The Train Wreck of Politics

Politics is like an attractive nuisance.  There are so many reasons why what politicians do annoy us, but nonetheless political junkies remain attracted to the stories in the news.  Yes politics has turned into entertainment and campaigns and elections often  seem like farces, but that should not distract us from the reality that politics and government are important.
Government does matter in terms of what it does and, while we often forget it, government in the US has accomplished a lot and made powerful positive differences in our lives.  Ranging from landing a man on the Moon, fluoridating water to improve dental health, or producing tap water, roads, bridges, and arresting the bad guys and putting out fires, government matters.  Free markets are fine in their place, but they have proved to be incapable of addressing many problems our society confronts. Having said all that as an important reminder to those who see government as bad or evil, there are several stories in the news this week that highlight what many see as the bad side of politics.

Trump: “Have you no sense of decency?”
The witch hunts of the 1950s McCarthy era crashed to a close on June 9, 1954.  After Senator Joe McCarthy during a public hearing made another allegation about someone’s political affiliations,  Joseph Welsh, chief counsel for the US Army retorted: “You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”  Welch’s comments exposed the reckless and cruel attacks of McCarthy as nothing more than shameful rhetoric made for personal political gain.  Maybe Donald Trump has finally had his Welsh moment.
For months there has been a death watch as Trump insulted one group after another.  It has included military POWS, women, Muslims, non-mainline Christians, and now individuals with handicaps.  This latest was mocking a NY Times reporter’s physical handicap.  Till now the comments seemed not to hurt him.  Instead the controversies only gave him media coverage, giving him attention in ways that bullies get attention when they pick on someone.  It may still be the case that Trump’s latest comments will not hurt him long term and that he remains the favorite in the polls among Republicans.  Yet a recent Reuters poll shows a 12% drop in his support among Republicans in the last week.  Is it possible that he has finally reached a point where he has insulted enough Americans that he has crossed the line?  When do you think he will pick on orphans, kick a dog, or spit at someone?
Clearly something has changed.  Check out John Kasich ad where Trump is compared to Hitler.  This is a hard hitting ad that points out how Trump has gone after one group after another just like Hitler (and McCarthy) did.  Surprising that the ad is by a candidate and not a SuperPac.  But it does appear that other candidates are no longer afraid of Trump.

Trump Part II:   @!*&%# Off!
Trump has had a major impact on the Republican presidential race in many ways, including his use of foul language.  The NY Times reports that other GOP candidates are now also swearing on the campaign circuit.  The road to macho must be through the seven words that George Carlin could not say on television (and which Bono got fined for using) but which candidates for president can now freely deploy.  I a waiting for the next Republican debate where Kasich turns to Trump and says “F— off!”  If that happens we are not far from the classic SNL routine where Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin do a mock debate, ending with the famous line “Jane you ignorant slut.”

Why we hate politicians
Ann Lenczewski was a well respected member of the Minnesota House of Representative.  She was perhaps the leading expert on tax policy.  Yet she recently announced her resignation to join a law firm to become a lobbyist lobbying the state legislature.  In a recent interview in Politics in Minnesota when asked about the fact that this looks really bad she replied:

“That’s understandable.  If the Legislature would pass a law, which has never happened, and a governor would sign it, that would say you can’t lobby for one or two years, I would follow the law. ...Many former House members have gone on to be lobbyists:...there’s dozens and dozens of them...The House has a rule [against lobbying], but it only applies if you’re a member of the House.”

Her answer is akin to the “if everyone else is doing it, it must be ok.”  Her answer simply rang hollow and showed clear deafness for how bad this looks.  It is even worse to know that for years she was one of the major sponsors of legislation to ban this type of behavior.  I guess at the end of the day it is another story of if you can’t beat them, join them.  Ann is a good person whose statement simply captures the reality of how bad even Minnesota politics is.  No wonder the state earned a D- in its most recent ranking on ethics.

The 2016 Minnesota Election Themes 
It is becoming clear what the 2016 elections themes will be in the battle for the Minnesota House and Senate.  Of course it will be the Senate Office Building but so too look to see Polymet and Black Lives Matters as issues.  So too will be whether to help workers on the Iron Range and Lake Mille Lacs as the governor had wanted.  These are issues that divide not just the two major parties but also the Democrats.
Moreover, while the governor is perfectly correct that something needs to be done to address  the racial disparities in Minnesota, it is not clear that the Democrats and he are building the political coalition in greater Minnesota to accomplish this.  Black Lives Matters may be good copy and a salient issue that could help urban Democrats, but it is not an issue that will help them in the suburbs and greater Minnesota.
Why raise all this?  So far the Republicans in Minnesota seem to be defining a better set of themes and campaign narratives than are the Democrats.  While in a presidential election year DFLers normally do better look at 2016 as a year where it will still be difficult for Democrats to retake the House and the battle for the Senate will be challenging.

The Achievement Gap
Finally, take a look at this sobering article on the state of education and race in America since Brown v. The Board of Education.  The gaps between Blacks and Whites show that race still matters and that perhaps we need to show as much anger about the education gap as we do about the shooting of African-Americans by police officers.
No, the solution is not vouchers or to get rid of public schools as conservatives demand.  There is little evidence that these gimmicks along with charter schools have succeeded.  Simply spending more money on schools is not the answer (although the US does spend less on education as a percentage of its GDP compared to other major countries) in the same way that cutting taxes is not  always the answer. The question is how to spend money–existing and new–to improve education.  The answer lies not just in spending on schools but also in support networks that make it possible to support families, parents, and communities.

A Day in the Life of Black Minnesota: What Black Lives Matters Minnesota Wants to Say But is Not Being Heard

Do Black lives matter in Minnesota?  Despite being a state with a progressive, tolerant, and egalitarian reputation, the group Black Lives Matter (BLM) has repeatedly demonstrated to highlight the racial disparities and discrimination in Minnesota.  Their demonstrations deserve attention yet it is not so clear that their message is being heard by policy makers and voters.

            A generation ago political scientist Andrew Hacker wrote Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal.  It documented an America divided racially, pointing not just to the housing and educational segregation between Blacks and Whites, but also to how this divide affected the many other ways the two races experience life, including the way they experience the criminal justice system and pop culture.  Blacks and whites live in different worlds, consume different foods, watch different television shows, movies, and music.  They also interact with the government and policy makers in very different ways.  This is true in Minnesota too.

            A range of studies point to the different ways Blacks and Whites live in Minnesota.  For Whites, the economy is generally good, home ownership high, the schools among the best in the country, and the police professional and respectful.  White students in Minnesota have among the best SATs in the country, living up to the myth of Lake Wobegon where all of them are above average.  Unemployment for Whites is among the lowest in the country, incomes among the highest.  Yet for Blacks, it is a tale of two cities; it is another or different Minnesota in which they live.

            Consider first education and housing.  Nationally almost 30 years ago American Apartheid  by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton  described a nation as segregated as the Jim Crow era. More recently Myron Orfield’s Institute for Metropolitan Opportunity 2015 report “Why are Twin Cities so Segregated” points to a persistent residential and educational segregation  patterns in the seven county metro area.  Blacks live in high or concentrated poverty neighborhoods in Minneapolis or St Paul and in a few inner ring suburbs.  These are areas with high crime, high and persistent unemployment, few services, and weak schools.  Yet there is nothing really new in this report: Twenty years earlier studies by the Institute on Race and Poverty pointed to the same conditions, finding the Twin Cities to be among the most segregated metropolitan areas in the country.  But the power of the Orfield study is documenting how a generation later, despite policies of open enrollment and charter schools, little has changed the educational segregation.  Moreover the report points to a retreat from fair share housing, and the political pressures from the housing and educational community that have exacerbated segregation.

            Now look at education specifically.  Minnesota Department of Education data point to Blacks and other students of color scoring 30 points or more lower on achievement tests compared to whites.  US Department of Education data demonstrates Minnesota near the bottom of the list in on-time high school graduation rates for Blacks, with an overall 67% graduation for Black males (compared to 90% for White Males) according to the 2015 Schott Foundation for Public Education report.  The Black White male graduation gap is one of the highest in the country.  Finally, a 2014 study found Black students ten times more likely to be suspended or expelled from Minneapolis schools than White students.

            Third, look at income and unemployment.  A 2013  Minnesota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report found the unemployment gap for Blacks to be three times that of Whites.  A 2015 report by the Center for Popular Democracy found the report to be nearly four times, second worst among states in the nation, only behind Wisconsin.  And 2015 US Census data point to Minnesota as having one of the highest Black White gaps in medium family income in the nation.

            Finally, consider how Blacks experience the criminal justice system.  Nationally Nina Moore’s 2015 book The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice describes the existence of two criminal justice systems in America–one for Whites and one for Blacks.  The criminal justice system Blacks experience is one where they are more likely to be stopped, detained, searched, shot, and imprisoned than whites.  This is the reality that BLM Minnesota has sought to highlight. Marie Gottschalk’s Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics evidences Minnesota as having the worst Black-White incarceration ratio in the nation. Michael Tonry at the University of Minnesota has reached similar conclusions.

            The picture is not pretty for Blacks in Minnesota.  Blacks and Whites dwell in separate worlds in Minnesota and experience schools, housing, education, the economy, and the criminal justice system differently.  Their worlds are separate and unequal.  This is the sobering message that BLM Minnesota wants to articulate, yet how effective have they been?

            BLM Minnesota takes it tactics from a page in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter From the  Birmingham Jail.”  There he writes of the power of use of nonviolent direct action to create a ”crisis and establish such a creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue of discrimination.”  For King, direct action creates a crisis that opens the door to negotiation–it forces White policy makers to act.  This means protests at Mall of America, the State Fair, or seeking to shut down the TC Marathon, with the aiming of forcing a crises and bringing white privilege to the bargaining table.  It’s a great theory, and it worked once, but it is no longer so clear that such a strategy will work.

            For one, so far BLM Minnesota has not brought policy makers to the table. Yes Governor  Dayton and Mayor Coleman have met with them but no policy commitments.  There is also no evidence that state legislators are moving.  Second, as Randall Kennedy’s recent “Lifting as We Climb” essay in Harper’s Magazine suggested, the tactics being used by Black activists today departs dramatically from those 50 or more years ago, and instead of gaining attention of White America, it is alienating them.  The media and public reaction to the State Fair and TC Marathon protests reveal how the BLM protests overshadowed their message.

            But second, Nina Moore points to how even if one reaches policy makers and forces them to the negotiation table, public attitudes and electoral strategies create disincentives for policy makers to dismantle racially discriminatory policies.  Instead, protests such as at the Fair or Marathon reinforce a get tough on crime strategy that only makes matters worse racially.  Needed instead are electoral strategies to change the political incentives.

            Finally, even King’s “Letter From the Birmingham Jail” noted how perhaps the greatest impediment to civil rights reform is the white moderate who says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action.”  It is the white moderate, here the vast majority of white Minnesotans, who pose the biggest challenge to BLM Minnesota.  They are the ones who need to be won over.  It is they who need to pressure the policy makers to negotiate and change, but so far BLM Minnesota has failed to craft a message and set of tactics to sway them.  Instead, arguably they have done little to succeed with them, raising serious doubt that they have even begun to succeed in making the case for why Black lives should matter in Minnesota.

Bridging the Achievement Gap: The Limits of Education Reform

Note:  This blog originally appeared in Politics in Minnesota.

The educational achievement gap will not be solved by better teaching, or by firing teachers or bashing unions.  Or by vouchers, charter schools, teacher pay for performance, pre-school, all day kindergarten, or simply by a new curriculum.  The achievement gap is a matter of race and class that may not be solved by the schools or educators alone.  It requires attention to the social economic forces that define the lives of students and which affect their ability to learn.

            Addressing the educational achievement gap is the issue de jure.  The Minneapolis and St Paul mayors want to be the education mayors.  R T Rybek sees his gubernatorial future in talking about the gap, and politicians and educators of all stripes are talking about it.  A recent Pew research Center Report entitled The Rising Cost of Not Going to College points to the erosion in the value of a high school degree and the need to get more students of color  into college. The gap nationally and in Minnesota is real.  Simply stated, while Minnesota has one of the highest graduation rates in the nation, with student standardized test scores second only to Massachusetts, the story is very different for people of color and for the poor.  The graduation rate and test scores between whites and students  of color in Minnesota is the largest in the country. We are largely failing (in both meanings of the term) students of color–the children who will be the future of this state.  This failure also overlaps with poverty, meaning that many poor whites also fit into this category of those victimized by the gap.

            So now the question is what to do?  Minnesota to a large extent has been an education innovator over time.  We were the first to introduce open enrollment, allowing students to cross district lines to attend school.  Yet with more than a generation of experimenting with open enrollment, few parents participate in it and there is little data that it has made much difference in outcomes.  Minnesota also led the nation in pushing for charter schools, believing somehow that these educational experiments freed from normal rules and bureaucratic constraints–and teachers unions–would be better run by a bunch of educational amateurs.  Largely the evidence here to is inconclusive regarding their efficacy, although there is powerful data offered by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity that charter schools have enhanced segregation.  Finally, Minnesota has experimented with magnet schools, tinkered with class size, and given lip service to rectifying educational funding disparities across school districts.  It has also talked of full day kindergarten and universal pre-school–both laudable adventures–but so far little money has been forthcoming for these adventures.

            In so many ways Minnesota is a terrific microcosm of the reforms many advocates proposal to fix public schools and address the achievement gap.  So many of the current ideas revolve around ideas such as vouchers, school choice, holding teachers accountable with merit pay, and closing poorly performing schools.  For the most part, as education scholar Diane Ravich points out in recent books such as Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools and The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, these fads have mostly failed.  There is little evidence that they have improved performance overall for students let alone addressed the achievement gap.  Instead, they seem more the product of ideology–conservative attacks on teachers’ unions, government, and taxes–and less about education reform.

            What Ravich is hinting at is that part of the reason why Johnny and Jane cannot read is about what schools are or are not doing, and part is about what society is or is not doing.

            Perhaps the best recent book on the failure of American education is Amanda Ripley’s The Smartest Kids in the World.  She examines what the best performing school systems in the world are doing by looking at South Korea, Finland, and Poland.  What she finds is that–to paraphrase President Obama–“That used to be us.”  These countries take education seriously.  Teaching and education are held out to be important.  Only the best and brightest are selected to be teachers, educated at a finite number of colleges that impose rigorous standards.  Teachers are subject to constant training and support and–mostly importantly–are paid well for their efforts.  There are also  high demands set for students, and families are expected and do support schools and their children.  Moreover the purpose of schools is clear and unambiguous–educate–and not confused with  other distractions such as sports.  In short, for those of us who grew up in the age of Sputnik and the race with the Russians to the Moon, education was culturally taken seriously.  While singer  Sam Cooke may have lamented that he did not know much about history, ignorance was not accepted as bliss.  This is part of the message that South Korea, Finland, and Poland teach.

            But what the Ripley and Ravich books also point out, and what we learned in the 1960s, is that students cannot learn if they come to school hungry, sick, or abused.  The school lunch and breakfast programs as well as Head Start started under Lyndon Johnson pointed out that Johnny cannot study if he is hungry or starts at an educational disadvantage.  That is still true today.  Income and educational achievement are powerfully correlated, and if we want to address achievement gaps we need to address poverty.  We also need to address racism–the racism that still condemns many students of color to inferior schools.  The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was supposed to desegregate schools and banish separate but equal from America.  But the reality is 60 years later America’s schools remain as segregated as ever, with race and class reinforcing one another.   One need only read Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace, or Fire in the Ashes to see the reality of how racial and economic discrimination  plague American education.

            So what is the point of all this when it comes to the achievement gap?  Perhaps yes there are some things we can do in the classroom to improve educational outcomes and performance, but they are not what we are currently doing.  Maybe smaller class sizes will help, but the evidence suggests only up to a point.  Tracking or separating students out by ability also lacks data supporting its efficacy.  But all day kindergarten, universal pre-school, and even all-year school demonstrate improved outcomes and life prospects for students.  Programs such as HOSTS which feature one-on-one reading with students, yield results.  Frankly, all students do better when they all do better, and that means we all of them are given the same chance and encouragement to learn.

            Perhaps the most important thing we can do to address the achievement gap is to confront  the underlying poverty and racism that prevents students from learning.  Governor Dayton was correct in proposing that the government pay for the lunches for students who cannot afford it.  We need to go further.  We need to stabilize the family situation of many students–nutrition programs, health care, housing, and other social service programs need to be strengthened so that children and family do not have to worry about where the next meal is coming from, or where their next bed will be located.  We are never going to solve the achievement gap in the classroom until such time as we address the gap that separates students before they even walk into the classroom.