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<div class="caption">Poor academic performance is often blamed on
finances; however, the poorest performing schools have the highest per
pupil spending. (Photo: LumiNola/Getty Images) </div>
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<h2 class="commentary-title">Commentary By</h2>
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<a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/author/walter-e-williams/" class="portrait">
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<a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/author/walter-e-williams/" class="author-name">Walter E. Williams</a>
<a href="http://twitter.com/WE_Williams" class="twitter-name">@WE_Williams</a>
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<div class="bio-text"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><font size="3">Walter E. Williams is a columnist for The Daily Signal and a professor of economics at George Mason University.</font></span></span></span></div>
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<div><font size="5">Black politicians, civil rights leaders, and their white liberal
advocates have little or no interest in doing anything effective to deal
with what’s no less than an education crisis among black students. <br>
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<div><font size="5">In city after city with large black populations, such as Baltimore,
St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., less than 10% of
students test proficient in reading and math.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">For example, in 2016, in 13 Baltimore high schools, not a single
student tested proficient in math. In six other high schools, only 1%
tested proficient in math. Citywide, only 15% of Baltimore students
passed the state’s English test. Despite these academic deficiencies,
about 70% of the students graduate and are conferred a high school
diploma.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">Ballou High School is in Washington, D.C. Five percent of its
students test proficient in reading and 1% test proficient in math. In
2017, all 189 students in Ballou High School’s senior class applied to
college. All 189 members of the graduating class of 2017 were accepted
to universities.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">In November 2017, an investigation showed that half of Ballou’s 2017
graduates had more than three months of unexcused absences. One in five
of the graduating class was absent more than present, therefore missing
more than 90 days of school.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">Examples of academic underachievement can be seen at predominantly
black public schools across the nation, but that’s only part of the
story. The strangest part of this is that poor academic performance is
accepted and tolerated by black politicians, civil rights organizations,
and white liberals.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">Poor performance is often blamed on finances; however, the poorest
performing schools have the highest per pupil spending. New York;
Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore rank among the nation’s highest in per
pupil educational spending.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">The underachievement story is compounded by the gross dishonesty of
colleges that admit many of these students. I cannot imagine that
students who are not proficient in reading and math can do real college
work.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">In a futile attempt to make up for 12 years of rotten education,
colleges put these students in remedial courses. They also design
courses with little or no true academic content. Colleges have their own
agendas. They want the money that comes from admitting these students.
Also, they want to make their diversity and multiculturalism
administrators happy.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">Poor black education is not preordained. Thomas Sowell has examined
schools in New York City and student performance on the NY State English
Language Arts Test in 2016-17. Thirty percent of Brooklyn’s William
Floyd elementary school third graders scored well below proficient in
English and language arts, but at Success Academy charter school in the
same building, only one did. At William Floyd, 36% were below
proficient, with 24% being proficient and none testing above proficient.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">By contrast, at Success Academy, only 17% of third graders were below
proficient, with 70% being proficient and 11% being above proficient.
Among Success Academy’s fourth graders, 51% and 43%, respectively,
scored proficient and above proficient, while their William Floyd
counterparts scored 23% and 6%, respectively. Similar high performance
can be found in some other Manhattan charter schools such as KIPP
Infinity Middle School.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">Liberals tell us that racial integration is a necessary condition for
black academic excellence. Public charter schools such as those
mentioned above belie that vision. </font></div>
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<div><font size="5">Sowell points out that only 39% of students in all New York state
schools who were recently tested scored at the “proficient” level in
math, but 100% of the students at the Crown Heights Success Academy
tested proficient where blacks and Hispanics constitute 90% of the
student body.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">There’s little question that many charter schools provide superior
educational opportunities for black youngsters. The New York Times
wrote, “Over 100,000 students in hundreds of the city’s charter schools
are doing well on state tests, and tens of thousands of children are on
waiting lists for spots.”</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">But here’s New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s take on charter
schools, expressing the interests of the education establishment: “Get
away from high-stakes testing, get away from charter schools. No federal
funding for charter schools.”</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">Black people cannot afford to buy into any attack on education
alternatives. Charter schools across the nation offer a way out of the
educational abyss.</font></div>
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<div><font size="5">COPYRIGHT 2020 <a href="http://creators.com/">CREATORS.COM</a></font></div>
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