Jussie Smollett’s legacy: Race-hustling must no longer hinder smart policy – Wirepoints

By: Matt Rosenberg

The Jussie Smollett telenovela has reached an apex with his sentencing. But the drama continues with his release pending his appeal. Committing the fake hate crime for which he was convicted, he saw an opening. A weakness. A codified guilt around race in Chicago. He exploited that. That problem is a long way from being fixed. And because of that we’re far behind on fixing two of the biggest things that plague blacks in Chicago. Streets that aren’t safe and schools that don’t work. Today let’s look at school choice within that context.

Illinois and especially Chicago need high-expectation, highly-competitive K-12 schools – aided by full-on school vouchers that families can use to pay for private, religious schools which ask more of parents and students. The state Constitution’s Article X seems to bar that, but choice advocates point to a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that moots such barriers.

Enrollment is shrinking precipitously in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), run by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). Can no one take the hint, and institute actual free-market competition? 

CPS performance data is damning. 

On reading and math tests of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), no more than three of ten CPS 4th and 8th graders in 2019 could reach the real bar of “proficient.” It was closer to one-quarter in most cases. For black 4th and 8th graders, it was dramatically worse. Less than one of five in either grade was proficient in either subject. 

There’s a dodge that some use: additional students qualify at the “basic” skill level, which is below “proficient.” Don’t buy it. NAEP definitions show that “proficient” in math and reading are actually pretty “basic,” and that what NAEP calls “basic” is pretty sub-par. 

Despite wholesale failure, CPS insinuates the real problem includes something called “whiteness.” In a video by that name linked to at the district’s ”Equity Toolkit “page, a consultant named Glenn E. Singleton of “Courageous Conversations” lays it all out thusly: “…talking about racial dominance and…what it means to be white is…difficult…We’re not quite sure how to talk about it because the people who are closest to the topic have not yet come to understand how to explore their own experience as white people.” Got that? Stunted white consciousness is to blame for failures of blacks. Their success depends on whites. Welcome to the world of racialism. Again.

When people are confused or scared or have ill intent they talk in circles. We’re past the time to cut to the chase on policies which lift up urban blacks in Illinois. Chicagoland and the state as a whole need more and better school choice. Illinois really needs full-on school vouchers, but the Chicago teachers union has signaled its displeasure with school choice, including vouchers. Their messaging is wrapped in racialism

Illinois has a vouchers-lite pilot program called Invest In Kids, funded through a state income tax credit for private donors to private school scholarship-granting organizations. But more families want a piece of it than can get one. And it’s still not real vouchers. 

Illinois needs a legislature that will take school vouchers to full fruition. Again, the Blaine Amendment-like clause in our state constitution, which would be cited to block vouchers, may well be illegal if the nation’s high court is to be believed. Illinois should try to find out soon. 

A different legislature in Springfield could take action to force the inevitable legal challenge to vouchers that would come from the incumbent-protection racketeers in education who put children of color last while pretending to put them first. 

The protracted Smollett saga remains B-grade Kabuki theater. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball. Hell. Let’s find the ball. 

A viable city must have safe streets and safe neighborhoods. A viable state requires full K-12 education choice at minimal out-of-pocket cost to families on the margins. They need all these things to help lift themselves up.

Should this be so hard to do? Or does the political class not actually want them to lift themselves up?


Matt Rosenberg is senior editor of Wirepoints, and author of What Next, Chicago? Notes of a Pissed-Off Native Son.He has worked in journalism, public policy, and communications for more than three decades.

27 Comments
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Juicy Smollier
2 years ago

Since silly people don’t want to admit that groups aren’t equal, the way that this always sorts itself out is when the money goes away, the groups turn on each other and finally get weeded out. Sorry, lies in social life and lies in the economy always have an ultimate fix. Get out of the city, which is the biggest place of lies. Or you will die with most of the welfare class. Don’t act like others didn’t tell you.

Goodgulf Greyteeth
2 years ago

K-12 schooling in Illinois has long been very – VERY – expensive woke nanny-state day care badly camouflaged as “education.” Particularly so for Black students. Why is it that we keep doing more of the same in Illinois, in spite of so much objective evidence of the academic failure and outrageous cost of K-12 schooling in our state. I suppose that the answer is that for various reasons, most of our citizenry and institutions get exactly what they want out of our K-12 tax dollars. Big bucks in the pockets of the political class and guvmn’t employees, and free food… Read more »

2 years ago

You make important points. The current vouchers-lite program called Invest In Kids has underscored how hungry parents – especially black and Latino parents – are for private school, often Catholic school, education for their children. One of the big scholarship granting organizations involved in Invest In Kids, called Empower Illinois, did a survey of parents. Asking, why private schools, anyway? The responses accented – imagine this – religious and moral instruction, higher academic expectations, and more.

Stinky Sphincter
2 years ago

A true vaccine is needed to control the lack of an anger management gene in our colored areas

Stinky Sphincter
2 years ago

To the downvoters the truth hurts.

Rick
2 years ago

Latest, they are going to let Juicy out of jail.

2 years ago
Reply to  Rick

Have updated the story to reflect that. Thanks for the heads-up.

Captain Obvious
2 years ago

Those kids are useful hostages for the teacher union, much like adult citizens are just tax cattle for government employee Ponzi schemes.

Do you know which Illinois elected leader’s family originates from Kyiv, Ukraine? What a tangled WEF we weave, when we practice to deceive.

All lies will be revealed.

Juicy Smollier
2 years ago

Yes, of course guys like Zelensky and Fatty are cousins. The West has been under this control for decades or the better part of a century, in truth.

Linda
2 years ago

I am a product of south side Chicago public school education. With that being said let me state that the rules I needed to follow. I had to pay attention, I had to complete assignments, I had to prepare for tests. I had to read required material. I had to show respect to any and all teachers. In high school again public school I had teachers who left an ever lasting impression on me. I had teachers who saw in me and cultivated traits I didn’t know I had. I had teachers who pushed me out of my comfort zone.… Read more »

Stinky Sphincter
2 years ago
Reply to  Linda

And that’s why you are a white supremacist. You tried, you succeeded therefore you are!

Pat S.
2 years ago

According to the latest dictum you are – which, of course, is utter nonsense.

Stinky Sphincter
2 years ago
Reply to  Pat S.

I am !

Last edited 2 years ago by Stinky Sphincter
Andy
2 years ago

You asked the question, here’s my answer: No, the political class clearly does not want to lift themselves up. Judge them by their actions, not their flim-flamming politi-speak. As for the Smollet case, when the State’s Attorney comes out in the wake of the verdict and derides the prosecution of this charlatan, you have all the info you need. It is Stupid or Liar….she either is the incompetent idiot some believe her to be, or the disingenuous puppet others believe.

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Andy

She is neither stupid nor a liar. She is a progressive. She’s been very honest about how she was going to transform the prosecutors office. She’s kept her promise. She does not share the same goals as normal people. We non-progressives of course call her actions purposeful destruction. Her policies increase crime, allow criminals to run free, targets her political enemies, makes residents feel unsafe, and destroys formerly low-crime neighborhoods… But our views come from a place of white privilege. Only racists would deny the positive reforms and progress of a competent, strong black woman prosecutor. Your privilege to be… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by debtsor
Thee Jabroni
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

yea,and lets not forget Kim Foxx was recently re-elected,so this must be what the residents of Cook Co. want-zero sympathy for any one in Chicago

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Thee Jabroni

She lost suburban Cook County overall but high crime inner city neighborhoods and higher crime suburbs voted for her with exceptionally high turnout with 85, 90 and 95%+ of the votes. She’s wildly popular among criminals and progressives.

Last edited 2 years ago by debtsor
Thee Jabroni
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

i dont know the numbers but thank you debstor

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Thee Jabroni

You can say, very generally, that she did well in poor areas and did poorly in wealthy areas, with some exceptions for progressive strongholds. You can break that down by race however you want.

Last edited 2 years ago by debtsor
Honest Jerk
2 years ago

While I agree with school choice, the root problem is in the homes of the kids. It’s economics and culture. Kids raised by one parent or grandparents, both parents working so kids are unsupervised, kids speaking non english languages in the home, and no role models for kids to emulate. The deck is stacked against many Chicago kids from birth. Responsible parents realize this and leave the city. Parents that stay are simply bad parents. Also, to say that some parents are trapped is just an excuse.

Hunter's Lap Dance
2 years ago

Teacher’s unions are indifferent with respect to whether kids in their system are educated appropriately. They do not care. How do we know this? Logic. A union’s only restraint is the school board on the other side of the negotiating table. The school board’s only restraint is the parents in the community. If the parents in the community are too fractured economically and socially to hold the school board to account, the school board will always choose the path the least resistance. The teacher’s union then uses political leverage and strike threats (at least in IL) to coerce school board… Read more »

Goodgulf Greyteeth
2 years ago

Exactly correct.

Pat S.
2 years ago

Wonder how the average Chicago gangbanger would score in reading and math. Likely very low.

Quality education is the answer – but the CPS doesn’t offer that, except in magnet schools. Even that may change as social activist pressure increases to eliminate merit as a criterion for admission. A real race to the bottom.

School choice would go a long way in encouraging CPS to improve teaching standards, Though that’s not the CTU’s main focus and CTU has far more power than the institution and student body they purportedly serve.

Unions will be the death of this state.

Willowglen
2 years ago
Reply to  Pat S.

I came across a statistic that 50 percent of black males age 20-24 in Chicago are unemployed and not in school. The challenge in citing this kind of statistic is that it leads to accusations of racism. But think about it – I certainly had nothing to my name at age 20 like a whole bunch of others who post here but had hope and a future. These kids often don’t. While people don’t prosper being cast as victims, this is an unhappy road for people stuck in this situation. The problem is indeed education – many so called blue… Read more »

Susan
2 years ago

Mental illness diagnostic code for third party billing purposes ICD-10 Z60.5 describes condition formerly called persecution complex:

“Approximate Synonyms
Target of (perceived) adverse discrimination or persecution
Target of (perceived) discrimination and persecution
Target of perceived adverse discrimination and persecution”

Perhaps mental health professionals should weigh in on possible treatment options.

Jay
2 years ago

I grew up in Skokie in the ’60’s & ’70’s, but my friends included many that graduated from Senn, Mather, Von Steuben, Sullivan and Lane Tech. All sharp guys, all successful in a wide variety of fields. And the vast majority of them came from two-parent households, which I know is a common success fabric.

Willowglen
2 years ago
Reply to  Jay

Jay – I competed in the last athletic contest held at Niles East. I had little idea of the history behind the place. I worked summers in college at a union shop on the North Side owned by the Pritzkers (they busted the union 5 years later and moved it to non union Memphis). A number of the guys were from the schools you mention, although I would throw Taft into the mix. They were putting their kids through college and were incredibly focused on that mission. They were constantly on me about keeping my grades up and given that… Read more »

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