Reviews and News:
Why should we still read The Federalist? It reminds us that “a constitutional republic remains possible.”
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In a talk at an Australian writers festival, Lionel Shriver “defended her right to depict members of minority groups in any situation, if it served her artistic purposes.” Upset, officials later “censored her on the festival website and publicly disavowed her remarks.”
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Allan Massie reviews Ron Rash’s new novel, The Risen: “I’ve long thought Ron Rash as good as any contemporary American novelist I’ve read. This lovely and disturbing book confirms that opinion.”
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The Dictionary of American Regional English tries to save 50 American words from becoming archaic.
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“If not now, when?” A recent history of Hillel the Elder’s misattributed maxim, from Ivanka Trump to Ronald Reagan.
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Should colleges and universities be required to give AP credit? No.
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Essay of the Day:
In City Journal, Jason L. Riley explains the long tradition and successes of private support of black education:
“When hedge-fund manager John Paulson donated $8.5 million last year to Success Academy, a public charter school network in New York City, he acted in a long tradition of America’s wealthiest citizens financing educational opportunities for the less fortunate. Today, this philanthropy brings to mind names like Bill Gates, Sam Walton, and Eli Broad. A century ago, it included Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, George Eastman, and John Wanamaker.
“Then, as now, an overriding goal of these benefactors was to improve the social condition of the poor in general, and the black poor in particular. Then, as now, detractors accused wealthy givers of ulterior motives—of advocating the “wrong kind” of education or of donating out of a desire to undermine democratic governance, secure wealth, and burnish their image. What’s not in dispute, however, is that the traditional public schools continue to do an abysmal job of educating low-income minorities, and thus demand remains acute for educational philanthropy that offers alternatives for the underprivileged.
“Paulson didn’t pick Success Academy out of a hat, of course. The charter network is based in New York City, where two out of three students perform below grade level and one in four schools fails 90 percent of its charges. Blacks and Hispanics, who constitute 67 percent of the system’s students, are faring worst. In 2014, 29 percent of New York City public school students passed the state reading exam, and 35 percent passed the math exam. But just 18.5 percent of black students and 23.2 percent of Hispanic students in the Big Apple were proficient in math, and only 19 percent of black and Hispanic test-takers passed the reading portion.
“By contrast, Success Academy, which, like other charters, operates free of the bureaucracies and union work rules that govern traditional public schools, has enrolled the same disadvantaged kids from the same neighborhoods with the same pathologies, yet produced dramatically better results. ‘Though it serves primarily poor, mostly black and Hispanic students,’ reported the New York Times, ‘Success is a testing dynamo, outscoring schools in many wealthy suburbs, let alone their urban counterparts.’ In 2015, 11,000 students—all chosen by lottery—were attending 34 Success Academy schools in New York City. Some 93 percent passed the state math test, beating even the 75 percent pass rate for Scarsdale, an upscale suburb where median family incomes are just under $241,000 and the poverty rate is 2.1 percent. On the reading test, 68 percent of Success students passed, compared with 64 percent for Scarsdale.
“The New York Post has declared Success Academy the top public school system in the Empire State, and it’s hard to argue otherwise. In 2015, Success students scored in the top 1 percent in math and the top 3 percent in reading among all schools in the state. At 72 percent, the math exam passing rate among Success students with disabilities was more than double the city’s passing rate among students without disabilities. Success schools also have made huge strides toward closing the racial-achievement gap. Nationwide, black students on average perform two grade levels behind their white peers. That’s not the case at the Success Academy, where black students outperformed New York City white students by 35 points in math and by 14 points in reading. Is it any wonder that the charter network had more than 22,000 families enter the lottery for only 2,300 open seats in 2014? Is it any wonder that John Paulson was so eager to help Success Academy expand? Like his philanthropic predecessors, he prioritizes improving black outcomes, not preserving a public education framework that continues to ill-serve poor minorities.”
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Image of the Day: Cyclone Morgana
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Poem: Sarah Ruden, “A Painting in the National Gallery”
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