Thread – Thomas Sowell Has Been Right About Charter Schools All Along

1. Teachers’ unions despise charter schools and attack them & their supporters with a vengeance. A dirty little secret is that black parents – esp. those in the inner cities – are all-in for charter schools.

2. Dr. Thomas Sowell is an incredible economist, professor, opinion journalist, and human being, as well as a prolific author. He has seen much and written much in his 90 years. Few people have seen this profile page at the Hoover Institution, where he is a Senior Fellow:

2A. Thomas Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution.

2B. He writes on economics, history, social policy, ethnicity, and the history of ideas. His most recent book, Discrimination and Disparities (2018), gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained ….

2C. … by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation or genetics. His books on economics include Housing Boom and Bust (2009), Intellectuals and Society (2009), Applied Economics (2009), Economic Facts and Fallacies (2008), ….

2D. Basic Economics (2007), and Affirmative Action Around the World (2004). Other books on economics he has written include Classical Economics Reconsidered (1974), Say’s Law (1972), and Economics: Analysis and Issues (1971).

2E. On social policy, he has written Knowledge and Decisions (1980), Preferential Policies (1989), Inside American Education (1993), The Vision of the Anointed (1995), Barbarians Inside the Gates (1999), and The Quest for Cosmic Justice (1999).

2F. On the history of ideas he has written Marxism (1985) and Conflict of Vision (1987). Sowell also wrote Late-Talking Children (1997).

2G. He has also written a monograph on law titled Judicial Activism Reconsidered, published by the Hoover Institution Press in 1989. His writings have also appeared in scholarly journals in economics, law, and other fields.

2H. Sowell’s current research focuses on cultural history in a world perspective, a subject on which he began to write a trilogy in 1982. The trilogy includes Race and Culture (1994), Migrations and Cultures (1996), and Conquests and Cultures (1998).

2I. Sowell's journalistic writings include a nationally syndicated column that appears in more than 150 newspapers from Boston to Honolulu. Some of these essays have been collected in book form, ….

2J. … most recently in Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays published by the Hoover Institution Press in 2006.

2K. Over the past three decades, Sowell has taught economics at various colleges and universities, including Cornell, Amherst, and the University of California at Los Angeles, as well as the history of ideas at Brandeis University.

2L. He has also been associated with three other research centers, in addition to the Hoover Institution. He was project director at the Urban Institute, 1972-1974, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, 1976–77, …

2M. … and was an adjunct scholar of the American Enterprise Institute, 1975-76. Sowell was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2002. In 2003, Sowell received the Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement.

2N. Sowell received his bachelor’s degree in economics (magna cum laude) from Harvard in 1958, his master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in 1959, and his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968. https://www.hoover.org/profiles/thomas-sowell

3. Except that profile is now out of date, as he has returned to his passion – education – and just published a new book on charter schools. He has been fighting the good fight against leftwing indoctrination in America’s declining public education system for decades.

4. Here is an excerpt from a recent article about his new book:

4A. The economist Thomas Sowell’s new book, “Charter Schools and Their Enemies,” was published last month on his 90th birthday. I hope he’s not done yet, but you could hardly find a more suitable swan song for a publishing career that has now spanned six decades.

4B. The topic of education is one that he’s returned to repeatedly in his writings over the decades, in books like “Education: Assumptions Versus History” (1986), “Choosing a College” (1989) and “Inside American Education” (1993).

4C. In addition, he’s done pioneering research on the history of black education in the U.S. The preface to his latest work describes a conversation he had in the early 1970s with Irving Kristol, the late editor of the Public Interest.

4D. When Kristol asked what could be done to create high-quality schools for blacks, Mr. Sowell replied that such schools already existed and had for generations.

4E. The first part of “Charter Schools and Their Enemies” describes—in damning detail and with the empirical rigor we’ve come to expect from the author—how successful certain charter schools have been in educating poor minorities.

4F. To make sure he’s comparing apples to apples, his sample is limited to charter schools that are located in the same building with a traditional public school serving the same community.

4G. And what’s irrefutably clear is that these charters schools are not simply doing a better job than their traditional counterparts with the same demographic groups.

4H. In many cases, inner-city charter-school students are outperforming their peers in the wealthiest and whitest suburban school districts in the country.

4I. In New York City, for example, the Success Academy charter schools have effectively closed the academic achievement gap between black and white students.

4J. The point isn’t that there are no subpar charter schools—there are—but it’s clear to the author that any honest assessment of the data shows that school choice is a boon for groups that have long been poorly served by the system.

4K. It’s also clear that successful charter schools are a threat to the current power balance that allows the vested interests of adults who run public education to trump what’s best for students.

4L. As Mr. Sowell reminds us, “schools exist for the education of children. Schools do not exist to provide iron-clad jobs for teachers, billions of dollars in union dues for teachers unions, ….”

4M. “… monopolies for educational bureaucracies, a guaranteed market for teachers college degrees or a captive audience for indoctrinators.”

Read the rest of this excellent article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/thomas-sowell-has-been-right-from-the-start-11595372217

5. A-frickin’-men! Sowell is a national treasure and a nemesis of the teachers’ unions and the John Dewey acolytes who run today’s public education system in America!

6. A pal of mine with direct experience provides anecdotal evidence that confirms what Sowell writes:

6A. Both the Texas Education Association and its counterpart in Oklahoma have staunchly fought against charter schools. Bingo! Upstart private mostly faith-based schools are growing in both states.

6B. The student body is segregated and some even give financial assistance in the form of grants to low income students of any ethnicity. The private schools have vastly out performed public schools.

6C. For many years, I attended the Texas A&M school administrator leadership training conferences held at College Station. The conference’s focus was indoctrination of up and coming school superintendents and deputies. It was all about the public education system.

6D. An occasional question would be raised. Responses by the conference leaders was unfavorable in my opinion. TA&MU system grants the lion’s share of PhEds to candidates that will be public school superintendents in Texas.

6E. Therefore, by indoctrination, the anti-charter school concept was being taught. All with the blessings of the TEA. TEA is a most powerful entity politically, as well as an education policy influencer.

7. I suspect many of you could report similar experiences. My mother and wife were teachers, as are several other family members and friends. All can relate personal horror stories about teachers’ unions. They didn’t have a problem with charter schools.

8. A little competition is a good thing – especially for the kids! ///The end.