Discrimination is alive and well in Texas

I think the best way to solve the whole thing is have a revenue sharing between all schools. That way, the high schools would be equally distributed as far as funding and supplies goes. Then we just get rid of affirmative action in the college level.

 

You mean like the robon hood plan currently in effect now? School districts that are opposed to this comapre it to a state sales tax which we all know is illegal in Texas.
In regards to equalizing high schools and it's effect on entrance to Texas colleges, this was the main premise behind the 10% rule. After the Hopwood decision if you are in the top 10 % of your graduating class then you were guaranteed admission into a public Texas university. The thinking was that a good number of students would choose to go elsewhere (Ivy league, and other prestigious out of state schools) rather than stay in Texas. That didn't help and UT was FORCED to admit more students than they had planned for years before Hopwood was decided. This overcrowed UT and made it so that students outside of the top 10 % and transfers from other Universities were denied in greater numbers. This included a lot of minorities tht lacked SAT scores due to being eduacted in a poorer district who completed their "basics" at Community colleges with very good GPA's but still could not get into their first choice Texas schools. This closed another gateway for under privileged students.

 

I can't speak for the Hispanics or Blacks on this BBS, but if I f*cked up in school growing up, my mom would whoop my ass. I would hear all kinds of crap if I came home with B's on my report card. I would have priveleges like TV, video games, and Little League taken away if I didn't make the grades. Conversely, I was rewarded for doing well, with books, toys, and the like. But that's just conversation.

Fact is, until we can get the facilities and funding at the Milby's, Sterling's, and Yates' of the state up to par, then we need to keep some type of affirmative action in our public universities. I can't in good faith say that I would have done as well if I had gone to school at Smiley as opposed to Kempner. From my freshman year, my English and Math teachers had prepared us for the SAT and AP exams. Meanwhile, the teachers at the inner-city schools are teaching their students how to pass the TAAS.

The inner-city schools in Texas are grotesquely under-funded, and are some of the worst in the nation. Hell, HISD recently made the news for having some of the worst test scores nationally. Rod Paige worked miracles with that school district with the little funding that he did receive. Bottom line, our public schools need more funding, and these GD "vouchers" only help a very small percentage of students. Upgrade classrooms so that each room has at least 1 computer and projector. We're Texas, dammit. No reason why one of the wealthiest states in the nation should have the sh*ttiest schools.

 

Excellent post, Baqui. I could not agree with your points more.

 

Nice post Baqui.

I wrote an article about affirmative action at the UH newspaper not too long ago, and I felt the same way as you do.

 

I smell a raging inferiority complex.

 

This is pretty much my point. I'm not sure how much of the populartion are made up of Asians, I think somehwere around 3-5% but this perception by the Trader Texx's of the world that every Asian immigrant is a Vietnamese boat person who came here with nothing is just nonsense. Poor Asians cannot come to this country in the same numbers as poor latins just from a logistical standpoint alone. I'm betting if we were somehow able to break down the wealth of first generation immigrants by race that Asians would easily rank ahead of any other minority.

 

Way to address my points with your typical nothing. Asians aren't on average wealthier immigrants because there are Asians who live in poor sections of town? That makes sense. I can't imagine why wealthy Asians don't live in Chinatown, maybe the it's the same reason that wealthy white people don't live in trailer parks. This is genius!

This also shows how little you know about Latinos (how surprising) and the example I provided. You are obviously completely unaware about how Cubans are perceived in Latin America. These are things you can't learn in spanish class eh buddy? I do believe Communism and dictators change the mindset of a populace, you've done nothing here to suggest otherwise. But in typical fashion you have no response worthy of any thought.

I already provided the government's rationalization for AA and how colleges use it. You chose not to address it, how surprising. My points on why I believe Asians are more wealthy has nothing to do with rationalizations for AA. You can't even delineate one argument from another instead choosing to garble it all up as one argument and play your games. *yawn*

 

Originally posted by bigtexxx
Right, I know nothing about latinos. Nevermind all the time I've spent living and working as an engineer in Guadalajara. Actually my boss in Mexico was Cuban. I'm not unaware of Cubans and how they're perceived at all, champ. I've also spent time working in Germany with many East Germans, and I've noticed a considerable difference in their work habits compared to those from the former West Germany. So I have some direct experience working with the products of communism...


Perhaps the argument that communism has driven a group of people to be overachieving hard workers? Oh goodness that's funny.

Well you either don't or you'd rather play your role as TJ disciple so much that you can't address points constructively. I guess we know which one that is since you've now been challanged to a point where you've been forced to agree that Communism creates a different mindset thus contradicting what you've said in this thread. Defeated at your own little game I'd say.

 

the population of asians in the US is so little compared to other minorities. maybe you're unaware, but there were quotas that limited the amount of asians coming into the united states, the only people who could immigrate legally were the educated ones and educated people in asia usually were the ones that had some money. the uneducated ones had to immigrate illegally and were basically pennyless when they came here. like my father, he was a sailor on a ship, and when it stopped in the US, he snuck off the ship and hid at a friend's place. the quotas on asian countries prevented uneducated asians from coming into this country in large numbers. european countries immigration quotas were not as small, therefore no limitation was put on them and that's why whites are the majority. the illegal asian immigrants do actually come here with basically nothing. some either have relatives who can give them a minimum wage job or below minimum wage or some illegal immigrants come into the country and have to pay OFF huge debts for years before they earn any money of their own to pay the people who help them sneak into the country. i don't think asians would rank ahead of other minorities if they categorized each asian ethnic group separately instead of grouping them all together. also i think one of the reasons asians might rank higher statistically in wealth or whatever may have to do with the way their families combine all their earnings together. and like i said before, some parts of asia are better than the US, the majority is still below US standards.

so in conclusion, asians are not all boat people.

 

I don't really agree with that. Tickets from South America to the US are not much cheaper than tickets from Asia. At least the difference in ticket prices is not significant enough to really support your little theory that they must be wealthier.

That theory is "interesting", but it does not really explain the success of Koreans coming to the US. My own experience with Koreans in the US is that they are really well-organized and support each other everywhere they can. The same goes for the Cubans in Miami. I don't know why, but it seems less like that with some of the groups from other countries I have gotten to know.

 

the thing about koreans is that it depends on what part of korea they came from. north korea is poor. south korea is wealthier and the people are probably more educated.

the koreans are also extremely ethnocentric from what i've noticed. they won't help other asians at all. they strictly help their own korean people. example: if a korean person could buy something cheaper at a chinese place, he/she would not buy from the chinese person, they would go to the korean person and buy from them (even at a higher price) to help support koreans. (this is kind of a stereotype, no offense, kind of generalizing, but it is what i notice)

 

You won't see many people from North Korea in the US, as they cannot get out of their country, so this distinction is not really relevant for the argument.

 

I could dispel some of these myths for you but my wife will kick my ass...

 

I think the best way to solve the whole thing is have a revenue sharing between all schools. That way, the high schools would be equally distributed as far as funding and supplies goes.

The irony is that one of the poorest performing school districts in the state is also the second-richest. Dallas has a whole heck of a lot of taxable property. Their per-pupil taxable property value is sky-high. So, an honest revenue-sharing arrangement would take money away from the Dallas ISD because they should have among the highest per-pupil revenues in the state.

Some of the poorest school districts are ones that have very few minorities in them (largely rural communities with very small tax bases). Equaling out their funding would not affect minority achievement.

 

For what it is worth, most poor Latin/Central Americans don't fly when coming to the US.

Also, for what it is worth, my wife's parents were rich in their "home country" and have had little money since arriving here.

Baqui,

Unless you mean cheating as being a miracle, then you are wrong. Paig is/was/always has and always will be an idiot. I know many HISD employees who were thrilled to see him go...and many HISD policies changed almost immediately.

 

One more thing I meant to add: if the performance differences are not a result of priveledge/environment then what is the cause? Culture? Genetics? Anyone can join in as this is just for fun, but this is most directed towards those arguing vehemently against Timing's and a few others' theories.

 

Yeah, Paige, for lack of a better word, has been EXPOSED by several investigative reports over the past few years. His accomplishments w/HISD were about as legitimate as Enron's Annual Reports.

 

When I clicked on this thread and saw only the last response I thought you guys were ganging up on me.