As of this writing 24 hours later, Ann’s post had generated 149 comments. We excerpt from that commentary here....Go to the link to see which Althouse commenters got front-paged chez Dave.
February 27, 2019
"Ann has taken note of our travails here in the Madison school district because it resonates nationally."
"Madison is by no means the only town in thrall to identity politics and its culture of victimhood. But we’ve got an especially toxic case," writes David Blaska (who's running for the school board here in Madison).
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64 comments:
Maybe Drago can become Blaska’s campaign manager
Poor Inga.
Nobody likes stalinists. They don't even like each other really.
It pays to butter people up, just like Trump and Kim Whoa Fat.
Every college town needs a Blaska
I'm leaving a comment on a post on Althouse about a post about the comments on Althouse. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I feel as if I could be living in one of those infinite mirrors.
Inga doesn’t show so well but nicely reveals her true self.
I'm not certain that he knows what the comment count means. Usually it means that a comment battle has developed, when it's over a hundred, among the usual players.
Inga is a top commenter now. In all fairness, she should now be referred to as "Top-commenter Inga."
Well poo. If I had known, I would have read and commented on that thread.
"Ready for my close up, Professor"
So how about that Alex Hornibrook entering the transfer portal?
LOL.
The times they are a changing in Madison too.
Diversity or color judgment, including racism, or generally the unprincipled denial of individual dignity. So-called "identity politics" is yet another PC (i.e. politically correct, politically convenient politically congruent) euphemism that serves to obfuscate the pragmatic and logical truth of a second-rate wicked solution.
No one here is better at being stupid than Inga.
I'm bemused. This is all very interesting and nationally relevant, Ann, but you make NOT a single personal comment - even a subtle, ironic, clever, rhetorical or obscure one? This silence strikes me as deafening. Meanwhile, you have a mayoral race in Madison - and you make NO reference to their positions on such an important Madison educational issue? I see mayoral candidate Soglin recommends an increase in the highest bracket income tax - "that is what a progressive tax is about" he says - and an increase in the sales tax – the poorest communities will get more revenue than the wealthy...."There will be no strings attached"....This last line sounds like Soglin's Pontius Pilate strategem, yes?
So, is this what you favor in support of Madison schools? It sure doesn't sound like what Blaska is fighting for!
Books with talking animals was a lot more interesting.
Ha! 149 comments is nothing. Get Inga and Drago going at it and that'll eat up 149 comments by itself.
“Inga is a top commenter now. In all fairness, she should now be referred to as "Top-commenter Inga."”
Ooooo am I famous?!
Commenters of Althouse blog unite!
"Ha! 149 comments is nothing."
So, some of you folks are able to grasp when Althouse is slyly mocking.
She better tighten up. It's like that old saying: "don't bite the hand that feeds you, unless the hand won't notice, because then you should go for it because the gratification is orgasmic."
Anywho, 149 means worldwide visibility and attention.
Anti-de Sitter space is a giver and wants to make folks feel important.
If anti-de Sitter space sees that a nerd will feel better cause they are getting attention....
then anti-de Sitter space will try to help.
Is anyone else gonna help get this thread past a hundred?
I can be counted on for 69.
After that, it'll take help to get to worldwide...
levels.
Anywho.
Carry on.
I dunno.
I sux.
OK, really, I suck.
= FAIL.
I know I could get this thread to a level that would pump up Dave's POV re his importance.
I've got a lot of speculation re how his classmates referred to him as he grew up.
But that would, ironically, be bad for him.
And, for me. Cause it's embarrassing to know how I know how mean the cool kids can be.
In my defense, I was so cool that by ninth grade I had completely hated that folks sucked up to me. And, I did look for and lift up the loserest.
Anywho,
I at this point I don't think I'm helping the little guy.
Shame on me.
If I use a lot of spaces will
Meadehouse delete all of this?
PB&J, get a life.
Just remember folks. You get the government you deserve.
Drago!
I was going to pass on this thread, but saw there are 44 comments at the "Murdoch's Fox sale" post and 43 comments here, so thought I would tie up the count. Besides, it's 0300 hrs here and the Cafe thread is well underway.
Apropos rhhardin "Usually it means that a comment battle has developed...." The correct term is "flame war." Puhleeze, folks. Do not feed the trolls. Makes reading at Althouse so much more tedious.
As a card carrying Libertarian and observer of the Texas Open Meetings Act and Texas Public Information Act in vivo, I was ammused by two front page stories in our local rag.
..Investigator for the District Attorney seems to have been arrested for DUI in the next county. Various agencies in the two counties are giving a fascinating ddisplay of how to avoid releasing public information.
..Employee of the school district was seen stopping at a liquor store in the next county to buy hooch, driving a school district vehicle on school district time. Employee has been fired (or maybe quit), but no name provided.
Does anybody besides me wonder why
..the School District budget is near as much as the City and County budgets combined;
..school district elections generally have such low turnout, mostly the district employees and their family members voting;
..voters not tied financially to the district seem drawn to vote for the candidate who touts their understanding of the education system (e.g. they work for the neighboring school district, their wife/husband is a teacher, etc.)?
I dunno. I thought the School Board Trustee job was to be curator of the tax payers' money. Seems the last person you would want for the job is someone financially tied to public education.
It is 0330 and time for Hammond's nap.
to HXG;
First of all; That County next to you sounds EVIL! Badfullness happens there. Do Not Be Tempted!
Second, you wrote:
the School District budget is near as much as the City and County budgets combined;
school ... elections generally have such low turnout, mostly the district employees and their family members
Seems like line2 answers any questions in line1?
I am wondering - because I honestly have no idea - what is the end game of the activists and "social justice" types with regard to the education system in Madison. It appears that chaos and indiscipline are the order of the day; whom does this benefit? Are there people who truly don't care if children are educated? How can they think their children can be educated in a system in which teachers or even administrators have no power to control unruly children? There has never been and never will be a scenario in which children are in charge of their own education institutions and those institutions actually function. It's sad for the children, and it must be awful for the teachers. I don't understand any part of this conflict. If the goal is simply to ruin the education system - then what?
@hawkeyedjb - The "then what" is that it's much easier to create brown shirts or a Red Guard with uneducated, beholden to the government dole, youths. They also make good canon fodder in a civil war where you want to reduce the population to more manageable levels - you know, on account of climate chaos. Get rid of the likely breeders...
I'm trapped in a meta vortex, commenting on a post about a post commenting on comments on a post that I commented in.
Send help!
Funniest thing; there will be nine figure referenda on the April election ballot for Sun Prairie ($174 million or $186.3 million) AND DeForest ($125 million).
Probably nothing to it...right?
The Gotch
"I am wondering - because I honestly have no idea - what is the end game of the activists and "social justice" types with regard to the education system in Madison."
There is no end game with this crowd in Madison or anywhere else. Their entire raison d'etre is based on perceived injustice and the opportunity to preen, posture, chant inane slogans, make outrage-face, and blather with a preacher's cadence. If the world became perfectly just they would shrivel and die, or worse, have to work at developing a marketable skill.
Perhaps now you see why we push back on Igna. Igna performs a valuable service, Igna illustrates the fact that the Left is not merely lying, but lying about what they're lying about. But an illustration is easier to understand when it has a caption.
There is no end game with this crowd in Madison or anywhere else.
Everyone needs a dragon to slay. If there are no convenient dragons, one is manufactured for the purpose. That is the nature of man. There must always be dragons or there is no life for the dragon slayer.
"Shithole school district" according to Jupiter. Huh.
How come the Madison high schools still trounce all the other high schools in the state with the number of high-scoring students on the SATs? If you are an advanced student, there are still plenty of peers for you in Madison schools:
https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/local_schools/madison-west-leads-state-with-national-merit-scholarship-semifinalists/article_24438836-201f-5f71-8f45-41e1d38c7be8.html
I suck at linking with HTML tags. sorry.
Composite ACT scores for MMSD West High School and Memorial High School are are also higher than your Sun Prairie and Deforest School District. (Middleton Cross Plains DOES edge out West High though):
https://wisinfo.com/milwaukee/database/2018/wisconsin-act-scores-2017-18/#!/composite.desc.1/charter=no/
That's an average of ALL juniors taking the test, not just the high-flyers like the national merit scholarship semifinalists.
Begonia said...
"If you are an advanced student, there are still plenty of peers for you in Madison schools"
Yes, and there are successful people in shithole countries, too. They are driven around in armored vehicles, by bodyguards. So, if your kid has got an armored vehicle and a couple bodyguards, and maybe one of those new backpacks with the ceramic inserts, by all means send him off for another day with the Shithole School District.
In the Madison school Begonia cites 68% of the African-American students scored "Below Basic" in English and a stunning 79% scored "Below Basic" in mathematics.
Thanks for the links Begonia. My grandkids go to Arrowhead and I see Arrowhead narrowly beat Madison West. With all the hype about Waukesha County schools being so great and Madison being so bad, I was surprised.
“Yes, and there are successful people in shithole countries, too. They are driven around in armored vehicles, by bodyguards. So, if your kid has got an armored vehicle and a couple bodyguards, and maybe one of those new backpacks with the ceramic inserts, by all means send him off for another day with the Shithole School District.”
Jupiter often says really idiotic things. It’s apparent that he doesn’t know a thing about Madison.
Rabel, you are absolutely right. There is a huge gap in performance between the white kids and the black kids in Madison schools. That's one reason that the Freedom Inc people are complaining. Of course, you can disagree with their solutions, but you can't disagree there is a problem when you see those numbers.
My point isn't to say that MMSD is perfect, but that there are plenty of high-achieving students. My response was to Jupiter and Cornelius, to point out that despite being a "shithole" school district, it churns out some of the highest-performing students (according to SAT and ACT scores) in Wisconsin.
I will admit some bias, since I am an MMSD graduate myself, and I have a kid in 4th grade in an MMSD elementary school. I'm happy with my kid's schools and teachers so far. we'll see how I feel after he gets to middle school at Cherokee, which is somewhat troubled. My friends' kids go to Cherokee and seem happy with it though.
Iowahawk: Longhorns 17, Badgers 1.
So how does brokeass, dumbass, redneck Texas stack up against progressive unionized Wisconsin?
2009 4th Grade Math
White students: Texas 254, Wisconsin 250 (national average 248)
Black students: Texas 231, Wisconsin 217 (national 222)
Hispanic students: Texas 233, Wisconsin 228 (national 227)
2009 8th Grade Math
White students: Texas 301, Wisconsin 294 (national 294)
Black students: Texas 272, Wisconsin 254 (national 260)
Hispanic students: Texas 277, Wisconsin 268 (national 260)
2009 4th Grade Reading
White students: Texas 232, Wisconsin 227 (national 229)
Black students: Texas 213, Wisconsin 192 (national 204)
Hispanic students: Texas 210, Wisconsin 202 (national 204)
2009 8th Grade Reading
White students: Texas 273, Wisconsin 271 (national 271)
Black students: Texas 249, Wisconsin 238 (national 245)
Hispanic students: Texas 251, Wisconsin 250 (national 248)
2009 4th Grade Science
White students: Texas 168, Wisconsin 164 (national 162)
Black students: Texas 139, Wisconsin 121 (national 127)
Hispanic students: Wisconsin 138, Texas 136 (national 130)
2009 8th Grade Science
White students: Texas 167, Wisconsin 165 (national 161)
Black students: Texas 133, Wisconsin 120 (national 125)
Hispanic students: Texas 141, Wisconsin 134 (national 131)
Regarding the Madison high school with a lot of Merit finalists, the answer is easy: faculty brats.
Reading the remarks of Jennifer Cheatham, superintendent of MMSD, as appended by Mr. Blaska in his blog (referenced by AA above).
Seems MMSD is doubling down on "race" as the primary characteristic of individuals and the most import factor to consider in human interactions.
There will be a new reporting system to solicit incidents of "racism or discrimination." But first it is necessary that staff understand the importance of discriminating individuals based on "race." Ergo the indoctrination sessions.
"A new required professional development series for all staff on racial identity, implicit bias, and racial inequity in the United States, along with a refined support and accountability system to monitor progress."
All this so MMSD can "somehow get it right, while the rest of society gets it wrong."
Hmmm. Some wise fellow once remarked it would be a welcome day when people evaluated eachother based on the quality of character not the color of skin - or something like that.
"Seems MMSD is doubling down on 'race' as the primary characteristic of individuals and the most import factor to consider in human interactions."
Do tell!
The last demographic to focus this much on race was led by a failed Austrian artist.
It gets worse.
UW journalism Professor Sue Robinson: “Race needs to factor into EVERY SINGLE DECISION being made on the (Madison School) board,” (caps mine)
What could possibly go wrong?
The Gotch
Re: Richard Johnson
This racial breakdown has long been hidden with all the crowing about upper midwestern public schools and their so-called excellence. The fact is the average scores are only high due to large proportion of white students. In reality, when broken down like iowahawk did, schools in the area aren’t great. Similar arguments apply to the Bay Area. Berkeley high school for example is only “ good” because half or so of the pupils are white/Asian professors’ kids. The black/Hispanic achievement at BHS is abysmal and indeed worse than many supposedly inferior schools elsewhere in the Bay Area.
Didn't we try Jennifer Cheatham's anonymous tipster line before? That's right: at the UW-Madison. Students, did you get an F on your term paper? Report your prof as a (fill in the blank). Do so anonymously! Operators are standing by.
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