Gifted and Talented

For John, BLUF:  In the name of equity and equality we are dumbing down the education of our youth.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Pitt students want to 'abolish' their community's elementary gifted program

Here is the sub-headline:

• The Pitt News Editorial Board recently published a piece in support of abolishing local elementary gifted programs.
• According to the piece, the gifted program intellectually and racially 'segregates students.'
• Members of the Pittsburgh community share mixed viewpoints about what such a change would mean for their community.

From Campus Reform, by Correspondent Logan Dubil, 29 October 2021, 8:55 AM.

Here is the lede plus two:

The Editorial Board of the University of Pittsburgh student paper recently published an article calling to get rid of the gifted program in surrounding schools.

“The gifted program segregates students — sometimes based on IQ tests conducted at an early age.  The program is deeply flawed, encourages students to unnecessarily compete against each other academically and often ends up leaving behind students of color.  It is time for Pittsburgh to follow New York’s example and eliminate the gifted program from local school districts,” claims the piece.

The paper published the piece in light of New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent decision to remove elementary school based gifted programs over the next five year period, saying "Pittsburgh should be next."

I did poorly in elementary school, and not all that well in high school (junior high school was my period of shining).  Even so, I found that the brighter students, who surged ahead of me, did help me and my learning, both in school and after school.  Their interests and learning helped to spur me on and made me a better student.  My prime example is Lloyd Davis, who lived at the end of town in Wenonah, NJ.  His interest in science helped spur my interest in science.  Hold him back, even if only by not pushing him on, would seem to be the opposite of encouraging education.

This is a bad idea.  If you see no other indicztor, remember tht New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is backing it.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Cities Struggle

For John, BLUF:  This year, an off year for elections, sees some interesting sociology playing out, and perhaps not going the way the Bien-pensant expected.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Emerging Metropolitan Majority?

Here is the sub-headline:

A multiethnic, moderate coalition of New Yorkers wants order and opportunity.

From City Journal, by Writer Michael Hendrix, 28 September 2021.

Here is the lede plus four:

Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, vowed recently that he would “create an environment for growth”—starting with public safety.  “The prerequisite to prosperity is safety,” Adams declared.  This week, he rolled out a plan to convert hotels to housing in order to tackle the city’s cost-of-living and homelessness crises.

With these moves, Adams follows the preferences of those he seeks to represent.  New Yorkers are deeply concerned about the cost of living and crime, according to a new survey of America’s 20 fastest-growing metros conducted by the Manhattan Institute and Echelon Insights.  Roughly three in four New Yorkers say that they are concerned about the cost of housing, high taxes, and public safety and crime rates.  Homelessness was not far behind, with 71 percent expressing concern.  These proportions exceed those for concern about Covid-19, jobs, schooling, or traffic—though New Yorkers are worried about those, too—and far surpassed the level of concern in other cities, especially those in the Sun Belt.

New Yorkers were more concerned about taxes than were residents of any other city. This past year, New York City earned the distinction of having the highest state and local top income-tax rates in the country. Jobs are also a larger concern in New York than they are in the rest of the country.  The city’s labor market has fallen harder and recovered slower than nearly anywhere else in America.  If New York City’s recovery had kept pace with the country’s, New York would have 375,000 more jobs than it has today.  Unsurprisingly, nearly half of city adults say good jobs are hard to find, and two-thirds cite future job prospects as a key factor in deciding whether they want to stay put.

Housing costs remain a major concern in Gotham.  Large majorities of New Yorkers support making it easier to build more homes to keep up with demand, including with faster permitting, more transit-oriented development, and more backyard apartments.  Notably, not everyone views more housing as a driver of more affordable housing;  if asked to choose, more people support an approach that subsidizes new housing rather than removes barriers to building it, though many expressed uncertainty.

More than half of New Yorkers are concerned about the quality of their local schools and school curricula—again, a bigger share than in any other city we surveyed.  Sixty-two percent support encouraging more charter schools, with even more (72 percent) favoring greater choice in schooling.  A majority (58 percent) also supports removing lessons based on critical race theory from public school curricula, a hot-button topic that has sparked tensions between school administrators and parents.

There are links at the original web site.

On 2 November New York City will hold an election for City Mayor.  .

My Wound Clinic Doctor is originally from New York and he sees New York City as going through cycles of Progressiveism and cycles of law and order.  We must be due for a cycle of law and order.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Citizen Against Citizen

For John, BLUF:  Here is another sign that New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio should never have been considered for the Democrats Party nomination for President in 2020.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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De Blasio’s social distancing tip line flooded with _____ photos, Hitler memes

From The New York Post, by Reporters Tina Moore, Gabrielle Fonrouge and Bruce Golding, 21 April 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s critics let him know how they really felt about him ordering New Yorkers to snitch on each other for violating social-distancing rules — by flooding his new tip line with crank complaints including “dick pics” and people flipping the bird, The Post has learned.

Photos of extended middle fingers, the mayor dropping the Staten Island groundhog and news coverage of him going to the gym have all been texted to a special tip line that de Blasio announced Saturday, according to screenshots posted on Twitter.

One user sent the message “We will fight this tyrannical overreach!” to the service and got an automated message that in part said, “Hello, and thank you for texting NYC311.”

Of course New Yorkers are going to respond with snark, ugly snark.  It is New York City, after all.

Asking Americans to snitch on each other, like this was the late and unlamented Deutsche Demokratische Republik, and its dreaded Staatssicherheitsdienst or Stasi, is asking too much.

What the hapless Mayor DeBlasio misses is that this isn't social responsibility he asking for, but turning citizens into snitches against each other.  Turning citizens against each other is irresponsible.

Thank Heaven.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

NYC Fail

For John, BLUF:  As you think about this major fail in our largest City, remember that just weeks ago the Mayor, Bill de Blasio, was a front runner for the Democratic nomination for President.  We dodged a bullet.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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‘Blood on their hands:’ Teachers say de Blasio and Carranza helped spread coronavirus

From The New York Post, by Reporter Susan Edelman, 21 March 2020.

Here is the lede plus six:

One after another, sick Brooklyn Technical High School teachers called union chapter leader Nate Bonheimer last week, to tell him they’d tested positive for COVID-19.

By Friday, five of them had shared the devastating news.  But after being notified about each one, the city Department of Education still ordered the 6,000-student school’s 350 staffers to show up for work last week, saying the building had been cleaned.

“The DOE did not close the school for any of the cases,” said Bonheimer, who worries that inaction exposed others to the dreaded infection.

The city failed to follow a March 9 directive by the state Education Department that “requires an initial 24-hour closure, in order to begin an investigation to determine the contacts that the individual may have had within the school environment.”

DOE did not attempt to identify close contacts, Bonheimer said. “They did not alert the people who needed to know the most to protect themselves, their families and everyone else they came into contact with.”

One infected teacher was so torn by the secrecy he took it upon himself to personally let all his students know his condition.

Around the city, teachers and administrators are outraged that Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza resisted a drum beat to close the public schools in the name of safety.

Some renamed the coronavirus “Carranzavirus.”

This speaks for itself.  I figure there must be some Latin phrase for this, and sure enough, there is—Res Ipsa Loquitur.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Free Speech Not Available

For John, BLUF:  I am glad it is the Progressives shutting down Free Speech, so we don't have to hear the cry of "Fascism".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Milo Yiannopoulous' NYU appearance a no-go

From NY Daily News, by Reporter Storm Gifford, 30 October 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right conservative commentator whose shtick is purposefully anti-politically correct, has had his NYU speaking date postponed.

The 34-year-old speaker had been invited to discuss the “identity politics of Halloween” on Wednesday, but the university postponed the talk after Mayor de Blasio asked the university to reschedule out of concern for public safety with nearby holiday parades expected to take place.

My guess is that this talk will no longer be timely when Hizzonor the Mayor allows it to be given.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Senator Cruz on New York Values

For John, BLUF:  Senator Cruz actually nails it.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz has taken a lot of heat for his comment about New York Values. Could we pause a moment and think about this?  Yes, a decade and a half ago New York City led the nation in standing tall, after terrorists♠ flew airplanes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.  But, since then, since America's Mayor, Rudi Guillani was Mayor of NYC, we have had a change.  The voters gave New York Andrew Cuomo as Governor and gave New York City Bill de Balsio as Mayor.

But, before we get to Governor Andrew Cuomo, let us talk about Gov. David Paterson and his quip about Radio Host Rush Limbaugh’s plans to move out of New York:

If I knew that would be the result, I would’ve thought about the taxes earlier.

It is a good line, but one expects it is also how he feels.

Then, back in January of 2015, Governor Cuomo says of Conservative Republicans:

Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay?  Is that who they are?  Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.

I am not "anti-gay", but I am pro-life and I believe assault rifle bans are frivolous.  And I believe a lot of New Yorkers are with Governor Cuomo.  And I don't believe Governors should be inviting his opponents to leave the State.

As for the Mayor of New York City, I think it is agreed by most observers, that he is a Progressive.  He has some good ideas, but he has some bad ones. Here is part of a Wash Post editorial board appraisal of Mayor de Blasio back two years ago ("How ‘progressive’ is Bill de Blasio?"):

To the Democratic left, Mr. de Blasio looks like an authentic liberal antidote to the Obama administration’s compromises — and a harbinger of progressive revival nationwide.

To be fair, Senator Ted Cruz did apologize for his remarks, in his own way, as noted by Blogger and Law Professor Ann Althouse.  The thing is, I haven't seen the Governor Cuomo apology from last January for suggesting all conservatives should leave the Empire State.

And, to show that New York is still a State where the rights of the individual are subordinated to the power of the Government (does that not suggest Progressive?) we have this from Popular Science last week.  "New York Considers Mandating Back Doors into Phones".

Here is the lede:

With a bill reintroduced last week, a New York Assemblyman wants to make it easy for the government to get inside smartphones.  It’s a proposal that would mandate smartphone manufacturers be able to unlock the phones they make.  The bill comes from Assemblyman Matthew Titone, of Staten Island’s North Shore, and was first introduced last summer.  It’s sat in the Consumer Affairs and Protection committee since, so it’s still a long way from becoming law.  A cryptographic back door would be bad for cryptography, privacy, and consumers.

Yes, Virginia, he is saying that if there is a back door for police there is a back door that can be hacked by the Chinese, which will build upon the information hacked from the Federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM).  And that means not Conservative values.

I am not espousing Senator Cruz, but fair is fair and he nailed New York fair and square.

Even if my wife disagrees.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse re the Candidate Cruz apology and to the InstaPundit for the item on back doors for phones.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  In order to protect myself from those who would scream "racial discrimination" I will refrain from characterizing the terrorists, but let it suffice to note they were Caucasians.