RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2024/11/28/universities-have-a-2025-rendezvous-with-reality/

Universities have suffered a cataclysmic decline in public approval and support.

A Gallup poll taken this year found that only 36 percent of Americans polled either expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education—once the agreed-on touchstone to upward mobility.

Gifting to most universities has been down for two consecutive years.

There is zero intellectual diversity on most university campuses.

Speakers with conservative viewpoints are often either disinvited or shouted down—and worse.

The federally guaranteed student loan program is in shambles. Some $1.7 trillion in outstanding loans were taken out by half of all college students.

Nearly a fifth are now not being paid back.

Marriage, child-rearing, and home ownership are all delayed by some 40 million indebted graduates, who can take decades to pay loans back.

The Biden administration demagogued the issue by illegally granting rolling student loan amnesties to win votes just before both the midterm and general elections. That proposed debt relief would be covered by taxpayers, over half of whom never went to college.

The expansion of student loan debt roughly correlates with universities raising their annual costs higher than the rate of inflation—largely due to administrative bloat.

Although the Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of using race and gender to adjudicate applications and hiring, universities are already seeking ways to circumvent the ruling.

Asian- and white-Americans for decades have been systematically, overtly, and supposedly with justification, discriminated against by ignoring or not requiring test scores and downplaying grade point averages.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/dei-corrupts-education-research

Government agencies should choose which research projects to fund based on merit, not ideology. But my investigation into U.S. Department of Education grants reveals that administrators prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) when evaluating grant applications. In some cases, reviewers considered the racial make-up of research personnel when assessing applicants’ qualifications.

These applications were directed to the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program, through which the department allocates research funds to schools and other nonprofits to develop inventive solutions to educational problems. The EIR program had a $284 million budget for new awards in fiscal year 2023.

The federal government’s diversity obsession has distorted EIR’s priorities. As a result, American taxpayers are funding projects that promote equity in AP Computer Science, so-called “restorative justice” initiatives for misbehaving students, and “culturally responsive” teaching. EIR has embedded racial considerations into the grant-evaluation process. It does so by assessing applicants’ “Quality of Project Personnel” (QPP), a 10-point evaluation category that accounts for almost 10 percent of an applicant’s total score. The department uses this category, which first appeared in grant evaluation documents in 2022, to measure whether prospective grant recipients would “encourage[] applications for employment from persons who are members of groups that have traditionally been underrepresented based on race, color, national origin, gender, age, or disability.” The department notes, almost as an afterthought, that “the Secretary [also] considers the qualifications, including relevant training and experience, of key project personnel.”

https://www.city-journal.org/article/anthropology-in-retreat

Many anthropologists place social-justice ideology over verifiable facts, from denying the sex binary to spinning false narratives of mass child graves in Indian schools to recasting “indigenous knowledge” as a source of scientific evidence. To this list add acceptance of Native American oral myths and creation stories. Arising from an ideology that divides humanity into oppressors and oppressed and rejects the concept of objective truth, such myth acceptance increasingly factors into questions of repatriation and reburial—whether, say, to give ancient skeletal and artifact collections to modern tribes whose connection to the remains may be obscure. The result: woke anthropologists and tribal activists exploit government rules to derail science, all in the name of social justice.

The long, complex history of Indian tribes has been one of change and contradiction. Once at war with American settlers and later subject to assimilation policies, Indian tribes today possess legal powers comparable with those of no other group. Activist elements within tribes wield this power to suppress research on the anthropology of American Indians that contradicts traditional religious beliefs.

Some of the research on Paleoindians, for example, reveals that these earliest Americans were genetically distinct from later arrivals. Yet these findings have come under attack from Indian activists who cite oral myths declaring that they have been in North America since time immemorial. Research that portrays past North American Indians unfavorably, meantime, also faces censorship pressures. Any paper marshaling evidence on intertribal warfare, cannibalism, slavery in pre-contact America, or environmentally devastating land-use practices will face numerous challenges, as tribes push for research on topics “relevant to tribal interests.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/at-the-university-of-michigan-getting-tough-with-hamas-supporters/

In the academic year 2023-2024, campuses across the country, beginning on October 8, 2023, were engulfed by pro-Hamas demonstrators. Their faces contorted by hate, members of these mobs waved their signs, screamed their slogans about Israeli “genocide,” and insisted that “there is only one solution/Intifada revolution,” which is an unambiguous call for violence. They demanded a “free Palestine” “from the river to the sea,” which, properly understood, means the eradication of Israel and its replacement by a twenty-third Arab state. They invaded and vandalized campus offices. They surrounded Jewish students and would not let them escape while yelling at them. Some Jewish students were physically attacked. They burst into classrooms of Israeli and Jewish faculty, interrupting their lectures.

College administrators in the last year have been maddeningly slow to react. Many administrators did nothing, showing themselves to be unwilling to lay down the law to such violent troublemakers. Three university presidents, from Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania, were asked at a congressional hearing if calling for the “genocide of Jews” in their view “violated their campus codes of conduct.” All three answered that “it depends.” Some universities offered slap-on-the-wrist suspensions for a handful of demonstrators who physically harassed Jewish students; some administrators, as at Brown University, even offered to meet with demonstrators to discuss their demands on cutting all ties to Israel. Nothing appeared to calm down the pro-Hamas anti-Israel demonstrators. After a long investigation into antisemitism and anti-Israel activities on campuses, conducted by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, a long report was issued on antisemitism on American campuses, a report that was damning in its evidence both of antisemitic acts by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, and of the failure of university demonstrators to take a firm stand against those demonstrators.

Now a few universities have begun to lay down the law by starting to punish Hamas supporters in a way that will have an impact. At the University of Michigan, the leading pro-Hamas group now faces a four-year suspension from the campus that should weaken its ability to conduct its anti-Israel propaganda campaign to win over impressionable students.

https://amgreatness.com/2024/11/20/how-will-trump-handle-education-policy/

The education establishment is in a colossal snit over Donald Trump’s reelection.

At the college level, Berkeley’s official news outlet published a series of interview vignettes with nearly a dozen professors after the results were in, and they all suggested Trump’s “decisive” victory exposes sinister parts of America’s underbelly.

Additionally, some professors from at least three Ivy League schools—Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia—canceled classes.

According to The Free Press, Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy concocted a “self-care suite” available to students to provide an escape from anxiety about the presidential election. The school reportedly informed students that the suite would be available from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., where they will have the opportunity to enjoy Legos, coloring, and milk and cookies while visiting the suite.

The response at the K-12 level has been no less unhinged.

Virginia Education Association president Carol Bauer commented that its members may feel grief over the election results. Bauer noted that educators will likely have students coming to them seeking support and answers to “the hard questions.” Bauer warned VEA members that their professions and schools will “come under attack as never before” under the incoming Trump administration.

Bauer also proclaimed, “I know today feels like a dark day for many of you. Questions and doubts are likely swirling through your head, and it will take time to digest what happened and why. That is understandable.”

In California, a high school teacher from Los Angeles County allegedly stormed out of her classroom at the sight of a student wearing a “Make America Great Again” shirt after the election. The teacher said that wearing merchandise supporting President-elect Donald Trump is “a hate crime when worn at school.”

https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2024/11/18/the_dismal_state_of_literacy_when_unions_are_at_the_helm_1072964.html

In a first-ever election on Nov. 5 for control of the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education, candidates backed and funded by the Chicago Teachers Union were largely rejected at the polls. Out of 10 races, only four CTU-backed candidates won, and one of those was uncontested. 

It was a sign Chicago has had enough of failing schools and voters were placing blame. During CTU’s militant reign over CPS, proficiency ratings for 3-8th graders have plummeted and less than 23% of 11th graders can read at grade level. Meanwhile, the CTU has spent over six months lobbying for a $50 billion contract that rather than advancing classroom instruction makes demands over things such as climate justice, green schools, and affordable housing. 

CTU candidates’ rejection is just one example of a seismic shift in the way constituents are viewing public education across the country. A national literacy epidemic means only 1 in 3 students are meeting proficiency standards in reading. People are seeing the results of union-led public education – and they’re not pleased.

The path forward for families is to stop allowing union-led public education to put power first and students last. Educators must lean into proven methods to help students succeed. 

Literacy is one of the most important skills because it’s the foundation of every milestone that follows: from reading and comprehending course material in every other subject to understanding and following instructions in employment. When children aren’t reading proficiently by the end of third grade, they are far less likely to graduate high school and are four times more likely to drop out.  

https://www.city-journal.org/article/favoring-diverse-faculty

The Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA) banned the use of race in admissions in higher education. In the State University of New York system, however, race-conscious methods are alive and well in another domain: faculty hiring.

After the ruling, Chancellor John B. King, Jr. and the SUNY Board of Trustees declared that the Court had “attempted to pull our nation backwards in the journey toward equity and civil rights.” Blacks and Latinos “are still underrepresented across institutions of higher education as students, faculty members, and administrators,” they said, so “better paths and bridges” would be needed to dismantle “roadblocks and barriers.”

In the SUNY system, these “paths and bridges” take the form of three diversity awards and scholarships: Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion and Growth (PRODiG+); the Empire State Diversity Honors Scholarship; and the Graduate Diversity Fellowship. The first is a recruiting program designed to induce “over 400 postdoctoral fellows to enter tenure-track faculty positions at State-operated campuses”; the latter two are DEI-focused scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students, respectively.

SUNY’s PRODiG+ program is explicitly designed to “increas[e] the number and share of excellent diverse faculty committed to advancing the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).” In practice, “diverse faculty” apparently refers to racial minorities and women. SUNY Cortland’s PRODiG proposal, for example, stated clearly that it intends to “hir[e] a percentage of URM [underrepresented] faculty that equals or surpasses the diversity of our student population.” Cortland’s 2022 program overview clarified further that “underrepresented” groups included “women in STEM disciplines [WSTEM], Hispanic/Latinx, African Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/unlike-its-membership-teacher-union-leaders-are-far-left/

The teacher union leadership is in a collective snit after it became clear that Donald Trump would be reelected as U.S. president. American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten stated in a press release on Nov. 9, “At this moment, the country is more divided than ever, and our democracy is in jeopardy. Last night, we saw fear and anger win.”

National Education Association boss Becky Pringle was somber, posting on Facebook, “We woke up today to a world that feels darker than it did yesterday. I hear the fear about the safety of our families and communities. I feel the profound anxiety for the future of our country. I see the worry, anger, and heartbreak. But despair is not the answer.”

Pringle’s post was widely contested in the comments section, however. Typifying the pushback, educator Laurie Speed posted, “I wish that you would not assume that all of your members are liberals. Many voted for Trump, and they are feeling optimistic. I wish NEA were bipartisan. The education of our children is important to both parties. As educators, we can set the example for our students to follow regarding how to collaborate with others whose opinions differ from ours.”

Speed nails it! Ignoring its rank and file, teacher union leadership is far left, and has been for years. When NEA president Reg Weaver spoke at the Democratic Convention in 2008, his opening words were, “I am here today on behalf of 3.2 million NEA members to tell you why we support Barack Obama for president of the United States.”

It sounded as if every member of the NEA was backing Obama. Then, in his last sentence, he left no doubt. “That, my friends, is why the 3.2 million members of the National Education Association are organized, energized, and mobilized to help elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States of America.”

Yet, the same Reg Weaver stated a few years before that one-third of NEA membership is Republican, one-third Democrat, and one-third “other.”