Since dropping its racial tiebreaker in the face of a lawsuit by parents, Seattle’s high schools have grown dramatically less integrated. And now that the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a sweeping, 5-4 decision ruling Seattle’s racial tiebreaker unconstitutional, school districts across the nation will swiftly re-segregate.
Indeed, but for some caveats in Justice Anthony Kennedy’s concurring opinion, the Roberts Court has all but overturned the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that led to desegregation throughout the South and the rest of the nation. Writing in dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer warns that this is a decision we will all regret.
Finally, what of the hope and promise of Brown? For much of this Nation’s history, the races remained divided. It was not long ago that people of different races drank from separate fountains, rode on separate buses, and studied in separate schools. In this Court’s finest hour, Brown v. Board of Education challenged this history and helped to change it. For Brown held out a promise. It was a promise embodied in three Amendments designed to make citizens of slaves. It was the promise of true racial equality.not as a matter of fine words on paper, but as a matter of everyday life in the Nation’s cities and schools. It was about the nature of a democracy that must work for all Americans. It sought one law, one Nation, one people, not simply as a matter of legal principle but in terms of how we actually live.
Not everyone welcomed this Court’s decision in Brown. Three years after that decision was handed down, the Governor of Arkansas ordered state militia to block the doors of a white schoolhouse so that black children could not enter. The President of the United States dispatched the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, and federal troops were needed to enforce a desegregation decree. See Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U. S. 1 (1958). Today, almost 50 years later, attitudes toward race in this Nation have changed dramatically. Many parents, white and black alike, want their children to attend schools with children of different races. Indeed, the very school districts that once spurned integration now strive for it. The long history of their efforts reveals the complexities and difficulties they have faced. And in light of those challenges, they have asked us not to take from their hands the instruments they have used to rid their schools of racial segregation, instruments that they believe are needed to overcome the problems of cities divided by race and poverty. The plurality would decline their modest request.
The plurality is wrong to do so. The last half-century has witnessed great strides toward racial equality, but we have not yet realized the promise of Brown. To invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown. The plurality’s position, I fear, would break that promise. This is a decision that the Court and the Nation will come to regret.
Seattle is gradually becoming a segregated school district. Those on the right who cheer this decision, and who cheer their success at establishing a rigidly ideological majority on the bench that has no use for the doctrine of stare decisis and no respect for the wisdom of those justices who came before them, will be held politically accountable for the consequences of their agenda. Unfortunately, politics will come four years too late to save our nation from the Roberts Court.
Republicans should beware. This is a court, that should it live up to its principles, will overturn Roe v. Wade. And that disaster would surely lead to the unraveling of the Republican Party, if not its permanent destruction.
Aren’t less than 50% of the SSD’s kids white?
Its about time, How much did this cost the Seattle Public School District?????
Isn’t the school enrollement shrinking? I make that presumption knowing of scool closures that Goldie has covered here.
Does this not mean that people are voting with their feet and leaving the Seattle School District?
Resegregating schools isn’t the only thing the Wingnut Court did today. They also weakened Fair Trade laws by giving manufacturers greater latitude to dictate minimum prices to retailers, abandoning a legal precedent that has protected consumers and small retailers since 1911.
First we prove Bush wasn’t elected. Then we revoke the ersatz president’s illegimate appointments, starting with the extremists he put on the Wingnut Court.
illegitimate
“States Handed Out Poisoned Toothpaste
“By WALT BOGDANICH,The New York Times
“(June 28) – After federal health officials discovered last month that tainted Chinese toothpaste had entered the United States, they warned that it would most likely be found in discount stores.
“In fact, the toothpaste has been distributed much more widely. Roughly 900,000 tubes containing a poison used in some antifreeze products have turned up in hospitals for the mentally ill, prisons, juvenile detention centers and even some hospitals serving the general population.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/2cjftt
Roger Rabbit Commentary: We need to stop importing China’s crap. We need to stop financing tax cuts for the rich by selling debt to China. We need to stop allowing U.S. companies to outsource American workers’ jobs to China.
The anti-American Bush administration has followed all 3 of these disastrous policies. We need a “3 strikes and your out” law for Republican politicians.
sp. corr.: you’re
Republican obstructionists in the Senate have blocked their own fake president’s fake immigration reform. Why won’t they allow an up-or-down vote? During debates over Bush’s fake court appointments, we continuously heard from the Screeching Monkeys “all we want is an up-or-down vote!” Well, now they have a chance for an up-or-down vote, and where is it? Republicans = hypocrites.
I’m not saying the fake president’s fake immigration reform was a good thing. All I’m saying is what you get from a do-nothing Republican Congress is no thing at all.
Bush Defies Subpoenas
“By TERENCE HUNT,AP
“WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, … rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors. Bush’s attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/33palc
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Memo to Democrats in Congress: Quit fiddling around and impeach him already.
The solution to that is President Pelosi appointing U.S. attorneys willing to prosecute Bush and Cheney for obstruction of justice.
Should students waste lots of time commuting to the other end of town on Metro (with all of the creepy pedophiles) just to meet some committee’s criteria? Commute, school, after school activities, commute, homework…… that makes for a long day for growing kids that need sleep.
Personally I don’t care. The Seattle public school system is sadly, a joke. People are not willing to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to funding education, and AFAIK the only schools even approaching a mediocum of decency in seattle are Garfield HS and Ballard HS…
Coe elementary nearly destroyed my ex’s child, because they wanted to medicate, rather than educate. They spent more money and effort on a new school building than they do on finding and fostering teachers who create a positive learning environment. My ex moved to port orchard for fear of Coe getting her child labeled as SBD. He was 7 years old when they mandated that he be put on ritalin. No private psychiatrist agreed.
so fuck you seattle, for not putting money into your childrens futures. I hope the whole system collapses on itself, so you goddamned tow-the-party-line democrat asshats will finally endorse a voucher system for private schools, because you can’t be bothered to vote yes on funding initiatives for public ones..
y’all make me sick.
Rabbit, #7: Sent this to the ass’s ass last week …
Last night I listened to red-headed stepchild Erin Hart on 710-KIRO. You thought that KIRO had given Hart a well-deserved boot to the head or boot to the ass? You thought you’d never again have to reach thru the radio to bitch slap the sniveling snarling groveling whining little bitch? Wrong.
She’s back, vamping as a bald stealth tranny. She’s posing as somebody or something called “David Goldstein,” but it’s fartin’ Hart for sure. I’d know that PMS screech anywhere.
Her third hour, though, was pretty good, something about our animal companions being poisoned by Red Chinese capitalism and conservatism. Also us.
Capitalists and conservatives want us and our designer poodles to die, probably so we can’t buy their stuff. They resist regulation so they can poison our kibbles and kill our teeth.
For the first time ever, Hart’s right. Until last week, the Lutheran Compass Center, a compassion station for Seattle’s poor, dispensed white death: AmerFresh toothpaste made in China, a paste for which the magic whitening brightening ingredient may be diethylene glycol antifreeze. That’s according to the usual unreliable sources: NPR, FDA, Erin Goldy Hart.
Wouldn’t it be useful if Hart or one of The Stranger’s month-of-heathens writers did something useful for a change? If maybe they pulled their little heads out of the communion cups or their horse’s asses to find out whether, indeed, AmerFresh is poison? To find out if Sanctuary City is subsidizing LCC and other do-good venues to poison Seattle citizens and “citizens”? To find out what hot-rod Greg Nickels will do to determine if Seattle’s deserving poor deserved to clean their teeth with Seattle-subsidized renal shutdown and liver failure?
(As for being killed by conservatism, I and many others were almost killed by Bill Clinton and Democrat liberalism when we ingested E-Coli 0157 with our well-regulated, made-by-American-socialist-hippies, organic cow-shit Odwalla. Mmmm mmm. Those were the days, Erin.)
Well I am very happy indeed. I don’t know why everyone is so afraid to say what it really happening. I do not want my kids to hang with a bunch of thugs and low lifes that do not want an education. If black kids really valued an education, then they would not be in the predicament they are in now…low grad rates, high crime rates, no father figures around. Why would I want my child to be around kids like that? I work hard and live in a respectable neighborhood, why would I want my kids to go miles away for the sake of “Diversity”? the test scores for the blacks do not go up, its been proven over and over again. Most parents like myself will just move my child into a private school and be done with it. The blacks in private schools don’t even care about education. So I for one am happy to hear this. I don’t care what people call me, racist, nativist, bigot, whatever, as long as my child gets the education he deserves and I can have peace of mind that my child is not around a bunch of thugs…..I am ALL FOR IT!!!!
Roger Rabbit Quiz
Hey kids! Here’s today’s guessing game! Comments 13, 14, and 15 were posted by:
[ ] 1. Flakey klake the nazi
[ ] 2. Rufus Doofus the blatherer
[ ] 3. Puddywhine
[ ] 4. Kevin Carns
[ ] 5. All of the above
7 Dunno if it’s shown up in the news here yet, but the latest revelation about lethally crappy Chinese products coming here is about large quantities of tires with a horrendously high incidence of tread separation. One can’t help but wonder if they pirated the design Firestone was using about ten years ago.
@18 Here’s how China makes tires. First they get a bunch of free tires by hauling them up from an artificial reef. Then they make treads out of silly putty in a knock-off of a spaghetti factory. Then they use library paste to glue the “treads” to the “tires.” Then they sell the “tires” to greedy U.S. importers for 10 cents each. Then the greedy U.S. companies sell them to consumers for $1 less than a real tire costs. Then the stupid rednecks who buy the “tires” think they’re getting a great deal. Then the treads come off when the stupid rednecks are passing a truck on a county highway at 100 mph and the rest of us end up with 1 less pickup congesting our roads, and 3 fewer Republican voters (the 2 rednecks in the pickup + their dog). Good deal all around.
For those of you operating under the illusion that Murka is now some kind of european socialist state, today’s SCOTUS decision ought to be a message to you.
You fucking racists have been told over and over and over to knock this shit off.
Do ya get it now?
I think 13, 14, 15, and 16 were all posted by the same troll.
@ 16
Well, it’s certainly obvious that our “wonderful” public education system failed you too, you cretinous bigot.
STFU
@20 Either pay your gambling debt or shut the fuck up! You’re trespassing. You’re a squatter. Either pay up or beat it!
@ 16
you live in bellevue don’t you?
Roger,
no…
think before you type. it helps.
I’m a little frustrated to see Goldy and the P-I view this as a racial issue. What’s happening now is more a matter of classism. The whole city is re-segregating itself strictly along the lines of being able to afford housing. Right now, the apartments in Delridge (for heaven’s sake) are going condo…so you now have the privelege of coughing up several hundred thou to live in an apartment where previously a steelworker paid a few hundred a month to house himself and his family.
If Seattle Public Schools continue to be so hopelessly mismanaged, the only reason anyone will be sending their kids there is that they’re dumping so much into their mortgage payments and their gas tanks that they can’t afford to put ’em in private school.
What a great day for Conservatives. Not only did SCOTUS tell you racists to knock it off, but Conservatives also were responsible for killing the amnesty bill.
Not only did we kill the bill, but we also have a list of names to target for cleansing. Goober Graham should start cleaning out his office. McCain has ZERO chance of getting the nomination.
And the GOP’s Jimmy Carter can now take it easy for the next 18 months. He’s done…
Schiz…RR is NOT Bellevue material. Not even close. He lives in a 50s vintage rambler at greenlake and parks on the street.
ArtFart,
you are 100% right on.
cheers
@ 28,
oh so he’s your neighbor then?
do me a favor, and slap him next time you two are grilling up some roadkill
We got a textbook example today of why it’s important to have Republicans in charge. As bad as GWB is, his picks for SCOTUS have been real good. Today’s decision to slap down you racists is a perfect example.
Goldy, what do you mean?
This is a court, that should it live up to its principles, will overturn Roe v. Wade. And that disaster would surely lead to the unraveling of the Republican Party, if not its permanent destruction.
Destruction of the party? Unraveling? This is what these people have been driving toward for since Nixon was booted from office! They want the roll back and removal of civil liberties, the entire repeal of the Roosevelt administration, the complete conversion of the US to an Aristocracy.
Overturning Roe V. Wade is going to be hailed as the greatest thing to happen in America since the signing of the Constitution, no matter what the people of this country actually think. The power of the majority is long gone. We stopped being a democracy when we let the Supreme Court choose the President. This country is run by a group of very, very wealth elites that are determined to hold onto power forever.
When the democrats won back congress I felt it was a hollow victory: one small battle won in a war that was lost in 2000. Now that the new-and-improved Supreme Court has started handing down these bullshit rulings, I’m sure of it. We’re done as a nation.
I think you’re deluding yourself, David. The Republicans are in charge and stronger than ever.
@17 Roger, I am not any of your choices. I have been voting for 22 years and have never voted for a republican. This is a student issue, so I try to look at it through a student’s eye. Pretend that you are 15 years old and live in Crown Hill. How do you feel about that bus commute to Rainier Beach? How about the bus commute from the Rainier Beach neighborhood to Nathan Hale? A younger friend of mine went to Garfield. According to her, the school as a whole was fully integrated but the classes and curriculum certainly weren’t. The students are treated like meat.
27 “McCain has ZERO chance of getting the nomination.”
Mark, here’s one point on which I agree with you, but probably for entirely different reasons.
Serioulsy! You people were told to stop using racial double standards and you didn’t! Now, THANK GOD, the Supreme Court has made you stop. Admit it, you…just like me…dont’ want your kids hanging around a bunch of thugs and criminals that don’t respect themselves or anyone around them. Don’t use my tax dollars for your guilt. If your parents parents didn’t own slaves….what do you have to feel bad about? I know plenty of people who didn’t need lower standards to get into college. Condi Rice, Dr. Bill Cosby and Stuart Scott to name a few. Pity partying blacks and whites just need to get over it and raise the bar for these kids.
Maybe public education will be forced to promote the same standards at all of the public schools .
Perhaps Charter Schools should be an option in the inner city .
Naw , the liberal approach to public education has been such a success, why do that .
Estes at 1,
I didn’t see any replies to your comment, but it brings up an intersting point. If there aren’t many white kids in the schools, are those schools integrated? Does having white kids in the school mean the schools are intergrated, assuming a totality of minorites is now the “majority” in the schools? If a school is 50% Black, 25% Asian, and 25% Hispanic, is it integrated, or are white students necessary to define the term?
In the current racial make-up of Seattle schools, if there aren’t any white kids going, the term “intergrated” means something entirely different from what it meant 50 years ago. Do we force Seattle’s white families to stop sending their kids to private schools in order to have “integration?”
@28 “Schiz…RR is NOT Bellevue material. Not even close. He lives in a 50s vintage rambler at greenlake and parks on the street.”
This shows how little you know. I live in a 50s vintage Atlas missile silo buried under Green Lake Park, and I use my powerful hind feet for transportation.
@32 What they don’t want is Roe v. Wade overturned, because then they lose the wedge issue that holds their party together.
Believe me — trust me on this — the top GOP pols and strategists do NOT want Roe overturned!!
And that’s why it ain’t gonna happen.
The loyal lackeys they put on the Wingnut Court understand what overturning Roe would do to the Republican Party.
@33 I don’t know about any of that stuff. When my kid was a young bunny I parked her in a private religious school. So, I have no experience with the Seattle school system.
“Resegregating schools isn’t the only thing the Wingnut Court did today”
Nice Try. Lib flamethrower.
You’re the lawyer, read the ruling.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19480518/
The Bush regime has just handed the Dems all the ammo they need to make sure in our White House, we don’t have to respond to Congress in the event it goes Publican.
Schizo @14,
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Seattle levies the maximum state low allows. (And then some… the Family & Education Levy really does skirt the intent of the law.) No district in the state raises more money per student than Seattle.
The problem is that the state won’t adequately fund education, so parents make up the difference via PTA fundraising. Thus the schools with affluent families get adequate funds, while the schools without affluent families don’t.
The recent decisions by the waaay faaaar right wing Bush court will drive people to the polls in droves to vote Dem.
so fuck you seattle, for not putting money into your childrens futures.
WOW WHAT A POSITIVE MESSAGE FROM THE FRIENDLY, LEVEL-HEADED RIGHT WING!
MY SON JUST GRADUATED FROM A GOOD ELEMENTARY IN NORTH SEATTLE. HIS FIFTH GRADE TEACHER SAID THAT WHEN HE STARTED TEACHING SEATTLE HAD 90 THOUSAND STUDENTS IN THE SYSTEM.
NOW THEY HAVE BARELY HALF THAT.
SEATTLE’S PROBLEMS ARE A FUNCTION OF DEMOGRAPHICS, BIRTH RATE AND CHANGING INCOME LEVELS. SEATTLE USED TO BE UNIFORMLY MIDDLE CLASS – NOW THE MIDDLE CLASS IS SHRINKING, AND STRESSED (SEE THE RIGHT WING NUTCASES). THE GAP BETWEEN RICH AND POOR IS MUCH WIDER.
ADD A DYSFUNCTIONAL TAX SYSTEM AND FUNDING FORMULA FOR EDUCATION AND THE PICTURE BECOMES A LITTLE CLEARER.
THE VOUCHER NON-SOLUTION WALKS AWAY TOTALLY FROM THESE PROBLEMS. IT’S A SOLUTION FOR THOSE FILLED WITH HATE AND RESENTMENT AND NARCISSISM.
re 17: Kevin Carns has the evil intent of a Karl Rove, but none of the intelligence and skill.
No politician who has hired Kevin Carns has ever been elected.
He’s a political butcher who fancies himself a skilled surgeon.
Let me give you a clue, Kevin. Rove does’nt actually believe in the ideology he promotes. He’s just a sociopath who makes money from it by manipulating the simple minded.
I put you in the Simple minded group.
Red Tyres: This scare, unlike the likely scares re kibbles and killer toothpaste, is probably exaggerated. NPR reports (so it’s gotta be true!) that the litagation launched against Chinese tires arose from one bad episode of tread separation. Separated tread wrapped around an axle and flipped a van or truck.
It’s not known yet if that flip was due to a material defect of the Chinese tire, or due to operator negligence … e.g. underinflation. There’s no evidence that the China tires many or most of us use — even if sidewall labels imply Made in America — are substandard or defective.
Then there’s Goldy on Roe: David’s characteristically wrong. Check Henneberger, NYT Op-Ed, earlier this week … “Today, in a similarly oblivious way, the leading Democratic presidential contenders are condemning the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold a ban on the procedure known as partial-birth abortion. An overwhelming majority of Americans, polls show, support a ban. … A Democratic senator I spoke with recently did not see the disconnect between public opinion and the party’s position on Carhart [the p-b birth decision] as ny reason to worry: ‘Make no mistake; this is a pro-choice country, period.’ But in a recent NYT/CBS News poll, 41 percent jof respondents favored stricter limits on abortion, with an additional 23 percent saying it should not be permitted at all.”
Carhart, of course, isn’t Roe. But Henneberger’s point is that Democrats own the extremist, destructive side of the abortion debate. By clinging to every ugly fringe aspect of the invented constitutional right to abortion, even those vicious aspects that Democrat Pat Moynihan called infanticide, ‘Crats are accomplishing the impossible: making Republicans look good.
Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic showed that Roe was a travesty, a bad decision badly decided to which Democrats Superglued themselves. My guess is that Rosen’s pro-abortion; but I know he’s pro-Constitution. He’s that rarest of endangered species, an honest Democrat who’s honest enough to admit that there are no constitutional emanations or penumbras of the “right” to privacy and infanticide.
And if Roe goes down, the GOP doesn’t go down (unless it completes its self-immolation over Iraq or almost everything else) because debate doesn’t go down. Abortion just goes back to the democratic process, where it was before Roe hijacked democracy. That means this: if the people of a state choose to limit the lethal exremes of abortion, judge-shopping anti-democracy extremists and fundamentalists like Goldy can hire a left-wing judge to reverse the people’s choices. That’s what Goldycrats do to democratically approved Eyman initiatives.
Goldy
“The problem is that the state won’t adequately fund education”
WTF??????
You Democrats have been running the show for how long? And you make the ridiculous claim that the state doesn’t fund education? Libs control the state, control King Co, and Control Seattle….
You clowns have had all the opportuntiy to “fund education” that you want….
The TRUTH is that Libs don’t want to fund education.
Actions speak louder than words…….
HERE’S THE SCHEDULE FOR A RIGHT WING VOUCHER SCHOOL:
8:00 PRAYER (CHRISTIAN ONLY)
8:05 RUSH LIMBAUGH
9:00 FAUX NEWS (FAUX AND FRIENDS)
10:00 PHYSICAL BREAK (MARCH TO WAR MONGERING MUSIC)
10:15 WINGNUT MATH (0 TAXES = INFINITE GOV. REVENUES)
11:00 READING (NAT. REVIEW, MURDOCH, SCAIFE FUNDED LIT.)
12:00 LUNCH BREAK
12:30 COMPUTER TRAINING (READING RIGHT WING BLOGS)
1:00 HISTORY (OF RIGHT WING BILLIONAIRES)
2:00 MILITARY THEORY (NEVER-ENDING WAR)
3:00 DISMISSAL
HOMEWORK: WATCH FAUX NEWS TILL YOU PASS OUT.
@ 46
Then maybe you can explain to me why seattle public schools suck big time, but central kitsap schools are pretty damned good…
admittedly I’m sure the state needs to rethink a whole lot of things regarding our public education system, and i’ll even go so far as to concede to you that maybe the state is ultimately at fault here.
However, with that said, I still believe my bottom line is valid. We need an alternative to a public school system that is (for whatever reason) a hopeless failure that is destroying the chances of our children to get a decent education. We need vouchers for private schools, or barring that, we need SOME *reasonable* alternative! I’m sick of you fucking democrats being so adverse to that solution – and for such backward reasons – which seem to be politics rather than principal, but still our kids suffer for it. Pull your damn heads out your collective arses and think about what’s best for your kids, not your party.
And the GOP’s Jimmy Carter can now take it easy for the next 18 months. He’s done…
MTR! HOW COULD YOU? YOU VOTED TWICE FOR THE GUY.
BRING IN NEWTIE THE HOOT. THE GUY WHO’S ALWAYS LOOKING FOR HIS NEXT WIFE. HE’LL BE THE SAVIOUR OF YOUR PARTY FOR SURE.
JUST PAY YOUR FUCKING GAMBLING DEBT AND GTFO OF HERE.
50 – IF THE WINGNUTS ARE TAKING THE TROUBLE TO PICK APART GOLDY’S POSTS WITH WARMED OVER RIGHT WING BULLSHIT THEN..
GOLDY MUST DOING SOMETHING RIGHT!
52 Where’s the Scien-er, Intelligent Design class?
@ 48
If you’ve ever read any of my posts, you’d know I’m not a reich winger. It just so happens that I don’t agree with most dems on this issue. It’s one of the few.
apparently you don’t pay attention.
@ 51
You Democrats have been running the show for how long? And you make the ridiculous claim that the state doesn’t fund education? Libs control the state, control King Co, and Control Seattle….
You clowns have had all the opportuntiy to “fund education” that you want….
The TRUTH is that Libs don’t want to fund education.
wow…
that may be the first time I’ve ever heard right stuff hand anyone their ass over here…
oh and @ 53 principal should read principle…
bleh
we need SOME *reasonable* alternative!
THE ONLY REASONABLE ALTERNATIVE IS TO BREAK THE LOGJAM ON COMPREHENSIVE TAX REFORM IN THIS STATE.
VOUCHERS ARE NOT REASONABLE. THEY ARE RADICAL. HANDING OUT CHECKS WILL NOT GUARANTEE THAT KIDS WILL BE ADEQUATELY PREPARED TO PARTICIPATE IN SOCIETY.
THIS IS A GROWING STATE WITH A GROWING POPULATION AND THE TAX SYSTEM ACTUALLY PREVENTS ADEQUATE FUNDING OF THE SCHOOLS.
WE NEED A PROGRESSIVE INCOME TAX IN EXCHANGE FOR LOWER SALES AND PROPERTY TAXES. WE NEED TO ELIMINATE REGRESSIVITY FROM THE TAX CODE.
AND ANOTHER THING.
WHY DO PEOPLE PRAISE BELLEVUE AND CENTRAL KITSAP? THEY’RE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AREN’T THEY?
HOW’S VOUCHERS GOING TO HELP THEM?
I haven’t heard (or read) much discussion of this case on an I-200 basis. Whether one likes it or not, I-200 passed.
The TRUTH is that Libs don’t want to fund education.
THE “LIBS” IN BELLEVUE AND CENTRAL KITSAP ARE DOING JUST FINE.
OH THEY’RE NOT LIBS?
MY KIDS IN NORTH SEATTLE ARE DOING JUST FINE. THE DIFFERENCE? PTA FUND-RAISING.
IT SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY. OLYMPIA STANDS IN THE WAY.
I’M HOPING CHRIS GREGOIRE WITH A SUPER-MAJORITY CHANGES THINGS UPON HER RE-ELECTION. IF SHE DOESN’T THEN SOME SERIOUS CHANGES ARE IN ORDER.
YOS LIB BRO,
Your cap lock is stuck in the “ON” position.
I praise central kitsap because it has good schools.
See YLB, I’m into truth, not ideology. I don’t have a problem with public schools, just bad schools – (BTW, I know jack about bellevue schools, I would never subject my family to living in that cesspool).
Unfortunately, seattle’s public school system (with a few possible exceptions) seems incapable of getting it’s act together. I don’t care about the reasons. I care about the bottom line.
BTW YOS LIB,
1/4 of an inch is all you’d have to move your pinky in order to stop looking like an ingrate.
Caps lock sucks. Turn it off..
stop looking like an ingrate.
TOWARDS WHAT DO I HAVE TO SHOW GRATITUDE? NOT YOU I HOPE.
IT’S MY STYLE. DEAL WITH IT.
It’s not style YOS…
it’s preteen h4x0r cliche… been around since apple ][‘s , it’s not original. It’s just stupid and obnoxious, and lowers people’s perception of you. kind of like not showering for weeks would. I was telling you that for your own good, but apparently you are too thick headed to take the advice.. you’re not one three three seven, and all caps is not style. Just like yelling all the time isn’t style.
Oh and,
All your base are belong to us…spod
Can any of you “experts” on public schools back up you claims of district performance by citing stats on independent assessments?
Every validated statistical study and comparative assessment I’ve seen shows SSD performing above average in Washington State. And the only statistically validated study comparing public and private schools I’m aware of shows no meaningful difference in achievement (although private schools spend about 50% more on average per pupil).
@ 69,
I can only back it up with painful experience. But, studies don’t mean jack in the face of that…
besides… there are lies, damned lies, and … you know the rest, I hope.
yelling all the time
I’M NOT YELLING. I’M WRITING THIS VERY CALMLY ACTUALLY.
WHAT WAS THAT YOU WERE SAYING ABOUT WHAT’S GOOD FOR ME?
sigh…
you’re a noob… caps=yelling…
70.
To that I can only respond that it makes about as much sense as assessing all Republican lawmakers on the basis of Duke Cunningham.
Works for me.
caps=yelling…
IN YOUR MIND MAYBE. WELL, SORRY, I’M NOT GOING TO CHANGE, AT LEAST NOT NOW.
YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO POUND YOUR HEAD AGAINST YOUR DESK OR LEARN TO IGNORE ME.
EITHER WAY I’M GOOD WITH IT.
two schools (although one of them had promise, but was closed by seattle), two unfounded CPS complaints filed by Coe over the behavior of a 7 year old – which lead nowhere mind you – and numerous complaints from fellow parents and staffers at the boys and girls club…
I guess all that means jack in the face of your holy statistics…
you’re a friggin moron.
@75 no actually, it’s not just me… it’s an opinion of pretty much everyone who can use the internet whilst typing with both hands and not drooling on the keyboard (apologies to mac users). I won’t ignore you though.. I know it’s politcally incorrect but I can’t help but laugh at retards.
I won’t ignore you
I’LL JUST IGNORE YOU THEN AND CALL IT EVEN.
HAVE A NICE LIFE!
HI I’M A FUCKING RETARD THAT CAN’T USE THE SHIFT KEY BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY WHACKING IT TO PICTURES OF ANNE COULTER WHICH IS WHY I TYPE IN ALL CAPS
HI I’M A FUCKING RETARD THAT CAN’T USE THE SHIFT KEY BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY WHACKING IT TO PICTURES OF ANNE COULTER WHICH IS WHY I TYPE IN ALL CAPS
“you’re a friggin moron”
This from the guy who’s been holding forth on civility.
Mmmmkay.
But you’ll have to forgive me if I prefer to rely on the validated statistics and independent assessments rather than the rantings of an angry disturbed person casting about for someone to blame.
you go ahead…
cite all the statistics you want. You could dredge up reams of statistics and I’d still never subject another child of mine to seattle public schools.
And I seriously doubt that your statistics would paint a better picture of SPD than it would of central kitsap.
as far as civility, people that constantly yell do not deserve civility.
oops, old browser instance.. that last post was mine.
I happen to remember the Rand group citing statistics for years that painted marijuana as a gateway drug, only to racant (I believe in Dec 2000 if memory serves) saying that their twenty plus years of statistics were based on a flawed premise.
statistics are for the gullible.
and for the record, I haven’t smoked pot in years.
Yup. All Caps = Yelling, and it does make people think less of you.
Perhaps that’s the style you’re going for.
82.
Well,
unless I miss my bet, that was one of the violations that Goldy was pondering would earn you banning from the site.
And again, I would simply point out to you that you are confusing someone else, or something else, with me.
Have I been “yelling”?
And yet you respond to my post with name calling.
You’re obviously very upset. And I’m sure you have much to be upset about. You’ll have to deal with that yourself. And in the mean time I’ll decline relying on your personal interpretations of your anecdotal experiences with SSD.
I’ll try to look up some info for you on where Central Kitsap ranks compared to SSD.
http://www.mediatransparency.o.....ientID=106
“When is a think tank not a think tank? In the case of the Olympia, Washington based Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), it’s when a group that purports to be public interest policy organization turns out to be a private interest law firm for a few contributors.”
This thread needs more rabbit and less internecine squabbling.
Nothing brings out the right wing trolls like a good chance to prove they are racists.
Gee with a 33% increase in budget, one would think that the current guvnor and her court could easily fund Seattle Schools…
That is, if they weren’t so busy spending it on all their other social hand outs….
As far as yelling, I was refering to YOS, who I was ripping on previously.
If goldy wants to ban me that’s fine…
And yeah, the experiences that alan had to face in SPD through kindergarten and first grade shouldn’t have to be faced by anyone. The fact that they try to push drugs on someone so young even after their diagnoses of ADHD was refuted by two private practice psychiatrists in writing is shameful and infuriating. And the fact that his mother had to move to an entirely different district in order to avoid their ultimatum of drugs or special-ed was downright disgusting. There is no oversight, no competence and no love for the children, in the very least, I can speak to the practices of Coe elementary, but after talking with several angry parents, the problem seems to be more widespread.
So yeah. I’m angry. When an institution attempts to victimize a seven year old child and do irreparable damage to his education over a couple of relatively minor discipline issues at the beginning of the school year it should be a warning sign to any parent.
No, alan is not mine, but I did help raise him from 3 to 10, and when I do decide to have children of my own I will spare them a repeat experience. They won’t be attending public school in seattle.
I think that if you look at the enrollment statistics, the schools reflect the makeup of their neighborhoods. What’s wrong with that?
The real problem is that the school district doesn’t spend their money equally – or so it seems. Fix THAT problem, don’t bus kids out of their neighborhood. Bussing contributes to global warming and a lack of community.
schizophonic @ several:
I seem to have to repeat this every time an education thread comes up, but:
test scores follow demographics.
What this means in plain English is you get out of the schools what the parents put in. Not much more or less. There are a lot of complicated socioeconomic variables here (how much does a given family value education, do parents ride their kids and check their homework, are there books in the house, is there a stable home environment where kids have a quiet place to study, etc.). As much as it offends my egalitarian sensibilities, money buys those things. Parents with professional jobs usually have them because they are educated, and know that education is the door for their children to get the same or better. Parents with a dime in their jeans have a quiet room with a desk for study. Parents who aren’t diving for quarters at the end of the month aren’t working two parents and two shifts so the rent gets paid. One can often stay at home so that the first thing the child hears when she walks in the door is “How was your day?” and the second is “Let’s see your homework!”.
These “soft” factors are not tracked that well. You can go to the National Data Explorer, go to Advanced View, and mess around there.
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde/
(kids with lots of books at home who don’t spend a lot of time in front of the TV get high achievement scores! Really? Imagine that!)
What we track for every public school in the United States is how many of the kids get free or reduced lunches. Tell me what that number is, and I can guess the WASL score for that school to within 5%.
Bellevue has “good” schools. Mostly, they have good kids from good families. Go to the one part of Bellevue that has rank poverty, and surprise, all that good centerist/conservative management can’t do a thing for the poor dears:
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa......vel=School
Central Kitsap has an affluent population. Again, introduce poor children and the schools “fail”
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa......vel=School
Seattle schools are a failure. Except when you have well-fed kids:
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa......vel=School
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa......vel=School
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa......vel=School
I had to dig through Bellevue and Central Kitsap’s records to find one school in each district with high levels of poverty. I don’t have to dig in Seattle. We have TONS of those schools. 1 out of 3 schools in the district have more than half of the school population taking free or reduced lunches. Schools with a demographic range that looks like Central Kitsap or Bellevue and you wind up with two things:
a) Only 1 out of 4 of the schools in the city.
b) Test scores that look like Central Kitsap or Bellevue.
Now, as much as I beat on numbers in these threads (I’m sorry. I’m a quantization freak. That is literally what I do most of the day), I don’t pay much attention to this when I send my own kids to school.
I do things, like, you know, talk to the teachers and ask them about how they organize their day. I compare notes with other parents. I see what the curriculum is in the school. Do they have a plan, or are they flying by the seat of their pants?
I’ve been delighted with my experience with the Seattle schools so far. If I find a reason to bitch, you’ll read it here.
My (very long) comment is being held by the filter, so in the mean time:
MLK sez:
The real problem is that the school district doesn’t spend their money equally – or so it seems.
Nope. SSD sends the same sized bowl of gruel to North, South, East, and West. The differences are:
1) To make a big generalization, North end schools have great PTAs. South end ones don’t. The school my daughter is in now gets around $400/parent/year in additional dough from the parents pockets. The one she went to kindergarten at gets about $20/parent/year. Life sucks that way.
2) Schools with good kids generally don’t need much in the way of additional services. Schools with kids that are struggling need outside tutoring, reading programs, etc. etc. SSD sends the same bowl of gruel to everyone, which brings us back to point #1.
The Court’s motives may be flawed, but I’m glad the Seattle School District lost: at this late date, we shouldn’t be setting an example of racial discrimination in school assignments to fix the continuing, partly voluntary, partly economic self-segregation that goes into choosing a neighborhood.
And there are much easier, non-racialist ways to fix that. Why not simply give the highest preference to kids who want to attend a school the furthest distance away from their home?
That way, if some kids are stuck in a neighborhood with bad schools, they can trump the neighborhood kids where the schools are good.
That might even go a long way toward eliminating the relative quality of the school from decisions about what neighborhood to live in – and thus help reduce the amount of voluntary self-segregation that does go on.
Hey Fucklstein… I counted well over 30 OFF-TOPIC posts by your little pussy girls… most by your best cunt the rabbit… so FUCK YOU
Let\’s hear you cry some more about that nasty push polling… oh wait… it\’s mastered by one of your bitches
http://www.politico.com/news/s...../4696.html
SCHIZOPHONIC @ 95
EXPOSED! YOU ARE TYPICALNAZI THE ELIMINATIONIST PUNK!
THE POLITICO IS A RIGHT WING PUBLICATION MORON.
WHERE’D YOU FIND OUT ABOUT THAT? THE SLUDGE REPORT?
Goldy said:
“Seattle is gradually becoming a segregated school district”
Are you sure that “segregate” is the word you meant to use?
From dictionary.com:
seg·re·gate
1. to separate or set apart from others or from the main body or group; isolate: to segregate exceptional children; to segregate hardened criminals.
2. to require, often with force, the separation of (a specific racial, religious, or other group) from the general body of society.
++
Who is actively “segregating” students today in SSD?
reason_plz @ 98:
Well, since you’re a whiz with a dictionary, what do you call racial separation if it’s not being done by “the man”?
The days of redlining are over, but the fact is that Seattle North of Dearborn and West of 12th becomes overwhelmingly white, while the sector outside of that is a horse of another color.
One parent in my neighborhood (a dear friend who I like) sent her kid to private school in no small part because she did not want her blond-haired blue-eyed daughter to be a “zoo curiosity” in the overwhelmingly Asian Beacon Hill public schools.
IMO, racial separation *is* segregation – regardless of who is doing it.
If I understand you correctly, what you’re saying is that government is not doing any racial separation, but somebody is. Right?
Who is segretating the school district? Or more importantly, what is Goldy trying to say? Because IMO, segregation, based on the definition, is not happening in Seattle.
But I don’t have kids so I am not aware of the details – which is why I’m asking…
It’s nice to see nothing changes, Roger is Gobbles replacement.
reason_plz:
I’m not a big conspiracy theory fan. I don’t think anybody is forcefully separating anybody.
However, take advantage of the summer weather to visit two beaches in Seattle this weekend.
Go up to Magnuson Park and take a good look at who is frolicking on the beach. Nice, clean-cut Caucasian folks. Nothing wrong with that.
Now, go down to Mount Baker Beach, and do the same exercise. Huh? What happened? Where did all the white folks go? And where did all these blacks and Asians come from?
Things are changing. If nothing else, the dizzying price of real estate in the North end of the city is sending a lot of young couples down South simply because that’s where we can buy a house, a yard, a garage and all that without squeezing our bank accounts dry or commuting 40 minutes a day from Auburn.
But the fact that there isn’t an active hand causing racial separation does not mean that racial separation is not happening or does not exist.
Thanks for your perspective, JSA.
Maybe the city should use race as a tie-breaker when people decide to move into a neighborhood… ;-)
reason_plz,
I think that practice was outlawed some years back.
I wrote a pretty long message full of links and stuff which will be released from the filter one of these days. Or not.
The Cliff’s notes version is like this:
1) Economics affects academic performance, as reflected in test scores. This is not to say that affluent kids can’t be academic slackers (they are. They were my classmates back at dear old Newport High), or that poor kids can’t excel academically. But for large sample sizes, that’s how it works out. I have a hypothesis on this, but it’s too small for the margins of this message.
2) The tests are done on individual kids, but the scores are posted for schools. This creates all sorts of problems.
3) In neighborhoods where you have a lot of economic diversity, say, Mount Baker (affluent)/Rainier Valley (not so much) a lot of the richer parents put their kids in private school in part because the test scores/racial makeup of the schools scares them half to death. The end result of this is that the schools are more racially/economically unbalanced and the collective test scores are worse than they would be if all these parents sent their kids to their neighborhood school.
My position on most affirmative action programs is that they are a “least worst” solution. I think obsessing over race or even class is a little counterproductive, and it would be a lot better if we could leave this to people’s better nature. However, the results when things are left to human nature are bad enough that a little intervention seems to be helpful.
So, are any of you wingnuts going to explain whatever happened to your distaste for “activist” courts?
Or is one of you going to come up with some contorted definition for “activist” in this context that, somehow, leaves this decision outside the purview of the word’s meaning?
You can thank the EFF FOR THIS RETROGRADE DECISION.
Dingleberry Moonbat!s Schizophonic is ONE OF YOURS!
He used to post as (D. John)
You all have NO MEMORIES!
Cluelessman@48 said: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE. SEATTLE IS NO LONGER MIDDLE CLASS BECAUSE THE RICH MOONBATS WHO CONTINUALLY VOTE FOR JIM MCDIMWITT ARE FORCING THEM OUT.
CLUELESSMAN IS AN IDIOT, AND i’M JUST RESTATING THE OBVIOUS. WE ON THE RIGHT DON’T CONTROL SEATTLE OR HOW THESE CONDO CONVERSION CONTRACTS ARE GIVEN OUT. IT’S MOONBAT!S DOING IT TO MOONBAT!S.
Scizophonic@57: Say after me:
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
Yos Lib Bro AKA Cluelessman is an IDIOT!
There you go!
#68: Not only is he thick headed, a legend in his own mind, a dull knife, he’s also clueless!
Since Schizophonic is posting a reasonable position the RABID DOG Progressive NEW Moonbat! Party Libtards go apoplectic over his posts.
I love it when Moonbat!s eat each other. So wonderful and funny too!
Just a note. The Supremes decision is up on their website. Grab it here:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/.....05-908.pdf
It’s a good thing I’ve had dinner. If I was eating and reading, I’d have to send an invoice to Justice Roberts for a new keyboard.
The crux of the primary argument (page 3) reads like this:
Racial integration can be used as a compelling interest for a program like this. However, it can’t in Seattle’s case because the courts never found Seattle to be segregated.
Excuse me?
Seattle voluntarily started busing kids in the early 70s precisely because they figured that if they didn’t do so, sooner or later, they would be sued, go through expensive litigation, and forced to bus, as many other municipalities already had. They were trying to save the taxpayers a buck or two and stay ahead of the curve.
In essence, Roberts is saying Since the court has never said you are segregated, you are not segregated, and therefore, you can’t use race.
I’ll try that on here, especially since Pud is reading now.
Since I have never said Pud is Black, he is not Black, and he can no longer use arguments based on his alleged Blackness to write on this board.
That’s Robert’s argument in a nutshell. I don’t care which side of the fence you sit on. I don’t care how you feel about affirmative action, race, or any of this. Read it in black and white. It is not the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen an educated person put to paper, but it’s climbing the charts fast.
I’ll read the rest of the argument and see if it turns into better reading. I’m not optimistic based on the first few pages.
PUDDYSTUPID: YOU’RE PLAYING THE MORON TO A TEE.
SCHIZOPHONIC, POSTER CHILD, FUH QUE ARE THE SAME GUY – TYPICALNAZI.
AT ONE TIME A FEW PEOPLE THOUGHT TYPICALNAZI WAS YOU!
IT WOULDN’T SURPRISE ME IF THAT WAS TRUE.
WHAT HAPPENED AT 107 – YOU WENT OFF YOUR MEDS OR SOMETHING? NOT ONCE HAVE I BLAMED SSD’S PROBLEMS ON THE RIGHT WING. IN THE EARLY 1970’S SSD CLOSED TWENTY SCHOOLS IN THE NORTH END. THE BABY BOOM CRASHED. BOEING WENT BUST. SHIT HAPPENS.
SO ARE VOUCHERS THE SOLUTION? I DON’T THINK SO.
I’M NOT RICH. I LIVE IN SEATTLE AND I VOTE FOR MCDERMOTT EVERY TIME. KNOW WHY?
HE PISSES LOSERS LIKE YOU OFF. YOU GUYS START FROTHING AT THE MOUTH AND LOSING IT AT THE MENTION OF HIS NAME.
IN MY BOOK HE’S DOING SOMETHING RIGHT. AS LONG AS HE’S DOING RIGHT I’M GOING TO KEEP SENDING HIM TO DC.
AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT, YOU IMPOTENT FOOL.
The intent of the Brown VS Board of Education was not to desegregate schools, it was to obtain the same level of funding for the poor schools, usually mostly blacks. Go back and read the interviews that Thurgood Marshall gave after his successful arguments in the US Supreme Court case.
Bussing simply became the tool used to implement it.
Goldy spews horseshit and Juan Williams (NPR and other left-wing groups)posts this opinion in the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06.....ref=slogin
“…the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that focused on outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional is now out of step with American political and social realities.
Government should stop institutional racism once and for all. What kind of Orwellian nightmare do we live in where it is illegal for private citizens to discriminate (and rightly so) but at the same time elevate government bureaucrats to the position of being official discriminators?
Chief Justice John Roberts, “…the way to stop racial discrimination is to stop discriminating.”
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, “At the heart of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection lies the simple command that government must treat citizens as individuals, not as components of a racial class.”