THE US REPORT

Commentary by Kay B. Day

Parents assisted by the Southern Legal Counsel and Fund Education Now have filed lawsuits against Florida’s education system. Complaints include the state’s failure “to provide the necessary resources for education,” The Florida Times-Union said. That failure causes low regular-diploma type graduation rates and lack of school safety. These groups follow the lead of the American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit, Aho et al. vs. Charlie Crist et al., filed in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County, Florida.

The lawsuits  apparently have to do with how much money is allocated to schools. One parent cited by the T-U said it actually had to do more with how the money is spent, although the paper said that the lawsuit mainly addresses funding in general.

Most studies and lawsuits claiming to act on behalf of students break school populations down by racial groups. Most always cite a gap between whites, hispanics and blacks.

Here’s a perfect example of the reasoning common with the ACLU's reliance on identity politics. In a news release touting the lawsuit against Florida and state officials, the leftwing extremist group said in a news release:  “Additionally, a significant disparity exists between the graduation rates of African-American and Hispanic students and those of white students. For the past five years, the gap between black and white graduation rates has remained approximately 30 percentage points, while the gap between Hispanic and white graduation rates has been about 20 percentage points. According to the ACLU's legal challenge, the stark difference in graduation rates along racial lines is evidence enough of the school district's constitutional violations.”

Who is responsible for the student?
Within these claims there is a sharp ideological divide. I tagged the ACLU a leftwing extremist group because that’s my opinion—these lawsuits place the entire responsibility for education on the state and consequently, on the taxpayer. As a conservative, I place most of the burden of education on a dual partnership—the parents and the state.

I’m a veteran of public schools. Few in my family have ever attended a private school. My own education began in a school funded by a cotton mill. Eventually the school was closed and we transferred to the public school. Most of us were leagues ahead of the students in those public schools, and that was a direct product of our upbringing and our values. In those days the teacher was always right. If a kid got in trouble at school, she got in double trouble at home. Dropping out was not an option. We had no kindergartens at that time. Yet my mother saw to it her children could read when we began first grade. She was a factory worker, but she made time to read to us. She also remained in a difficult marriage because she believed in the validity of her contract. Furthermore, she never once suggested we were victims. She would have punished us had we blamed anyone else for our poor choices.

What do these lawsuits overlook?
For starters, the $100 billion dollar man. In a previous column, we wrote about this missing element in parenting after reading a report from the National Fatherhood Initiative. Here’s a rather startling fact: “Today, half of all children, and 80 percent of African-American children, can expect to spend at least part of their childhood living apart from their fathers.”

In January, we wrote about the teen birth rate--The National Center for Health Statistics announced the teen birth rate rose in 26 states during 2006, reaching the highest level since 1971. In Florida, the teen birth rate is 45.2 per 1,000, according to the Kaiser Foundation [ages 15-19].

The Centers for Disease Control has figures on increases in births for teen mothers in 2006. The largest increases were reported for non-Hispanic black teens, whose overall rate rose 5 percent in 2006. The rate rose 2 percent for Hispanic teens, 3 percent for non-Hispanic white teens, and 4 percent for American Indian or Alaska Native teens.

The birth rates in the CDC report are sobering. Non-hispanic black teenagers averaged 63.7 births per 1,000; hispanic teens averaged 83 births per 1,000; non-hispanic whites averaged 26.6 per 1,000.

Children raising (or not) raising children
Obviously children raising children will have an impact on the education system. So will other factors, such as Florida’s sanctuary policy for foreign-born noncitizens (otherwise known as illegal residents).

Until leaders acknowledge the fallacy inherent in the Nanny State governance that trickles down from the federal level to the states, we will see shortcomings in our educational systems. Until leaders acknowledge the shortfalls of entitlements for both legal and illegal residents, we will see money diverted from programs for citizens and legal residents to provide social services for illegal residents. Until we acknowledge the absolute necessity of families taking responsibility for their own, we will continue to pay a steep price for the missing $100 billion man.

The Nanny State will never come close to the value of responsible parents regardless of the money we allocate.

And we will be at the mercy of leftwing extremists like the ACLU and well-meaning advocacy groups who may certainly succeed in costing the state more money we do not have but who will never ever be able to remedy that missing man as well as the shortcomings of a child trying to  or neglecting to raise a child.

Nor can advocacy groups imbue children or teens with respect for human property or life. That value begins with and is nurtured by responsible parents.

Until politicos stop pandering for votes by expanding entitlements that have managed to grow an uneducated underclass trained to perceive themselves as permanent victims, we will continue to see children have babies and our schools will come up short as a result.