Reuters: President Trump consoled the 90-year-old mother of New York City police officer who died in the line of duty last year after she was fatally shot by a mentally-deranged individualWhy are America's prisons filled with so many young black men? Are they inherently bad? Too shiftless to succeed? To stupid to learn? A resounding no on all three counts.
A disproportionate number of young black men pursue a life of crime because they were cheated out of an adequate education by the inexcusably sorry urban schools they had no choice but to attend:
● In 2010-2011, public schools in the nation's capital spent $29,345 per pupil—nearly $600,000 per each classroom of 20 students—yet the District's 8th graders finished dead last in a nationwide proficiency test in math and reading.
● According to a 2015 report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 96 percent of 8th graders in Detroit's public schools tested not proficient in math, and 93 percent tested not proficient in reading.
● According to a 2017 investigation by Project Baltimore, 13 of the city's 39 public high schools had zero students who tested proficient in math. Zero! Of the 3,841 students in the remaining 26 high schools, only 14 tested at or above proficiency in math, less than one-third of one percent.
Besides deserving an F-minus at their assigned mission, what else do these pathetic school systems have in common? They are all run by Democrats in bed with teachers unions.
School choice offers hope
In 2004, President George W. Bush and a Republican Congress enacted a pilot program to provide federally-funded educational vouchers to 7,500 inner city kids in the nation's capitol. A Godsend to black and Hispanic students who want to learn, the scholarships enabled minority children from low-income families to get out of the inexcusably substandard public schools in DC, and into the same kind of safe, high-performing private academies attended by children of affluent families. Who could possibly object to that?
Teachers unions, that's who.
At the demand of teachers union leaders, President Obama and Democrats in Congress killed the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2009. A group of minority children enrolled in the pilot program publicly begged President Obama to please not terminate the scholarship program. Click here to see Sakeithia, then 12, and eight of her peers make their heart-breaking pleas, to no avail.
For half-a-century running, Democrat-controlled urban schools have robbed millions of minority children of a realistic chance at a decent education. In school systems with teachers unions, Democrat administrators and Democrat school boards see to it that the interests of children are subordinated to the interests of teachers. And no wonder. According to a Brookings Institution study, 99% of teachers union political donations go to Democrats.
Fast-forward to January 20, 2017
During his run for the presidency, Donald J. Trump promised to reach out to the African American community. As a major part of that outreach, he has fought tooth and nail for a nationwide, federally-funded scholarship program for inner city kids, but has been obstructed every step of the way by Democrats. Do the educational lives of disadvantaged black children matter? To President Trump, yes. To Democrats and teachers unions? You decide.
By keeping his promise to reach out to the African American community, President Trump is showing that black lives most definitely matter, and is doing so in ways that extend well beyond his impassioned push for school choice:
● In 2018, he signed a clemency plea for an African-American grandmother who had served 20 years of a life sentence for a non-violent drug offense. Hollywood celebrity Kim Kardashian brought Alice Marie Johnson's plight to the attention of President Trump, who ordered her set free. "I felt like I was losing hope. Thank you, President Trump. I love you and I am going to make you proud that you gave me this second chance in life."
● Referred to as a "miracle" by Prison Fellowship, the first significant prison reform in decades was signed into law by President Trump in December 2018. The First Step Act gives prisoners a chance at redemption by providing an opportunity for sentencing relief for people who, like Alice Johnson, received overly-harsh mandatory minimum sentences prior to the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.
● In January 2018, President Trump extended an olive branch to the NFL kneelers by asking them to send him names of African Americans they feel were unfairly treated by the criminal justice system, promising to have his administration review such cases and take remedial action if warranted.
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● Citing racial injustice, President Trump posthumously pardoned black boxing legend Jack Johnson. In 1913, the first African American heavyweight champion was convicted by an all-white jury of taking his white girlfriend across state lines for "immoral purposes." The conviction destroyed Johnson's boxing career. With Sylvester Stallone standing at his side, President Trump signed the pardon in an Oval Office ceremony. Previous presidents, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, rejected bi-partisan requests to grant clemency to Johnson. See 47-sec. video here.
● In 2018, President Trump signed a bill elevating the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr. to full national park status. With the slain civil rights leader's niece, Alveda King, looking on, Trump signed the bill aboard Air Force One. The legislation gives the landmark attraction additional resources, including park rangers and funding for community improvements. Previously rejected by presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the long-championed bill was sponsored by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).
● President Trump is considering pardoning Muhammad Ali. The former heavyweight boxing sensation was sentenced in 1970 to five years in prison after he was convicted of draft evasion. As a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, Ali refused to serve in the military. The prison sentence was overturned in 1971 in an unanimous Supreme Court decision that found the Department of Justice improperly told the draft board that Ali's stance wasn't motivated by his religious beliefs.
● A month after taking office, President Trump signed an executive order that Historically Black Colleges and Universities will be a priority in his administration. As one of 100 African-American educators in attendance, Leonard Haynes, former executive director of the 40-year-old White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, said, "Oh man. I've been around for a long time and I've never seen as many black folks in the Oval Office." In 2019, President Trump kept his promise by signing legislation that provides $250 million of permanent funding to HBCUs.
● In May 2018, African American NYPD officer Miosotis Familia, mother of two, was gunned down by a cop-hater. At a memorial service in the nation's capitol, President Trump hugged, kissed and held hands with Familia's 90-year-old mother, hardly the kind of thing a "racist" president would do. Click here to see heart-wrenching pictures of Familia's grieving mother embracing President Trump. The odds are off the charts that the 34-year-old ex-con who assassinated her daughter was among the millions of young black men denied even a minimally acceptable education by the Democrat-run urban schools they had no choice but to attend. After a lifetime of trouble, the perpetrator won't have to go to prison again—he was killed in a shootout with police. Too bad his educational life never mattered to the political party that gives copious amounts of lip service to how much black lives matter.
Finally, Jimmy Kimmel mocked a group of black leaders who praised President Trump for keeping his promise to reach out to the African American community. In this 4-min. video, Marc Little, chairman of the Center for Urban Renewal & Education, responded to Kimmel's snide remarks.
Since 2008, John has written nearly 900 freelance articles distributed (free of charge) exclusively via email to my large e-distribution list. John is a conservative political independent with an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech (1968).
