Rare Consensus On African Americans

Yesterday Jack O' Connell , California Superintendant Of Public Instruction declared, "The education of African-American students has reached a crisis stage. Scores of that group remained well below [for years] those of White, Asian-American and Latino."

Mr. O'Connell makes it unanimous. He is joined by white supremacists, bigots and black demagogues and everyone in between. They all agree on this sorry fact. It's actually a rare example of consensus in America. But the reasons for that fact differs widely when one asks a supremacist or one asks a black demagogue. The former blames genetics while the latter blames everthing else but genetics.

But the opinions of the reasons are really beside the point. The question should be what do we do about the fact. Facts can't be ignored. Or better put, facts can be ignored but only at great risk. I think that people who can't learn or wont learn should lose privileges. In this case students who chronically fall behind and stay there should be expelled from school . Serious and capable students should not be distracted by students who just take up space or worse in the classroom. The expelled students can then seek work or break the law. That's their choice. But at least the classroom will be safe from their negative pollution.