The war on “freedom”, the culture war and schools do not mix, and more comments

opinion

editorial

By post editorial staff

February 20, 2023 | 3:11 p.m

From left: The war on “freedom”

An analysis of Justin Trudeau’s decision to establish Canada’s emergency law and seize funds during last year’s trucker protests “included much criticism, yet media accounts of him are like “all tsk tskOp-eds in the West I’ve read since Trump, that used every crisis to promote the idea of ​​it Freedom = dangerMatt Taibbi’s racket thundered. In the aftermath of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, a new PR campaign was born, selling a generation of upper-class kids on the idea of ​​freedom as a stalking horse of racial hatred, ignorance, squalor and every other nasty thing a person of means can imagine Freedom Now is “only safe.” . . when distributed by “responsible” people, college-trained in the art of harm avoidance”. But in a democracy, bums sometimes need to be thrown away.”

sProgressive: War culture and schools don’t mix

Educators’ top priority, post-pandemic, should be ensuring students don’t fall into a “learning loss trap” but “that’s not where we find ourselves today,” laments John Halpin of The Liberal Patriot. Schools should be places where children are “well prepared to be future workers” and “good citizens”, not “a playground for left-wing social justice creations or right-wing reactionary politics”. “Discrimination and ideology” have no place in schools. The main goal instead is “grade-level proficiency in math and English.” Children must graduate “with the academic foundations necessary to succeed in life and work.” So: “For the sake of future generations, let’s end the culture war on American schools and focus on achieving these core goals in all of our schools.”

Education win: School a$$ does not mean success

Reason’s Emma Camp, Carmel HS out of Indianapolis points out, “spends much less per pupil” — “$3,500 to $6,000” — “than the public high schools in Indianapolis” but has a “huge, well-manicured campus” and “71 percent more” Students are good at math, and 89 percent are good at reading” vs. “6 percent and 26 percent” in Indianapolis city schools. “Public high schools in Indianapolis are failing—but it’s not because there’s no money.” In fact, “the relationship between finance and school quality is very weak.” But “student poverty has a significant impact on school performance,” so “two schools with very different student groups are not likely to end up with the same results—no matter how much money is spent.”

State Office: Balloon Biden Balloony

US intelligence officials are said to be looking into whether the Chinese spy balloon was “blown off course by strong winds” rather than being deliberately sent here to spy, grumbles Liz Beck on The Hill. If the goal is to “curry favor with Xi Jinping by burying China’s misconduct, the public will be outraged,” especially those “already worried” that President Biden is “being compromised by his family’s business activities in that country.” And many of them are “on high alert for evidence that Biden is working to appease Beijing”; The delay in lowering the balloon appears to “provide” confirmation. If Prez buys the “accident” excuse, it will “only reinforce speculation that Biden has some reason to go easy on Beijing.”

Court observation: the hypocrisy of the ‘upper’ left

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Ruth Weiss says it was “unwise for President Biden to warn Israel” about recent legal changes that place checks on Supreme Court power. “In the absence of a written constitution, the Supreme Court of Israel insists that its authority exceeds that of other branches of government”; Indeed, critics argue that “the judiciary in Israel wields more power than any other Western democracy.” But Biden’s remarks come as the American left wants to replace the oftentimes “equal results equal rights” by explicitly limiting the power of we Supreme Court – “Not surprising” given that “conservative justices seem to have clout.” “This asymmetry warns enough of attempts by ‘Americans’ to interfere with the workings of a fellow democracy.”

– Prepared by the editorial board of the post