Rod Thomson

The Trump Administration is methodically working its way through the reams of poor decisions, terrible policies and total failures haunting us from Obama’s eight years — from Syria, Iran, Russia and ISIS on the international front to crushing regulations, taxes and IRS/AG corruption on the domestic front. It’s a Herculean task.

The most likely next target on the list is the appalling Obama Department of Education policy on penalizing schools for having “disparate” rates of discipline, which has turned too many school districts across the country into increasingly violent zones because administrators cannot rid the schools of dangerous students. This policy may have played into why no law enforcement actions were ever taken against the Parkland shooter, even with all of the now known evidence.

The disparate impacts concept is a terrible philosophy and worse policy. It assumes that any racial disparity from what the averages would dictate is a result of racism, either by individuals or systemically. So if 40 percent of a school’s students are black, but blacks make up 60 percent of suspensions, that disparity is assumed to be the result of racism at the school. It discounts the possibility of action resulting in consequences and blames prison time on the arrest and not the crime for which the person was arrested.

As we wrote recently, this disparate impact concept works hand in glove with the Progessive Left’s constant stoking of racial tensions for political power and social justice agendas.

So the Obama administration, chock full of such progressives from the top down, issued a federal directive in 2014 from both the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice threatening schools that receive federal funding — which is most public schools — with loss of funding and federal investigation if they failed to reduce such disparities in their schools. The disparities range from discipline to suspension to arrests and criminal charges.

“The premise underlying this Obama policy was completely false,” said Heather MacDonald, an education expert at the Manhattan Institute. “It assumes without even trying to prove that there can be no behavioral disparities between black and white students.”

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Most public schools will jump through any hoops they must in order to not lose some money, and so most responded in the worst possible way, but possibly the only way, by simply not disciplining, suspending or maybe even arresting students they normally would have.

As the New York Post reports, more than 300 schools are now under investigation because of this policy, even while many are responding accordingly by allowing dangerous and disruptive students to remain in class in order to not lose some federal money.

New York City schools had such disparate impacts (as do virtually all city school districts in the nation) and responded accordingly.

Max Eden, another education policy expert at the Manhattan Institute, said surveys show schools with predominantly minority students have been hit hardest by the resulting breakdown in discipline, with violence and chaos mushrooming out of control in urban districts. Yes, because one of the few constancies with modern liberalism is that the people supposedly intended to be helped by progressive policies are hurt the most.

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The Post reports: “While NYC school suspensions are down, crime has spiked in the city’s public schools, including major crimes such as robbery and arson, new NYPD data show. The current academic year has seen the first school murder in more than 20 years — a stabbing at a Bronx high school — and the first time a gun was fired inside a (NYC) school in more than 15 years.”

New York Education Department data shows that rapes and other sex crimes are soaring at the city’s schools.

Democrats and civil-rights groups say that the policy regulations are a critical tool to protect black students from the systemic racism of teachers and administrators in public schools. Ironically, it only protects bad-behaving black students, while good behaving black and white students suffer the most.

None of this should come as a surprise. Disparate impacts is simply another way of stoking racial fervor — while also teaching young blacks that they are not responsible for their own actions — not actually solving any systemic racism. That is a lesson bound to redound terribly for those young blacks, and for other blacks in their communities.

However, it looks possible that the Parkland school shooter may have been the beneficiary of those policies. In 2013, the Broward County School Board entered into an agreement with local law-enforcement agencies designed to limit the number of school arrests and reduce the so-called “school-to-prison” path. The result was simply not arresting students who otherwise would have been. It explains why no actions were ever taken by the Democrat-run Broward County Sheriff’s Department or the Democrat-run Broward County School District. And that nexus has brought a bright and urgent light on the policy.

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U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has her department lawyers and staffers reviewing the policy and seeking to replace it with a much more narrowly defined policy that does not rely on disparate impact doctrine nonsense. Apparently, just eliminating it, however, could leave schools feeling politically pressured to continue the regulation. So writing a new, narrower, more sound policy is under consideration.

This would be an education reform that would directly help black students in city schools. Undoubtedly, most Americans support getting dangerous students out of schools.

Rod Thomson is an author, TV talking head and former journalist, and is Founder of The Revolutionary Act. Rod is co-host of Right Talk America With Julio and Rod on the Salem Radio Network.

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