Public Education, Poverty, and Standardized Testing

Thirteen billion dollars and 45 days per year. Those are the two numbers I want you to remember at the end of this post.

Thirteen billion dollars and 45 days per year.

But first, I would like to brag a bit about our public schools. Do you have a child or grandchild in public school? Are you a teacher, or do you have a friend or family member who teaches? Do you pay taxes?

Great! Listen up. You should enjoy this: 

Every few years, students in over 60 countries participate in the Programme for International Student Assessment, also known as the PISA. This study, which began in 2000, compares the performance of students across various nations in the fields of math, science, and reading. When the results from this study are broken into quartiles by poverty, the United States routinely scores first in every subject.

That's right, number one! That's pretty darned good, don't you think? Let's give a round of applause for our hard-working educators. They do an amazing job with the resources they are given, and they deserve a great deal of respect and admiration for their service.

Why do I say they do a great job with the resources they have?

In 2011, the Texas Legislature cut $5.4 billion from the public education budget, and it did quite a number on our schools. Class sizes skyrocketed in every district, support staff was reduced, and many great programs were eliminated. Teachers found themselves paying more in insurance premium hikes than what they received from the highly publicized pay raises (even here in Plano), and larger class sizes mean significantly more homework to grade. Then there are, of course, the resources of the students.

POVERTY

Studies have proven that poverty accounts for a huge portion of any standardized test results. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which runs the PISA, determined that poverty explains at least 46% of the scores on their tests. Results from the SAT and ACT exams have shown a high correlation between scores and family income.

Closer to home, the STAAR test, administered yearly to Texas students, has also demonstrated the effects of poverty on education. In 2013, only "69 percent of economically disadvantaged students passed all subjects in all grades compared to the state average of 77 percent. Results in individual grades and subjects were the same: The economically disadvantaged student subgroup had a lower passing rate than the state average on every test."

White on White vs Black on Black Murder Rates

When White on White crime occurs, it’s seldom talked about the way Black on Black occurs, especially on the Fox News channel. In fact, White on White crime and murder is seldom talked, period.

But according to the FBI data, there are more White on White murders committed every year than Black on Black murders, with 84 percent of the white murders committed by whites.

Even so, most White people don’t kill anyone. Yet media pundits, like Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, regularly talk about “Black on Black violence,” despite the fact that most Black people don’t kill anyone, and commit few murders than White people.

			Race of Offender
Race of Victim	Total	White	Black or African American	Other	Unknown
White	3,005	2,509	409	49	38
Black or African American	2,491	189	2,245	20	37
Other race2	159	32	27	96	4
Unknown race	68	25	17	3	23
FBI Homicide Data for 2013

These statistics have not led to a media outcry about the problem of White on White crime or the unique pathology of the White community. Nor has the White community stood up to demand change in their community like the Black community does when trying to tackle instances of Black on Black crime.

Time magazine’s Joe Klein wrote an entire column last August in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo., that focus on the rate of violence and murder in the Black community - calling it a “social disaster.” But there was no mention that more whites are killed by other whites, which was typical of media outlets.

The term ‘black-on-black’ crime is a destructive, 'racialized' colloquialism that perpetuates an idea that blacks are somehow more prone to violence. This is untrue and fully verifiable by FBI, DOJ and census data. Yet the fallacy is so fixed that Black People are prone to violence that even African Americans have come to believe it.

Influential columnists like George Will never examine crime committed by whites, do not use the racialized phrase “white-on-white” crime and give the impression African American citizens ore more dangerous than White citizens and the lives of White citizens are more at risk from of African Americans. It this perception of the dangerous Black man that had at least some bearing on Darren Wilson, white Ferguson, Mo police officer shooting 18-year-old African American Michael Brown Jr., and George Zimmerman fatally shooting 17-year-old African American Trayvon Martin in Florida, Timothy Loehmann, a Cleveland, Ohio, police officer fatally shooting 12-year-old African American Tamir Rice who was holding a toy gun, and so many other fatal shootings.

It this perception of the dangerous Black man that for generations has prompted parents of black boys across the United States to have rehearsed, dreaded and postponed “The Conversation.” But when their boys become teenagers, parents must tell their sons the risk of what it means to be a black man in America. To keep him safe, they may have to tell the child they love that he risks being targeted by the police, simply because of the color of his skin. How should parents impart this information, while maintaining their child’s pride and sense of self? How does one teach a child to face dangerous racism and ask him to emerge unscathed?

Considering Bureau of Justice Statistics, homicidal rates from 1980 to 2008, they show that compared to Blacks, Whites were more likely to kill children, the elderly, family members, and their significant others. Whites commit more sex-related crimes, gang related crimes, and are more likely to kill at their places of employment.

Read more at The Root: It’s Time to Stop Blaming Black-on-Black Crime - The rhetoric around crime is factually wrong and allows some to ignore and pass the blame for systemic misdeeds.

More: A guide to debunking black on black crime and all of its rhetorical cousins

Climate Change Poses A National Security Danger

President Barack Obama delivered the keynote address at the United States Coast Guard Academy commencement last week in New London, Connecticut. In his commencement speech, Obama warned graduates climate change is one of the largest threats they will have to face as they defend the United States and our nation's interests abroad.

For the first time since record keeping began, carbon dioxide levels set a new record high water mark in surpassing 400 parts per million (ppm) at 40 monitoring sites around the globe, according to newly published data for March 2015.

CO₂ emissions, the main green house gas driver of global warming and have risen more than 120 ppm since pre-industrial times, warming the planet 1.6°F over that period. Since record-keeping began in 1880, average global temperatures have risen 1.4^o Fahrenheit.

The last time concentrations of Earth's main greenhouse gas level was at 400 PPM, during the Pliocene era, from 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago, the planet was about 3.6^o to 5.4^o Fahrenheit warmer. The Arctic was 14°F warmer allowing horses and camels to graze in lush savannas that grew at those ancient high latitudes. Mid-Pliocine sea levels were about 82 feet higher than today — levels that today would inundate major cities around the world — because Arctic and West Antarctic ice sheets did not exist to hold that from the ocean!

2014 was the 38th consecutive year with temperatures above the average for the entire 20th century. Fourteen of the past 15 years rank among the 15 warmest of the past 136 years – since record-keeping began. Moreover, nine out of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000, with 2014 being Earth’s warmest year on record.

A recent survey of peer reviewed articles on climate change showed that only 2 out of 10855 articles believe that humans aren't causing global warming. A mere two articles rejected anthropogenic global warming. For the next 25 to 30 years, climate scientists say we're in for a 1.8^o F warmer climate, there's no way out. That amount of change is inevitable, set by today’s atmospheric conditions.

If we make substantial effort starting now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, global temperature increase can be kept to 2^o C or 3.6^o F in the second half of this century. But if nothing is done to greenhouse gas emissions, the world will face 4^o C, or 7.2^o F, increase. (see: A Climate Changed Earth)