Breaking Ranks -- Views and Remedies from a Radical Pragmatist

Bob Woodson Blog

Corruption is Worst for Haiti and Other Low-Income Areas

03/11/2010 05:42 PM

The President of Haiti came to Washington today to discuss how to help his earthquake-ravaged country. He was immediately met with questions about the history of corruption in his nation, which has been rated among the world’s most corrupt countries. How will Haiti assure donors that the world’s outpouring of compassion will be used for genuine long-term recovery efforts? He is reported as having no answers.

 

It is ironic that the most corruption is found among politicians elected to serve the people in some of the poorest countries of the world and in the poorest areas of America. For example, in Detroit, one of the most troubled cities in the country, Councilwoman Monica Conyers just received 37 months in prison for bribery, nine other people have pleaded guilty, and the FBI is still investigating the corruption. In Washington, DC’s disadvantaged Ward 8, former Mayor now Council Member Marion Barry reportedly gave $450,000 in earmarked grants to six non-profit organizations that according to an investigatory report "were conceived by Barry and implemented at his direction” by a staffer. Some of the organizations’ papers were forged, the report said.

 

Former Rep. William Jefferson, who represented the area where Katrina created devastation, was found guilty Aug. 6 on 11 charges, including soliciting bribes, depriving citizens of honest service, money laundering and using his office as a racketeering enterprise. Instead of putting time and energies to devoting to the Katrina rescue effort, he was stuffing his refrigerator with bribe money. Rep. Charles Rangel is the subject of several ongoing ethics investigations, including one that concluded he broke House gift-ban rules by taking corporate-sponsored Caribbean junkets in 2007 and 2008. Ethics investigators also are probing Rangel for not paying taxes on rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic, not disclosing more than $500,000 in assets on financial disclosure forms, and an alleged sweetheart deal in which he leased four rent-stabilized Lenox Terrace apartments in Harlem.

 

These offenses do not provoke the kind of outrage that they should. When white officials like Eliot Spitzer and others engage in illegal or unethical behavior, we expect whites and others to express outrage, distance themselves, and demand accountability. But when many black politicians engage in unethical behavior that is hostile to interests of poor constituents, there is relative silence in the community. Why the difference in response? Is race becoming a shield against corrupt and irresponsible behavior to the detriment of poor blacks?

 

The poorer the community, the higher should be the ethical standards of service.

The Missing Issue in Teacher Firing

02/26/2010 09:21 AM

How can you possibly determine the competence of teachers in the presence of violence and disruptions in the school? If there is bullying and intimidation of students and teachers, even in “prestigious” private schools, how can you evaluate the performance of a teacher? Such an atmosphere prevents good teachers from exhibiting their skills and allows poor teachers to escape accountability. But you can’t tell which one is which

 

The decision by the Rhode Island School District to fire some 80 teachers because of the poor performance of students is outrageous not because teachers and schools should not be held accountable but because educators and school reformers continue to try to fix the broken education system by teacher discipline, teacher training, reducing class sizes, or introducing more creative curriculums. All these are done in the isolation from the huge elephant that sits in the middle of the room. This elephant is crime, violence, and the civil disorder that characterizes many of these troubled institutions. The presence of constant disruption, the threat of violence against teachers, and the bullying of students by other students—no one seems to connect these behaviors with the inability of teachers to teach

 

I believe it is impossible to determine which teachers are failures and which ones are successful when you have constant class disruptions and students are hall-walking and not coming to class. Education cannot take place when there is the threat of violence against students and teachers, teachers’ cars are vandalized, and students assault other students.  At Boston Latin, a 15-year old withdrew because of bullying. If you have this level of disorder in a school like that, how can you then fault the teachers in schools that are ministering to the needs of children from high-crime, low-income neighborhoods, some with parents who are limited in their ability to participate in the educational process because of language barriers

 

What is needed first of all is a strategy to reduce violence and disruption. Only in the presence of civil order can you truly evaluate the performance of teachers and school administrators.

 

A violence-reduction strategy that is working.

A Killing at the University of Alabama

02/18/2010 01:37 PM

By now everyone has heard of Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama biology professor who gunned down six of her faculty colleagues, killing three of them at an on-campus faculty meeting. Many are asking how she was hired in the first place, given her very troubled and violent past. Reports say that 18 years ago she shot her 18-year-old brother, an incident that was ruled an accident despite the fact that she discharged the gun three times and ran out of the house, where she attempted to commandeer a vehicle with the gun still in her possession. She was arrested shortly thereafter but released. A few years later she and her husband were questioned about a pipe bomb that was placed in the office of one of her Harvard professors with whom she had a disagreement. No charges were filed.

 

More time and attention is given to the screening of a minimum wage teacher’s aide working in a public school classroom than is devoted to examining the background of well-credentialed graduates of our select universities. Dr. Bishop was a Harvard-trained neurobiologist. Many people looking over the application of such a person automatically associates superior character with superior education and credentials. There is an attitude that one does not need to look any further into the fitness of such a person.

 

Some years ago I remember when the president of American University was fired after being charged with making pornographic phone calls to various women. When people at the university were asked for their reaction, the common response was: “How could he have done that? He has a PhD from Harvard!” Despite the fact that the Unabomber also had a PhD in mathematics from Harvard and a Nobel winner was an infamous international pedophile, we still cling to this mistaken notion that good character somehow always accompanies good education.

 

Our automatic association of education and credentials with character can have lethal consequences, as has been demonstrated in this case. We should not be blinded by the resume or believe that any individual should be exempt from being looked at just as critically as anyone else.