only to see increased discord and division on campus.
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/16/magazine/university-of-michigan-dei.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/F7nzQ
What to Know About the University of Michigan’s D.E.I. Experiment
A Times investigation found that the school built one of the most ambitious diversity programs in the country — only to see increased discord and division on campus.
By Nicholas Confessore
October 16, 2024
A decade ago, the University of Michigan intentionally placed itself in the vanguard of a revolution then beginning to reshape American higher education. Around the country, college administrators were rapidly expanding D.E.I. programs. They believed that vigorous D.E.I. efforts would allow traditionally underrepresented students to thrive on campus — and improve learning for students from all backgrounds.
In recent years, as D.E.I. programs came under withering attack, Michigan has only doubled down on D.E.I., holding itself out as a model for other schools. By one estimate, the university has built the largest D.E.I. bureaucracy of any big public university.
But an examination by The Times found that Michigan’s expansive — and expensive — D.E.I. program has struggled to achieve its central goals even as it set off a cascade of unintended consequences.
Here are some key takeaways from the Magazine’s article on Michigan’s D.E.I. experiment.
Michigan has poured a staggering quarter of a billion dollars into D.E.I.
Striving to reach “every individual on campus,” Michigan has invested nearly 250 million dollars into D.E.I. since 2016, according to an internal presentation I obtained. Every university “unit” — from the medical school down to the archives — is required to have a D.E.I. plan.
The number of employees who work in D.E.I.-related offices or have “diversity,” “equity” or “inclusion” in their job titles reached 241 last year, according to an analysis by Mark J. Perry, an emeritus professor of finance at the university’s Flint campus.
Michigan has struggled to improve Black enrollment — and students overall feel less included, not more.
The percentage of Black students, currently around 5 percent, remained largely stagnant as Michigan’s overall enrollment rose — and in a state where 14 percent of residents are Black. In a survey released in late 2022, students and faculty members across the board reported a less positive campus climate than at the program’s start and less of a sense of belonging.
Students were less likely to interact with people of a different race or religion or with different politics — the exact kind of engagement D.E.I. programs, in theory, are meant to foster.
While its peers reconsider aspects of D.E.I., Michigan has doubled down.
This year, both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced they would no longer require job candidates to submit diversity statements, or explanations of the candidate’s commitment to D.E.I. Such “compelled statements,” M.I.T.’s president said, “impinge on freedom of expression.” But at Michigan, a faculty committee this summer privately recommended that the school continue using such statements,” which are currently required by most of Michigan’s colleges and schools.
D.E.I. at Michigan has helped fuel a culture of grievance.
Instead of improving students’ ability to engage with one another across their differences, Michigan’s D.E.I. expansion has coincided with an explosion in campus conflict over race and gender. Everyday campus complaints and academic disagreements are now cast as crises of inclusion and harm.
In 2015, the university office charged with enforcing federal civil rights mandates including Title IX received about 200 complaints of sex- or gender-based misconduct on Michigan’s campus. Last year, it surpassed 500. Complaints involving race, religion or national origin increased to almost 400 from a few dozen during roughly the same period.
After Oct. 7, Michigan’s D.E.I. bureaucracy was tested like never before — and failed.
At Michigan, as at other schools, campus protests exploded after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and Israel’s retaliation in Gaza. So did complaints of harassment or discrimination based on national origin or ancestry. This June, civil rights officials at the federal Department of Education found that Michigan had systematically mishandled such complaints over the 18-month period ending in February. Out of 67 complaints of harassment or discrimination based on national origin or ancestry that the officials reviewed — an overwhelming majority involving allegations of antisemitism, according to a tally I obtained — Michigan had investigated and made findings in just one.
Time and time and time again, “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and other similar words are being used as excuses to dumb down educational standards. Here are 24 examples.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
October 15, 2024
Time and time and time again, “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and other similar words are being used as excuses to dumb down educational standards.
Here are 24 examples:
1) The New York Times wrote, “The Board of Regents on Monday eliminated a requirement that aspiring teachers in New York State pass a literacy test to become certified after the test proved controversial because black and Hispanic candidates passed it at significantly lower rates than white candidates.”
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/nyregion/ny-regents-teacher-exams-alst.html?_r=0
Archive: https://archive.ph/GzyQM
2) The New York Times wrote, “A 2009 Princeton study showed Asian-Americans had to score 140 points higher on their SATs than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics and 450 points higher than blacks to have the same chance of admission to leading universities.”
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/white-students-unfair-advantage-in-admissions.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/MEDXn
3) Patrick Henry High School, San Diego’s largest high school, cited “equity” as its reason for removing some of its classes in advanced English, advanced history, and advanced biology.
4) The Vancouver School Board cited “equity and inclusion” for why it got rid of its honors courses in math and science at its high schools.
Archive: https://archive.ph/MBOEo
5) In the name of equity, California will discourage students who are gifted at math
Original: https://reason.com/2021/05/04/california-math-framework-woke-equity-calculus/
Archive: https://archive.ph/N4CQC
6) PBS Boston affiliate WGBH: “Boston public schools suspends test for advanced learning classes; concerns about program’s racial inequities linger”
7) Lowell High in San Francisco, one of the country’s best public high schools, replaced its merit based admissions with a lottery based admissions, because the school had too many Asians.
Original: https://abc7news.com/sfusd-board-of-education-meeting-school-lowell-high-sf/10325219/
Archive: https://archive.ph/iGzom
8) Expecting math students to get the right answer is now considered to be a form of “white supremacy.” See page 6 at this link:
Original: https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/1_STRIDE1.pdf
9) The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City canceled its honor society because whites and Asians were earning better grades than blacks and Latinos.
Archive: https://archive.ph/WNwvW
10) New Jersey stopped requiring new teachers to be proficient in reading, writing, and math, because the requirement was considered to be an “unnecessary barrier.”
Archive: https://archive.ph/vh6io
11) Washington Post: “Maryland school district worker fired after correcting student’s spelling in a tweet”
12) Oregon again says students don’t need to prove mastery of reading, writing or math to graduate, citing harm to students of color
Archive: https://archive.ph/mV38Y
13) In Mississauga, Ontario, a public high school library removed every book that had been published in 2008 or earlier, under the justification of “inclusivity,” “anti-racism,” “equity,” and “diversity”
Original: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/peel-school-board-library-book-weeding-1.6964332
Archive: https://archive.ph/ktv2R
14) The public schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts stopped offering advanced math classes to students in grades 6, 7, and 8, because students of some races had been doing better than students of other races.
15) Met applicants ‘functionally illiterate in English accepted in bid to improve diversity’
Archive: https://archive.ph/t3Pia
16) New York Times: “At N.Y.U., Students Were Failing Organic Chemistry. Who Was to Blame? Maitland Jones Jr., a respected professor, defended his standards. But students started a petition, and the university dismissed him.”
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/nyu-organic-chemistry-petition.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/iDG0t
17) New York Times: “Texas Wesleyan Cancels Play After Students Say Use of Slur Is Harmful. The play’s author, who is Black, said he crafted its language to be historically accurate in representing civil rights struggles. But the theater program at the university heeded the call of students.”
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/us/texas-wesleyan-play-racism.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/uIz1L
18) University bans sonnets as ‘products of white western culture’
Original: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/14/university-bans-sonnets-products-white-western-culture/
Archive: https://archive.ph/RrXCi
19) The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center temporarily placed Professor Julie Overbaugh, an award winning HIV researcher, on administrative leave, after the school found out that she had once dressed up as Michael Jackson for Halloween.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Overbaugh
Archive: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julie_Overbaugh&oldid=1234427714
20) Canadian court declares math test for new teachers ‘unconstitutional’ because of racial disparities in passage rates
Original:
Archive:
21) The English Touring Opera fired 14 of its musicians because they were white.
Archive: https://archive.ph/Rl9Ub
22) Sunrise Park Middle School in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, cited “equitable grading” as the reason why “students no longer will be given an F grade – no matter how bad they did on an assignment or test or if it was turned in late or not at all.”
Archive: https://archive.ph/JkGij
23) The UCLA Anderson School of Management placed lecturer Gordon Klein on involuntary administrative leave because he refused to dumb down his curriculum for black students after the murder of George Floyd.
Archive: https://archive.ph/XCdng
24) Washington Post: “Students hated ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Their teachers tried to dump it. Four progressive teachers in Washington’s Mukilteo School District wanted to protect students from a book they saw as outdated and harmful.”
Archive: https://archive.ph/H6Z6A
A thought experiment: A student is admitted to four different colleges, with each of the four colleges having a different reason for admitting the student.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
September 9, 2024
A thought experiment: A student is admitted to four different colleges, with each of the four colleges having a different reason for admitting the student.
Question: Of these four colleges, which college would be the best match for the student?
College #1: The student is admitted based on merit.
College #2: The student is admitted because their family donated $100 million to the college.
College #3: The student is admitted because the football team wanted the student to play on their team.
College #4: The student is admitted based on affirmative action.
Two opposing views on affirmative action: Supporters of affirmative action focus on admission rates, whereas opponents of affirmative action focus on graduation rates.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
September 7, 2024
Here are two very different points of view on affirmative action.
This 7 minute video from MSNBC is called “MIT diversity data confirms ‘worst fears’ about end of affirmative action.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIyZL_I0ysQ
The MSNBC video includes this chart:
This article from the Atlantic is called: “The Painful Truth About Affirmative Action: Why racial preferences in college admissions hurt minority students — and shroud the education system in dishonesty.”
Now here’s my take on this issue.
The MSNBC piece only seems to care about how many students get admitted to elite colleges. It does not seem to be concerned about how many of them graduate vs. how many of them drop out.
By comparison, the Atlantic piece cares very much about their graduation rate. The article points out, with multiple real world example, that affirmative action sets students up for failure by “mismatching” them to the wrong college.
If a student’s academic abilities are in the 90th percentile, then she or he is best off going to a college where the other students are in the 90th percentile.
But if this very same student goes to a school where the other students’ academic abilities are in the 99th percentile, then he or she is being set up for failure and dropping out.
That’s the argument from the Atlantic, and it’s an argument that MSNBC and other supporters of affirmative action ignore time and time and time again.
If all we care about is admission rates for students, then affirmative action is a great idea.
But if we are concerned about graduation rates for students, then affirmative action is a horrible idea.
I’m going to finish this blog post with an except from the Atlantic article, and I’d like to point out that this is the exact kind of thing that the supporters of affirmative action never talk about:
A powerful example of these problems comes from UCLA, an elite school that used large racial preferences until the Proposition 209 ban took effect in 1998. The anticipated, devastating effects of the ban on preferences at UCLA and Berkeley on minorities were among the chief exhibits of those who attacked Prop 209 as a racist measure. Many predicted that over time blacks and Hispanics would virtually disappear from the UCLA campus.
And there was indeed a post-209 drop in minority enrollment as preferences were phased out. Although it was smaller and more short-lived than anticipated, it was still quite substantial: a 50 percent drop in black freshman enrollment and a 25 percent drop for Hispanics. These drops precipitated ongoing protests by students and continual hand-wringing by administrators, and when, in 2006, there was a particularly low yield of black freshmen, the campus was roiled with agitation, so much so that the university reinstituted covert, illegal racial preferences.
Throughout these crises, university administrators constantly fed agitation against the preference ban by emphasizing the drop in undergraduate minority admissions. Never did the university point out one overwhelming fact: The total number of black and Hispanic students receiving bachelor’s degrees were the same for the five classes after Prop 209 as for the five classes before.
How was this possible? First, the ban on preferences produced better-matched students at UCLA, students who were more likely to graduate. The black four-year graduation rate at UCLA doubled from the early 1990s to the years after Prop 209.
Second, strong black and Hispanic students accepted UCLA offers of admission at much higher rates after the preferences ban went into effect; their choices seem to suggest that they were eager to attend a school where the stigma of a preference could not be attached to them. This mitigated the drop in enrollment.
Third, many minority students who would have been admitted to UCLA with weak qualifications before Prop 209 were admitted to less elite schools instead; those who proved their academic mettle were able to transfer up to UCLA and graduate there.
Thus, Prop 209 changed the minority experience at UCLA from one of frequent failure to much more consistent success. The school granted as many bachelor degrees to minority students as it did before Prop 209 while admitting many fewer and thus dramatically reducing failure and drop-out rates. It was able, in other words, to greatly reduce mismatch.
The US Spends a Lot on Education – but We Don’t Know Enough About How It’s Spent
The US Spends a Lot on Education – but We Don’t Know Enough About How It’s Spent
By Mark Schneider
August 15, 2024
Except for tiny Luxembourg, the United States spends more money on education than every other OECD country and exceeds the OECD average by over 50 percent. This is not just true of absolute levels of expenditures: As a share of GDP, combining federal, state and local expenditures, the US also spends more on education than its peers. In 2021, the US spent about 5.6 percent of GDP on education, compared to the OECD average of 5 percent, 4.5 percent in Germany, 3.5 percent in Japan, and 5.2 percent in France. Over the past two decades, this continual increase in spending outpaced the growth in the student population, such that per-pupil expenditures on education grew from $16,600 in 2003 to close to $20,000 in 2022 (in constant 2022 dollars). But even as more money gets poured into our education system, student performance has not improved.
Student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) peaked years ago and have declined over the last decade. Our students have also not improved on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests 15-year-old students across the globe. In 2000, the first year of PISA, US students scored 504 in reading and 482 in math (PISA was designed to make the average score 500 points, with a 100-point standard deviation). In 2022, the most recent PISA test administration, the US scored 504 in reading—the same as 2000. And math? Just 465.
Even though the nation already spends more than its peers on education—and has not seen commensurately high performance on student achievement—in the last few years, the amount of money flowing into schools grew dramatically. Most notably, over three years during COVID, the federal government funded the newly created Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund to the tune of $190 billion. This was the largest-ever flood of federal money into public education.
In the few years since ESSER was passed, the data show that, in general, school districts spent money on the same items they did before the pandemic influx. But we are mostly flying blind, without enough information about where the money went and whether it bought any improvements.
In 2015, the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) mandated better information and increased transparency about school expenditures. Despite this long-standing legal mandate, the federal government—specifically, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)—has failed in its responsibility to gather and publicize the data needed to track school expenditures in a timely manner. In October 2023, NCES issued a report (not raw data, mind you, just a report) on revenues and expenditures for Fiscal Year 2021. The full data have been promised for some time but not released—and as of today, the most up-to-date school finance data are from 2017.
This hole has been largely filled by Marguerite Roza of Georgetown’s Edunomics Laboratory. But despite Roza’s excellent work, more detailed analysis needs to be done to unpack national trends and extract lessons that can help us understand how to reverse the stagnation evident nationally—and to make the large and ever-growing national investment in education more effective and efficient.
The combination of increasing expenditures, a continued lack of transparency, and a lack of timeliness on the part of the federal education statistical agency seems to meet Einstein’s definition that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Chicago teachers’ union claim that Black kids cannot pass standardized tests doesn’t go over well with mom
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chicago-teachers-union-claim-black-100034530.html
Chicago teachers’ union claim that Black kids cannot pass standardized tests doesn’t go over well with mom
By Hannah Grossman
August 12, 2024
The president of an American Federations of Teachers’ affiliate in Chicago was berated by a Black mom for claiming on a radio station that standardized tests are “junk science rooted in White supremacy” as well as “eugenics.”
Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, was asked by a Black radio station last week about public school students’ declining reading and math scores. Specifically, criticism that Gates was advocating to boost teachers’ contracts with money that would be better served addressing student achievement.
She responded that gauging student achievement through testing was the problem.
“The way in which, you know, we think about learning and think about achievement is really and truly based on testing, which at best is junk science rooted in White supremacy,” she said. “Now, if you have another hour, I can get into why standardized tests are born out of the eugenics movement. And the eugenics movement is always thought to see Black people as inferior to those that are non-Black.”
“You can’t test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority,” she said. “Some of this is about, releasing our people from a standard that is created for the failure.”
However, a Black mom in Chicago called the radio station to firmly disagree with Gates that Black children can’t pass the tests.
“We have a literacy gap and that no one is addressing. And I know that the [Chicago Teachers’ Union] really they are not curriculum experts,” she said. “And I really think these questions to be asked of [Chicago Public Schools], because they are the ones who should be providing the proper curriculum for our students.”
“I want to say – as a parent – [regarding] standardized testing, we’re not ready to move beyond that right now,” the mother added.
“Let me say this to you,” she continued. “I passed every standardized test, and I want my children to be able to do it even though I’m Black. That does not mean I cannot achieve on standardized tests. And our children need to be able to do so that they can be competitive. Our focus needs to be on the literacy gap that Black children have, this not being addressed.”
Fox News Digital contacted the Chicago Teachers’ Union for comment and did not immediately receive a response.
During the interview, Gates also stressed the importance of teaching critical race theory (CRT).
“This is why being able to teach CRT is important, because it helps us to examine how we come to our conclusions,” she said. “CRT is an important function and should be in our education system, which is why the Republicans… are aiming directly for those types of things.”
The head of the AFT, Randi Weingarten, has previously claimed CRT was not in K-12 education, blaming the “culture warriors.”
“Let’s be clear: critical race theory is not taught in elementary schools or high schools,” she said in a July 2021 conference. “It’s a method of examination taught in law school and college.”
Other teacher union leaders have made similar claims.
The National Education Association union’s president, Becky Pringle, sent a letter to social media companies, urging them to take action against “the alarming growth of a small but violent group of radicalized adults who falsely believe that graduate level courses about racism are being taught in K-12 public schools because of misinformation spread on social media.”
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik is refusing to release security video that shows “peaceful protesters” engaging in the unlawful imprisonment of janitors inside Hamilton Hall.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/columbia-university-custodians-union-plans-132451358.html
Columbia University custodians’ union plans to sue school over anti-Israel protests, slams ‘bratty’ occupiers
By Greg Norman
May 9, 2024
A union representing custodians at Columbia University says it is gearing up to sue the Ivy League school for its response to the anti-Israel protests, in which its members allegedly were targeted by “spoiled” and “bratty” agitators who temporarily took over a campus building.
TWU International President John Samuelsen told ‘Fox & Friends’ on Thursday that his rank and file is “particularly incensed at Columbia for not protecting the workers and particularly pissed at those particular protesters that tried to hold our workers in the building” during the occupation of Hamilton Hall early last week.
“Everybody in the building, the entire TWU workforce in the building was fearful and rightfully so. They stormed in… but two of the custodians had to fight their way out. They were explicitly told ‘you’re staying here, you’re not going anywhere, this cause is bigger than you,” Samuelsen said. “Imagine that… kind of smarmy, sort of entitled, spoiled, bratty occupiers of the building come in and tell these blue-collar men and women ‘you’re not going anywhere, you’re staying here because this cause is bigger than you’ when they had to get home to their families. It’s outrageous, it’s an affront to workers everywhere.”
“Columbia should have never put the custodians or the security officer in that position and that is at the heart of the matter,” Samuelsen also said. “Columbia showed an epic disregard and epically failed to protect the workforce.
Hamilton Hall eventually was cleared out by the NYPD last Tuesday, but the TWU said this week that it is “exploring legal action against the university and the Hamilton Hall occupiers.”
In a letter Samuelsen addressed to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, the union is demanding the names of the protesters arrested inside Hamilton Hall, security footage of the hostile takeover and a meeting with Shafik “regarding mitigation steps necessary to avoid future placement of members in harm’s way if the protests resume, and recompense to the TWU members who were subjected to this despicable conduct.”
“The TWU Security Officer, an African-American woman, managed to leave the building before the barricades went up,” he continued. “But she remains shaken by her encounter with the occupying protesters (aka privileged kids) who verbally attacked her in a very aggressive and extremely offensive manner.
“President Shafik, imagine for a moment being in the boots of the blue-collar Custodians and Security Officer. They came to work to earn a day’s pay so they could take care of their families and ended up being held against their will while being subjected to physical and verbal abuse,” Samuelsen also wrote. “Imagine yourself coming to work and being the victim of a serious crime because Columbia University didn’t care enough about you to engage in common sense protective measures.”
Columbia University did not immediately respond Thursday morning when asked by Fox News Digital to comment on the matter.
I agree with Joe Scarborough about the college protests.
Starts at 0:38
Stanford Jewish students on taking photo of man with Hamas headband on campus: ‘We were just in shock’
https://www.yahoo.com/news/stanford-jewish-students-taking-photo-090057498.html
Stanford Jewish students on taking photo of man with Hamas headband on campus: ‘We were just in shock’
By Louis Casiano and Julia Bonavita
May 3, 2024
A viral image of a man on the Stanford University campus wearing a headband that looks similar to the one worn by Hamas terrorist fighters was taken by two Jewish students concerned the school has not cracked down enough on antisemitic behavior.
The two friends, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, said they were walking near White Plaza, the center of the northern California campus where anti-Israel protesters have set up an encampment, on Friday when they spotted someone sitting down at a picnic table.
After moving closer to the unidentified person, they realized the headband he was wearing was the same type worn by members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
We were just in shock that somebody could be like that in the middle of our campus,” one of the students told Fox News Digital. “I only went up to take the photo because I was there with my friend.
“We thought about going up to him and saying something, but then we figured it wasn’t worth it and, if anything, it might just be dangerous.”
The image of the man sitting at the table wearing the green headband with Arabic writing and a face covering quickly made the rounds on social media, catching the attention of university administrators.
“We have received many expressions of concern about a photo circulating on social media of an individual on White Plaza who appeared to be wearing a green headband similar to those worn by members of Hamas,” the school said in a statement Wednesday. ”
We find this deeply disturbing, as Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States government. We have not been able to identify the individual but have forwarded the photo to the FBI.”
I applaud and admire Al Sharpton for being willing to so harshly criticize his own side of the political spectrum. “How do the Democrats, how do all of us on that side say January 6 was wrong if you can have the same pictures going on on college campuses.”
Al Sharpton just said:
“How do the Democrats, how do all of us on that side say January 6 was wrong if you can have the same pictures going on on college campuses.”
I applaud and admire Al Sharpton for being willing to so harshly criticize his own side of the political spectrum.
The Great Replacement is not just a conspiracy theory. It’s really happening. They took down the U.S. flag and replaced it with a Palestinian flag.
GoFundMe raises $400,000+ for UNC students who protected American flag during protests
By Harrison Grubb and Ashley Anderson
May 1, 2024
A GoFundMe established in recognition of UNC students who protected the campus’ American flag during Tuesday’s protest raised close to $300,000 in the first 12 hours.
As of 2 p.m. Thursday, the total has climbed to more than $427,000.
“When we went in, we said, we will not let the headline of this day be ‘An American flag falls at UNC,’” said freshman Jason Calderon, who was one of several students who held up the flag Tuesday.
Ongoing protests against the war in Gaza intensified on campus Tuesday. At one point, pro-Palestinian protesters replaced the American flag at the center of the quad with a Palestinian one.
After university administrators brought a new flag, protesters tried bringing that one down as well.
“My friends and I looked at each other and then said, ‘we should go over there,’” Calderon explained.
Calderon and several of his fellow students worked to prevent the flag from touching the ground, all the while he says he and others were pelted with objects by protesters.
“So many Americans in history have fought for the ideals of justice and freedom that that flag represents, and who are we if we don’t take some water balloons and take some yelling and chaos to reap the benefits of what they’ve sown for American society,” he said.
The GoFundMe was established Wednesday, hoping to benefit fraternities whose members protected the flag. Around 9,000 people donated in the first 12 hours, raising well over a quarter of a million dollars.
“So many people are seeing that UNC is a beacon of light,” said Calderon.
As the American flag was once again raised on the flag pole, the fraternities chanted “USA, USA, USA!” and sang the Star Spangled Banner as protesters chanted “down with fascists” and other chants which included expletives directed at UNC’s interim chancellor, Lee Roberts.
On campus, work is being done to make sure it won’t happen again. While the flagpole was surrounded by two layers of fencing after the protests Tuesday, the university has now put in a higher and more fortified boundary around the flag.
“It was really just inspirational for us to see everybody coming together and the chancellor coming in and saying, ‘as long as I’m chancellor that flag will stay up,’” Calderon said.
CBS 17 reached out to the fraternities named in the fundraiser but has not received a response yet.
This is from 2011, but it’s relevant to the current situation on U.S. college campuses. Which one of these stages is Columbia University currently at?
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2011/05/the_five_stages_of_islam.html
The Five Stages of Islam
By Richard Butrick
May 29, 2011
Stage 1. Establish a Beachhead
Population density à 2% (US, Australia, Canada).
Muslims are conciliatory, deferential but request harmless special treatment (foot bath facilities, removal/elimination of that which is offensive to delicate Muslim sensibilities – like walking dogs near Mosques).
Stage 2. Establish Outposts
Population density 2% – 5% (UK, Germany, Denmark).
At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. A recent example is that of Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal who is back in Jamaica after being kicked out of the UK.
Stage 3. Establish Sectional Control of Major Cities.
Population density 5% – 10% (France, Sweden, Netherlands).
First comes the demand for halal food in supermarkets, and the blocking of streets for prayers; then comes the demand for self rule (within their ghettos) under Sharia. When Muslims approach 10% of the population the demands turn to lawlessness. In Paris, we are already seeing car-burnings. Any criticism of Islam results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam. In France which may be over the 10% range, the minority Muslim populations live in ghettos, within which they are 100% Muslim, and within which they live by Sharia Law. The national police do not even enter these ghettos. There are no national courts, nor schools, nor non-Muslim religious facilities. In such situations, Muslims do not integrate into the community at large. The children attend madrassas. They learn only the Koran. To even associate with an infidel is a crime punishable with death.
Stage 4. Establish Regional Control.
Population density 20% – 50% (Europe 2020?).
After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.
Stage 5. Total Control, Brutal Suppression, and Dhimmitude.
Population density > 50%.
Unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and jizya, the tax placed on infidels. As Muslim population levels increase and all infidels cower in submission there will peace at last. Dar al-Islam is achieved and everyone lives under Sharia and the Koran is the only word.
Mary Osako, please explain why UCLA hasn’t fired the security guard who stood by, watched, and did nothing to intervene, as masked terrorists prevented a Jewish student named Eli Tsives from entering the university.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
May 1, 2024
This video from UCLA shows a security guard standing by, watching, and doing nothing to intervene, as masked terrorists prevented a Jewish student named Eli Tsives from entering the university.
https://twitter.com/persianjewess/status/1785021873555902744
After the video went viral, Mary Osako, the school’s Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications, issued the following statement:
“Yesterday some physical altercations occurred among demonstrators in Royce Quad. In response, we have taken several actions to significantly increase our security presence, including adding greater numbers of campus law enforcement, safety personnel and student affairs monitors.”
“There was also a report of a student’s access to class being blocked by demonstrators yesterday. This kind of disruption to our teaching and learning mission is abhorrent, plain and simple. As such, we’ve taken several, immediate actions: Our student conduct process has been initiated, and could lead to severe disciplinary action including expulsion or suspension. The barriers that demonstrators used to block this student’s access to class have been removed and we have staff located around Royce Quad to help ensure that they will not go up again. We have also engaged law enforcement to investigate.”
“While the demonstration remains largely peaceful, our campus must remain a place where we treat one another with respect and recognize our shared humanity — not a place where we devolve into violence and bullying.”
So Osako said that the school will be “adding greater numbers of campus law enforcement, safety personnel and student affairs monitors.”
So the school plans to hire additional security guards, so they, too, can stand by, watch, and do nothing to intervene, when this kind of thing happens.
So here’s my question for Mary Osako:
Mary Osako, please explain why UCLA hasn’t fired the security guard who stood by, watched, and did nothing to intervene, as masked terrorists prevented a Jewish student named Eli Tsives from entering the university.
UCLA security guard does nothing as masked terrorists prevent a Jewish student named Eli Tsives from entering the university.
https://twitter.com/persianjewess/status/1785021873555902744
UCLA protesters block Jewish student from attending class: They want ‘mass genocide of Jews’
Eli Tsives joins ‘Fox & Friends’ after recording interaction with anti-Israel protesters
By Bailee Hill
April 30, 2024
A Jewish student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who was barred from attending class by anti-Israel protesters, spoke out after the incident as he and others fear for their safety on college campuses nationwide.
UCLA student Eli Tsives documented the interaction with the protesters and explained why he fears the pro-Palestinian sentiment will likely escalate further.
“I take the same path to class every single day, and when I got there, it was blocked off by the students, not a security guard, but by these students,” Tsives said on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday.
“I showed them my I.D., and I said, ‘This is the way I enter to class. Please let me in.’ When they refused, I quickly understood what was happening.”
“I had in my phone to my fellow Jewish friend and he started filming so we could document exactly what was happening,” he continued.
“You guys have closed the entrance. We are UCLA students. I have my I.D. right here. I’m being blocked off. Not by the security guard, but by you two, you three,” Tsives told the protesters during the video his friend recorded.
“This is what they do. Everybody look at this. Look at this. I’m a UCLA student. I deserve to go here,” he continued. “We pay tuition. This is our school, and they’re not letting me walk in.”
Tsives said he likely could have pushed his way through the anti-Israel protesters, but ultimately decided against doing so to shed light on the hateful sentiment on campus.
“We are for peace, and we will never barge through because we know that we’re better than them in that sense,” Tsives said. “Could I have? Absolutely, but I would rather have documented that, so we can show the world exactly what is going on in universities in the United States.”
FOX 11 Los Angeles reported fights broke out between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinain protesters over the weekend after a barrier was breached meant to separate the opposing groups.
“They constantly advocate for the destruction of our beautiful country,” Tsives said. “They burn the American flag. They are super anti-America. They are anti-our government. They’re anti-democracy, and shame on them… Shame on UCLA and shame on actually all college administrations for allowing them to continue what they’re doing.”
“Because this is no longer about freedom of speech,” he continued. “This is now straight up about promoting aggression and hatred against Jewish people.”
“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Tsives if he thought the protesters were fully educated on the causes they were advocating for.
“I think that a lot of them do understand, and they still choose to say what they say,” Tsives responded. “We go to the number one public school in the world. These people are smart. They are educated. They know what they’re saying. They know what an intifada is.”
“They want an intifada. They want to see the mass genocide of Jews,” he continued.
Tsives admitted his parents are worried about his safety, and he is even concerned something could happen to him, since he is getting more attention for standing on behalf of his fellow Jewish students.
“I just think that this is the start of something that’s going to escalate very, very quickly,” he said. “Because my face is really getting out there, and I would not be surprised if somebody tried something in the next couple days.”
Tsives said someone wrote “shame on you” on a whiteboard where he lives, but despite the intimidation, he intends to continue the fight against antisemitism.
“People are starting to recognize my face. They know who I am. I see people looking at me in dirty ways, but also Jewish students walk up to me, and they thank me for what I’m doing,” Tsives said.
“So as long as I am constantly advocating for the Jewish people, I feel like we are getting somewhere. We’re doing good in this world.”
Here are two quotes from the New York Times which prove that DEI = “Didn’t Earn It.”
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1772731581209190422
Here are two quotes from the New York Times which prove that DEI = “Didn’t Earn It.”
The New York Times wrote, “The Board of Regents on Monday eliminated a requirement that aspiring teachers in New York State pass a literacy test to become certified after the test proved controversial because black and Hispanic candidates passed it at significantly lower rates than white candidates.”
The New York Times wrote: “A 2009 Princeton study showed Asian-Americans had to score 140 points higher on their SATs than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics and 450 points higher than blacks to have the same chance of admission to leading universities.”
If a person can’t do third grade math, they shouldn’t be admitted to college. Or high school, for that matter.
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1767670415436939386
https://apnews.com/article/college-math-test-help-6cca6a5e873d5aeb5e75b4f94125d48c
August 31, 2023
“This is a huge issue,” said Maria Emelianenko, chair of George Mason’s math department. “We’re talking about college-level pre-calculus and calculus classes, and students cannot even add one-half and one-third.”
For Jessica Babcock, a Temple University math professor, the magnitude of the problem hit home last year as she graded quizzes in her intermediate algebra class, the lowest option for STEM majors. The quiz, a softball at the start of the fall semester, asked students to subtract eight from negative six.
“I graded a whole bunch of papers in a row. No two papers had the same answer, and none of them were correct,” she said. “It was a striking moment of, like, wow — this is significant and deep.”
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 