Papering over failure in the name of equity!

Is Blaska bitter about losing his school board race two years ago? Sure, but the head groundskeeper was bitter before that epochal defeat, so nothing new. Still, one wishes The Capital Times would do some journalism instead of cheerleading the progressive home team. Case in point:

“Ali Muldrow and Savion Castro are dynamic leaders
who will move Madison schools in the right direction!”

This formulation infers that Madison schools have been wandering in the wrong direction all these years. Which, under the blind squirrel theory, would be correct. The clear inference is that Ali Muldrow’s predecessors were lost in the desert like Chevy Chase on the road to Wally World. Good progressives like Gloria Reyes, Mary Burke (Democrat nominee for governor), James Howard, Ed Hughes, Arlene Silviera, Carol Carstensen, Ann Arnesen, Nan Brien, Barbara Arnold. Kaleem Caire got wise to these educational mountebanks a long time ago.

Facing and seizing

The CT endorsed each and every one of those school board members. The CT’s fawning editorial never states what course changes Ms. Muldrow and vice president Castro are making — except for “dynamic leadership.”

There is no issue facing the Madison Metropolitan School District that cannot be addressed with dynamic leadership, and we believe the Madison School Board now has just that.

Continuing with its sycophancy, we are told Muldrow (Progressive Dane) and Castro are “ready to face the challenges and seize the opportunities.” (Or is it the other way around?)

The one concrete measure cited is full-day 4-year-old kindergarten. Deep into its hero worship the CT admits that it is enamored of Muldrow, Castro, and new superintendent Carleton Jenkins because they are POC. Identity politics trumps actual achievement once again!

Cooking the books

The discerning consumer must turn to Chris Rickert for real journalism. His lede sentence in today’s Wisconsin State Journal says it all:

Loosened grading standards — including the elimination of middle school F’s — likely allowed the Madison School District to avoid meting out more failing grades to students during online-only learning, even as the number of chronically absent students increased. …

The smaller number of F’s stands in contrast to the experience of almost all of the 15 other school districts completely or predominantly within Dane County. Meanwhile, the percentage of students considered “chronically absent” — meaning they missed 16% or more of school days — in the Madison district increased from 21% to 27% of high schoolers from fall 2019 to fall 2020, and from 11% to 22% at the middle school level.

During the pandemic shutdown, a student could avoid being marked absent during the pandemic shutdown merely by messaging the homeroom teacher. Consider also that failing a class in Madison public schools does not lower the grade-point average; they just don’t factor it in. Instead of an F they get a “Not Pass.” Rickert concludes his expose with this reminder:

“A growing body of research suggests that lower-income students and students of color have suffered the most academically during online-only learning.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Ali Muldrow once likened local police to nazis, which is why she voted to expel school resource officers. Progressives like her hurt the kids most in need of help. Madison schools will be headed in the right direction when they demand performance, end the excuses, quit teaching victimhood, instill discipline, and expel the professional grievance peddlers.

What grade do YOU give Madison’s public schools?