By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

Robert Johnson, the Founder of Black Entertainment (BET) has consistently spoken out against the wealth divide between the black and white communities, and everyone knows that the surest way out of poverty is through a solid education.

Unfortunately many black and Hispanic students are consigned to attend deplorable schools and kept in these schools by Democrats.  Far too often Democrats champion racial equality, but their policies have had a polar opposite effect and contribute to racial inequality.

Report after report have shown that over 70% of black and Hispanic students cannot do English or math to grade level, thus when they graduate high school they are at a severe economic disadvantage.

One only has to look at California as an example of failed Democratic educational polices that constantly have black and Hispanic children tethered to failing public schools.

Democrats blame systematic racism for why black and Hispanic children fail to achieve educational parity with white and Asian students.  But if one looks deeper with an unbiased mind you can find that systematic racism is found in the k-12 system where Democratic politicians consistently keep black and Hispanic children in failing schools denying them any choice to attend a charter school which could better their educational opportunities.

Far too often Democrats are more beholden to the powerful education unions who give exclusively to the Democratic Party to do their bidding which prevents any kind of educational reform.  Open Secrets have detailed the amount of contributions the educational unions give to Democrats.

Back in California, the state recently gave a much powerful gift to the educational unions, especially to its strongest union the California Teachers Association who now stand to benefit from three provisions placed in the “omnibus education trailer bill.”   

The three provisions in the bill include prohibiting the laying off teachers, placing a virtual cap on charter school enrollments, and finally diluting any transparency and accountability with regard to educational achievement.  This would include how educational revenue is allocated.

Ironically the state of California consistently wants transparency from charter schools but fails to apply the same standard of accountability to the k-12 public school system.

In 2016 nine California school children led by Beatriz and Elizabeth Vergara filed equal-protection lawsuit against the State, claiming their constitutional rights were violated because of the deplorable education they were receiving.  Almost all of these students were children of color who took this step because the Democrats running the state’s k-12 school system failed them.  This situation of failed Democratic educational policy is replicated across the country.

Instead of improving the lives of the children of color, Democrats decided to fight against these students and support their benefactors the powerful education unions.  The trial judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on all counts, with his decision focused on the despicable educational opportunities that black and Hispanic children face in California. The judge even stated this as to “shock the conscience,” as these children have no other educational opportunities afforded them.

One of the experts speaking on behalf of the plaintiffs found that spending one academic year with a poorly performing teacher was equivalent to losing about 9.5 months of satisfactory education. Note that a school year is about 9 months. According to this research, having a bad teacher for a year is worse than having no teacher at all.

What happens when you spend your entire life stuck being educated in the poor performing k-12 system?

One of the most ironic aspects of this lawsuit is that once the plaintiffs overwhelmingly won their case, then California State Attorney General Kamala Harris immediately appealed the decision.  Harris who is now considered one of the frontrunners to be the running mate to Joe Biden, throughout her presidential run she passionately spoke about minorities attending failing schools.

Harris like all Democrats speaks of racial inequality in words only, but their actions consistently contribute to racial inequality.  Democrats always place their benefactors the teachers unions ahead of black and Hispanic children they claim to want to help.

Since that lawsuit was filed nothing has changed, as the situation only gotten worse.  The State of California Department of Education has reported that from 2015-19 over 70% of black and Hispanic children are not able to do English or math to grade level.  Yet Democrats who control the state’s educational apparatus consistently fail to give black and Hispanic children other options; instead keep them in failing public schools.

In 2018, two Democrats faced each other for state school superintendent. Then Assembly member Tony Thurmond was for the status quo and had the full backing of the Democratic Party, but equally important the 100% support from the California teacher’s union’s.

Unfortunately for black and Hispanic children the opponent against Thurmond Democratic candidate, Marshall Tuck was a school reform advocate who never stood a chance.  If he was elected he wanted to reform teacher tenure and compensation policies, which would also include merit-base pay.

At the Democratic State Convention he hoped to articulate his vision but was drowned out by a sustained chorus of boos, from the Democrats in attendance.  Democrats believed it was more important to maintain the status quo and to do what their benefactors the teachers unions told them to do. For all the rhetoric of racial injustice black and Hispanic children knew what that meant they are still consigned to failing public schools which limits their educational opportunities and contributes to wealth inequality.

As the 2020 presidential election proceeds’ presumptive Democratic nominee for President, former Vice President Joe Biden has outlined his educational agenda if elected. Biden would outline greater pay for educators, increase funding for public schools, especially those targeting schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families.  Far too often the increased pay for educators is diverted to cover the rising costs of health and pension obligations which continue to rise exponentially.

Nothing in Biden’s educational agenda calls for any choice given to black and Hispanic families to send their children to a charter school or use a voucher to place their child in a better preforming school.

Why has Biden never been asked why he opposes charter school?  In January, Biden stated, “When we divert public funds to private schools, we undermine the entire public education system. We’ve got to prioritize investing in our public schools, so every kid in America gets a fair shot,” he wrote in a tweet Wednesday night. “That’s why I oppose vouchers.”

On Friday, while speaking at a virtual assembly before the National Education Association (NEA) Biden pledged undying loyalty to the union by stating, “When we win this election, we’re going to get the support you need and the respect you deserve,” Mr. Biden said. “You don’t just have a partner in the White House; you’ll have an NEA member in the White House. And if I’m not listening, I’m going to be sleeping alone in the Lincoln Bedroom.”

Before the same educational union in March Biden stated, “No privately funded charter school—or private charter school—would receive a penny of federal money.”  If he is elected president his administration would make sure all federal funding would go to the educational unions thus leaving black and Hispanic children stuck in deplorable schools further exacerbating wealth and racial inequality.

It’s interesting to note that Biden opposes school choice for others but he himself sent his son’s to the Catholic high school at the Archmere Academy in Delaware, where one year’s tuition costs close to $29,000 a year.

I guess for Biden it’s more important for his children to receive a “fair shot” at a solid education, but not important for black and Hispanic children to receive the same “fair shot” for the solid education his children received.  Why hasn’t Biden been asked this?

Ironically other’s prominent in the Democratic Party who are most opposed to charter schools and who advocate strongly for public schools send their children to private schools.  Senator Elizabeth Warren and former President Barack Obama are two glaring examples of one standard for your child but a different one for mine.

Many in the Democratic Party would counter the argument that charter schools divert funding from public schools, and that many black and Hispanic children live in poverty which affects their educational opportunities.  The other argument that Democrats promulgate if we only had more funding we would achieve that desired results.

Countering this argument on more funding, across the United States during 2018-19 the country faced dozens of educational workers’ strikes that centered primarily on increased pay for educators in the k-12 system.  The media coverage of the strike failed to mention to the American people that increased pay for teachers almost always gets diverted to cover the ever growing health and pension obligations. The underlying issues throughout the strike went far beyond pay for educators but the main goal was for the elimination of charter schools.

More and more parents are pulling their children out of public schools and placing them in charter schools so there children have an opportunity to achieve a better educational result.

Los Angles the 2nd largest school district in the nation is currently facing between $8-11 billion in debt and with dwindling student enrollment the district has to take every available resource to cover its ever expanding health and pension obligations.  Little is left over to help black and Hispanic students achieve better educational outcomes.

At the beginning of the first day of the 2019-20 school year, Jason Riley a Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute Fellow wrote that with the majority of students returning to the New York school system, the majority of them can’t do basic reading or math, according to state standardized test results released last week.  And the numbers get even more depressing when broken down by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic students make up 67% of the system, while whites and Asians are about 15% and 16%, respectively. Only 28% of black students passed the math exam, versus 33% of Hispanics, 67% of whites and 74% of Asians. On the English exam, the passage rates were 68% for Asians, 67% for whites, 37% for Hispanics and 35% for blacks.

Federal data has shown that in almost all major U.S. cities African American and Hispanic students attend public schools where majority qualify as poor or low-income.

This doesn’t mean that black and Hispanic children can’t learn and receive a better educational output.  The Success Academy charter school network in New York City, operates in the inner-city and in the same building as the public school, takes the same children from the same neighborhood and gets better desired results.

In 2019, many of the public schools failed to pass both the math and English state exams, but many of the charter school children passed both exams and also did better than many of the predominantly white and Asian school districts where family incomes are substantially higher.

If we are ever to end the wealth gap between the black and white communities that Robert Johnson, the Founder of Black Entertainment (BET) has consistently spoken out against then the only way is with a sold education.

I know this first hand, my father only had a grade school education and he knew that the only way out of poverty is with an education, why could he understand this and the Democratic Party can’t?

Maybe the difference is he cared about all children and he wasn’t receiving millions of dollars from the education unions to do their bidding.  Martin Luther King, Jr once stated, “Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.”

How much more could America achieve if 70% of black and Hispanic children could receive a quality education?   Maybe one of them could be the next Ronald McNair the African-American NASA astronaut and physicist who were killed on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.

With the Democratic Party’s educational policy the chances are slim for the black and Hispanic minorities!