When people write about inner-city public schools, they like to use fun metaphors such as “the 3 R’s” or “an apple for the teacher.”
asserted
they → write → teacher
But let’s skip the metaphors, because the majority of children who attend inner-city public schools have no idea what metaphors are.
asserted
metaphors → let → idea
Let’s just tell the truth.
asserted
’s → let → truth
Inner-city public schools suck.
asserted
schools → suck → ?
They suck up resources and don’t deliver for their students.
asserted
They → suck → students
They suck up money and overpay teachers who don’t care about the children.
asserted
who → suck → children
They suck up opportunity for their students and instead deliver them from the teachers unions to the police unions, and then to the court employee unions, and ultimately to the correctional officer unions.
asserted
They → suck → unions
And practically no one cares.
asserted
one → care → ?
I’m from New York, so corruption doesn’t surprise me.
asserted
corruption → ’m → me
A seminal moment in my life came when I was 17 and I asked a construction worker how long it would be until the subway project he was working on would be completed.
asserted
he → come → worker
So if you tell me that some public workers’ unions featherbed jobs, or slow-walk projects, or otherwise waste public money, I’ll just shrug my shoulders and get on with my day.
asserted
I → tell → day
If you tell me that the Mafia charges a 2% tax on construction projects in the metropolitan area and delivers substandard concrete for highway rebuilding, so that the highways will crumble and need to be rebuilt, I’ll just watch another Sopranos episode and tell myself, “Fuggedaboudit.”
asserted
I → tell → Fuggedaboudit
But if you tell me that teachers unions are responsible for the terrible schools monopolizing low-income neighborhoods, and that they do everything they can to prevent competition, I’ll be disgusted.
asserted
I → tell → competition
Corruption that harms children is a highway to hell.
asserted
that → harm → hell
They fight ruthlessly against anything that threatens their hammerlock on schools in poor neighborhoods.
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that → fight → neighborhoods
They go to war against charter schools.
asserted
They → go → schools
They can’t even spell the word, let alone live up to it.
asserted
They → spell → it
A college friend of mine started an inner-city charter school to help black elementary school boys get the academic preparation to make it to college.
asserted
boys → start → college
He told me that the two biggest enemies of the school were the local teachers union and the Democratic Party.
asserted
enemies → tell → school
The dismal outcomes, the wasted money, the wasted lives of innocent children all come to the fore on the rare occasions that someone inside the system speaks out.
asserted
someone → waste → system
That happened this past week when Nikole Hannah-Jones, the mother of a young black girl, wrote an essay in the New York Times about her decision to send her daughter to an inner-city public school.
asserted
Jones → happen → school
Her daughter witnessed teachers who didn’t teach, homework assignments that went ungraded, cafeteria workers who ignored students fighting, and high grades passed out like Halloween candy.
asserted
grades → witness → candy
The daughter only discovered how poorly she had been “educated” when she failed a high school math test for which she mistakenly believed she was fully prepared.
asserted
she → discover → which
The Democratic/Socialistic Party today stands for the destruction from the inside of our society, our economic system, our values, our freedom, and our way of life.
asserted
Party → stand → life
What better way to ensure civil collapse than to limit children from poor families to schools with no interest in helping them get ahead?
asserted
them → ensure → interest
Nothing will change even if the New York Times publishes a hundred, nay, a thousand essays by a thousand aggrieved parents who naively believed that alleged cultural benefits would outweigh the academic shortcomings of our horrific inner-city public schools.
asserted
benefits → change → schools
The Democrats can’t afford to offend them.
asserted
Democrats → afford → them
And because most of these lousy schools are found in blue cities and states, nothing will change.
asserted
nothing → find → cities
Which is why I say that far too many of these children, whose potential is blunted, if not destroyed, by teachers unions, will become institutionalized with low expectations, no skills, and a complete inability to compete in a 21st-century knowledge economy.
asserted
potential → say → economy
But they’re not in charge of the educational system.
asserted
they → ’re → system
The advantage takers rule the roost.
asserted
takers → rule → roost
Every day’s news brings more evidence of corruption in government, business, healthcare, and a million areas of life.
asserted
news → bring → life
And it’s all unfortunate, wasteful, and immoral.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
But the corruption that destroys the future of children from poor families?
asserted
that → destroy → families
That’s just sinful.
asserted
That → ’ → ?
The great journalist Jimmy Breslin put it, with his typical Irish gravity and syntax, “Dies the child, dies the city.”
asserted
journalist → put → city
Our inner-city children are dying intellectually.
asserted
children → die → ?
If the Democrats wanted to find out why, if they wanted to find out who’s to blame, all they’d have to do is look in the mirror.
asserted
they → want → mirror
I’m not holding my breath.
asserted
I → hold → breath
His next novel, 2028, A Political Thriller, will be published by Morgan James in April.
asserted
novel → publish → April
The Aporia
