The dismal performance of black students translates into at least two devastating consequences. First, glaring racial double standards are needed if more than a handful of black students are to attend the nation's most prestigious universities. Second, if one hasn't mastered high school pre-calculus, high-paying careers such as engineering, medicine and computer technology are hermetically sealed for life.
These outcomes are not preordained, and the solution is not more money, as the educationists would have us believe. Were that the case, academic achievement wouldn't be a problem. In the last two decades, educational expenditures have doubled, yet academic performance has declined.
The route to greater academic excellence is nearly a no-brainer. There are three vital inputs to education: parents, teachers and students. You tell me: How much money does it take for teachers to assign homework, and for parents and teachers see to it that it gets done? How much money does it take to see to it that kids get a good night's sleep, come to school on time, don't fight in school,and respect authority? If these no-brainer things aren't accomplished, there's no amount of money that's going to make much of a difference.
The education establishment likes to blame poor parenting and rowdy and lawless students for educational mediocrity. Without a doubt, that's part of the problem, but incompetent, uncaring teachers are also a part of the problem.
The NAEP findings clearly point to one fault that lies solely at the feet of the education establishment -- that's the granting of fraudulent diplomas. After all, isn't it fraud to confer a high school diploma upon a student, attesting that he's mastered a 12th-grade level of education, when in fact he hasn't mastered a seventh or eighth-grade level?