02/18/2020
Adapted from the latest Radio Derb, available exclusively at VDARE.com
Here’s a quote from an online news and opinion outlet in Minnesota, MinnPost.com. This is from January 14th, quote:
Minnesota has a persistent problem with race. The Twin Cities is one of the most racially segregated metropolitan areas in the nation. The state’s racial financial wealth gap is the worst in the nation. The racial incarceration gap is among the worst. There is a persistent health care outcomes disparity that is among the worst in America. Among so many measures Minnesota ranks among the bottom when it comes to racial issues. The same is true with K-12 education.
What’s wrong with a constitutional amendment to improve education? by David Schultz, January 14, 2020
In the matter of education at least, Minnesota is on the case. What are they going to do about those pesky education achievement gaps? They're going to make them illegal — in fact, unconstitutional!
Yes folks: Two authority figures in the Gopher State, one a former state Supreme Court justice and the other president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, these two big playahs are pushing for an amendment to the state constitution to guarantee all children the fundamental right to a quality public education. Problem fixed!
The two proposers are pictured below:
Alan Page, a former Minnesota Supreme Court justice, and Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Fed, want to change the Minnesota Constitution with an amendment that would guarantee all children the fundamental right to a quality public education. https://t.co/7mlGA1eE5s
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) January 8, 2020
The proposal is called the Page Amendment, after one of the proposers. Here he is with some fans:
Families showing up strong for the #PageAmendment ! Thanks to @neelkashkari and @ACPage_77 for taking the time to thank the students and parents who were able to show up to today’s presentation! They’ll never forget this day — “the beginning of the end of the achievement gap” 💪🏾 pic.twitter.com/PwhL8E6Nuf
— Rebel With A Cause (@RashadsRepublic) February 17, 2020
If you've listened to Radio Derb much you'll know how much I enjoy reporting on these education stories, especially when they concern the race gap in test scores. Nowhere in our public life is the blind clueless stupidity of race denialism in plainer sight.
There is proverbially nobody nicer than Midwesterners; and taking the opposite of "nice" to be "naughty," there is nothing naughtier than race realism.
Well, the hell with that. Here’s some race realism. Those test score gaps are rooted in biology. That is why, after decades — decades — of educational theorizing and fiddling, untold trillions of dollars spent, they remain stubbornly on display.
And here are these two authority figures in Minnesota setting out to fix the problem at last — at last! — with a constitutional amendment. That bespeaks a quite breathtaking faith in the power of words. If you don’t like some aspect of reality, pass a law to say it ain’t so.
There are precedents. Mathematicians tell you it’s impossible to square the circle? Pass a law to say they are wrong. This was actually tried in Indiana in 1897, although the state Senate scotched the bill. The legislation would have made the mathematical constant pi equal to precisely three and one-fifth, rather than the 3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 … and change it actually is.
"If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out," says the good book. The folk who run Minnesota have improved on that: If reality offends you, pass a law. That'll fix it!
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