Sacrificing standards
Re: “A rotten semester” (1/23/2020): Kudos to Dylan Brogan for lifting one small corner of the curtain on the policies of the Madison school district, revealing exactly what one would expect to see in a system that has for years been ruled with an iron fist by Madison’s liberal educational establishment — a system that sees as its goal the cultivation of boot camps for social justice warriors (what used to be called schools), presided over by a cadre of cowed, servile functionaries (who used to be called teachers). How quickly and thoroughly the administrative elites circled the wagons as soon as the effects of their disastrous policies were exposed by a whistleblower (read: ideological traitor) whose efforts to hold his or her superiors accountable were denounced as “harassment” by district spokesman Tim LeMonds.
Brogan’s article made it abundantly clear that those in charge of Madison’s schools are so horrified at the prospect of being called racist that they eagerly sacrifice academic standards, reasonable expectations for student behavior, and the safety of students and staff in a muddle-headed attempt to somehow remedy racial disparities. How long will it take school officials to admit that the failed policies of Jennifer Cheatham need to be replaced by ones that work for the benefit of all students?
— Gary L. Kriewald, via email
False equivalencies
Re: “Citizen Dave: What this moderate believes” (1/14/2020): Speaking as someone almost as privileged as him, I have to say that Citizen Dave’s “moderate” column is simply appalling. Within the first few paragraphs, he manages to display his privilege in being surprised that white supremacist power and ideology is rampant in this country, while also equating progressives’ desire to move away from these Nazi-wannabes as somehow equally terrible.
This level of ignorance and false equivalency is something I might expect from a Fox-News watching Trumpster, but the fact that it’s coming from someone who considers himself a liberal Democrat is infuriating to say the least. While his laundry list of mainstream liberal beliefs is well and good, the fact that he’s not discerning enough to realize that these liberal values only appear to be working for the upper 20 percent of the country, while the rest are growing more and more impoverished, is damning. In other words, Citizen Dave is part of the problem.
Perhaps he should spend more time talking to people and less time pontificating.
— Joshua Kundert, via email
Correction: In last week’s Madweek, it should have said that the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce cancelled an order for $4,000 worth of brownies, not 4,000 brownies.
