Curmudgeon's Corner

"Educational" Debate

Posted by Al Campbell on Nov. 4, 2011

Wisconsin, Political, Education, Quality of Life, U.S.

The debate, if it can be called that, over education grants being weighted in favor of minority applicants was quite informative, even though we have learned that it was totally unnecessary.

The whole thing started when Peggy Krusick (D) of Milwaukee offered an amendment that would’ve made it illegal for minority status to be used as a determinant in the awarding of grant money.  The Democrat caucus was in an instant uproar and met for hours trying to determine how best to respond to the amendment’s author from taking no action against her to banning her from the Democrat caucus completely.

The audacity of Krusick to even think about not using minority status to make such grant determinations was apparently an affront to her associates.  The idea that non-minorities ought to be given an equal opportunity just didn’t seem to have that ring to it that was required for support.

All other things being equal, things such as actual financial need for example, minority status not being the trump card was simply not something that could be voted upon.

Come to find out (and one wonders why this was not known before the amendment was made), the practice of weighting decisions in favor of minorities because they were minorities had been discontinued by the state’s Higher Educational Aids Board a year ago after it received a complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights claiming that this practice actually discriminated against non-minorities.

Frankly, I was quite surprised to see that the Feds had intervened earlier to end what they saw as a form of reverse discrimination.