Race To The Top, or, Why Earn When You Can Just Want?

Bama gave a speech to the National Urban League Thursday of last week. The NUL is non-partisan by charter, but it’s about as ideologically and racially diverse as the NAACP, so that makes it the perfect venue for Bama to spout his lies. I actually watched this on CNN – it was one of only a handful of English-speaking channels in my Montreal hotel room – and what struck me was the amazing divide between what Bama and “black folks” want, and how they intend to achieve what they want. I make a simple distinction here between want and earn.

The speech began with Bama’s customary litany of lies and exaggerations regarding his accomplishments to date – among other things he now claims to have “saved 8 million jobs.” Whatever. Oh, and he talks about the Shirley Sherrod mess and mostly blames the media, because its well-known that Fox News has the power to fire high-ranking federal employees. But don’t worry, black America, Bama not only reprimanded Fox News but he also hired Shirley back for more pay. What he actually says in the speech is, “Rather than jump to conclusions and point fingers, and play some of the games that are played on cable TV…” Oh no he didn’t just point his finger at Fox News!

Another issue close to “black folks” hearts, Bama “helped right a longstanding wrong” by reducing prison sentences for crack-cocaine users. Thank goodness we’ll finally get more those drug users back on the streets where they belong.

The meat of the speech had to do with his education bill, which he calls, “Race to the Top.” The “top” of what is never explained, but by the sound of it, he means, the top of the bottom. Unbelievably, after five decades of liberalism in education, “black folks” still don’t do as good as whites when it comes to school test scores or graduation rates or college participation rates or employment rates, or seemingly anything else that contributes to a self-sustaining way of life in America. In fact, things just keep getting worse.

Bama claims that, “Education is an economic issue – if not ‘the’ economic issue of our time.” This is a statement everyone should be able to get behind. Now if only we could come up with some good ideas on how to improve education… I know, let’s let Teddy Kennedy write an education bill called “No Child Left Behind”, which encourages low standards because we don’t want to be politically incorrect and elevate smart kids above dumb kids. Ok, that didn’t work, now all the smart kids are bored and playing with their iPhones instead of learning the mundane splatter that is intentionally watered down. And the schools with all the dumb kids are getting their funding cut, and as any Democrat can tell you, the solution to every problem is always more money.

In that vein get ready - here comes Race To The Top (of the bottom)!

First things first, lubricate the gears of racism, I mean, pledge billions of taxpayer dollars to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which, in case you’re wondering, are not only historically black but also presently black. Next, let’s take the private sector out of the business of issuing college tuition loans. God forbid students are indebted to anyone but the Federal Government for their education.

But he’s getting ahead of himself. We need to go back before the start and deprive children of their childhood by saturating their “formative years” with more government-controlled “early learning options.” Options. Yeah, right. Of course all this costs money. Lots and lots of money. So Bama is starting out with $4 Billion in “grants” to states which change their curriculum to meet Bama’s new educational standards. This should allow inner city schools to get more money to build better buildings and hire and keep better teachers, because it’s always worked out that way in the past. (sarcasm) Also, Bama is not opposed to all Charter schools, but don’t worry, teachers unions, if he judges a Charter school to not be up to his standards he won’t hesitate to “shut it down.” Yeah, he actually said that – no double-standard there. He only supports “good Charter schools,” but he supports all failing inner city schools because that’s where the “black folks’” kids go, and he can’t offend the teachers unions or the Urban League by suggesting “black folks’” kids should go somewhere else, like to a better school where there might be “white folks’” kids who are probably racists. Am I reading too much into his remarks? I really don’t think so. I’m sure you get the idea. Absolutely no specifics on how any of this will get done except that $4 Billion is earmarked for it. As long as states change curriculum, they get the money.

But here’s where Bama’s philosophy of life begins to shine – when he merely “wants” something. For Bama, “want” is pretty much the same as “hope”. To any rational and likely conservative thinking person, these are empty words which epitomize the old adage, The path to Hell is paved with good intentions. It’s the Democrats oldest trick – to talk a good game but do nothing.

From the speech, here is Bama’s list of wants:

He wants to remind us of what things were like in 2008.
He wants to put a college degree in reach for anyone who wants it. (Sound familiar, home owners?)
He wants the USA to be number 1 instead of number 12.
He wants better early learning options.
He wants to address civil rights as part of Race to the Top.
He wants teachers to be the single most important factor.
He wants teachers to have high salaries.
He wants teachers to have more support.
He wants teachers to be trained like professionals.
He wants to give teachers a career ladder.
He wants teachers to have a fulfilling and supporting work environment.
He wants teachers to have the resources to help them succeed.
He wants to build a culture where we idolize teachers.
He wants teachers featured on MTV.
He wants to know who Snooki is.
He wants to commend teachers unions.
He wants to give schools the chance to try new things.
He wants young people to be able to read their diplomas.

In all, Bama says “want” 27 times during this speech, but he only says “earn” once, when he says, interestingly, that teachers should earn financial security (doesn’t the government already control that???)

In Democrats’ minds it is good enough to want something, or to hope for something, and completely unnecessary to have to work hard or earn that wanted thing. In this speech it is never incumbent on students to work hard for their education, or earn the privilege – not the right – to go to college. If they want it, they should have it.

All of the really obvious problems with society, and specifically “black folks”, are overlooked – the majority single-parent households, high crime rate, gangs, and overall cultures of entitlement and fear which have destroyed the black community for going on 3 generations – these are the real issues plaguing black and inner-city Americans, and all of this affects children well before they ever step foot in a kindergarten classroom or dare to dream to be something more than what they started with. What Democrats and Bama refuse to acknowledge is that it takes hard work to turn problems into opportunities into successes, and not just put money in government coffers.

What was surely intended as the highpoint of the speech is when Bama claimed that in convincing states to change their standards he “leveraged change.” Now he must have been talking to some of those dumb kids that came from No Child Left Behind, because change is what happens when you leverage something else. You don’t leverage change, unless he means he leveraged his slogan. What he really leveraged was money. So we know that for Bama, change and money are synonymous. (For those in the Urban League, synonymous means they are essentially the same.) Furthermore, money replaces the need to achieve by hard work. This seems to be the key tenet of the Obama administration: Change = Money. Your money and mine, presumably to give to teachers, from what he says in this speech.

Whether he can translate money into results is the real question, and if history is a guide then Race to the Top will likely end further down the hill from where it began.