'Seattle schools shut down gifted and talented program 'oversaturated with whites and Asians''

 Seattle Public Schools is dismantling its gifted and talented program, which administrators argued was oversaturated with white and Asian students, in favor of a more “inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive” program.

The district began phasing out its Highly Capable Cohort schools and classrooms for advanced students in the 2021-22 school year due to racial inequities, the school district notes.

The program will completely cease to exist by the 2027-28 school year, with a new enrichment-for-all model available in every school by the 2024-25 school year.

“The program is not going away, it’s getting better,” school officials said on the district website.

“It will be more inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive.

“In particular, students who have been historically excluded will now have the same opportunities for services as every other student and get the support and enrichment they need to grow.”

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Seattle Public Schools is dismantling its gifted and talented program in favor of a more “inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive” program.Google St View

The enrichment program currently only allows students who placed in the top 2 percent on standardized exams to be placed in the Highly Capable Cohort to receive enriched learning.

The students would then be sorted into one of three elementary schools, five middle schools and three high schools.

But in 2020, the Seattle school board voted to terminate the program, after a 2018 survey found that the students in the Highly Capable Cohort were 13% multiracial, 11.8% Asian, 3.7% Hispanic and just 1.6% black.

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Under the new program, dubbed the Highly Capable Neighborhood School Model, teachers will be required to come up with individualized learning programs for all 20 to 30 of their students.Louis-Photo – stock.adobe.com

Nearly 70% of the students were white.

“Numbers would suggest that within our city … predominantly white children are more gifted than other cultures and races, and we know that is absolutely not true,” Kari Hanson, the district’s director of student support services, told Parent Map at the time.

Under the new program, dubbed the Highly Capable Neighborhood School Model, teachers will be required to come up with individualized learning programs for all 20 to 30 of their students — a task for which, they argue, they do not have the time or resources as the district faces a $104 million budget deficit, according to the Seattle Times.

The district said it is working to provide teachers with curriculum and instruction on how to make it work, but an estimate from 2020 suggested an enrichment-for-all program would cost the district $1.1 million over the first three years.

One teacher said she worries it will become more difficult under the new program to teach math to students with a range of abilities, and that the whole-classroom approach won’t properly prepare students for Advanced Placement math and science courses.

Parents also expressed their concerns that the new model could lead to children getting overlooked.

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When the school board decided to dismantle the program, vice president Chandra Hampson accused parents of black students in the cohort of “tokenizing a really small community.”Seattle public schools

“It seems to me that kids on maybe both extremes are going to be underserved,” Erika Ruberry told the Seattle Times.

Karen Stukovsky, who has three children in the gifted program, added that each teacher “can only do so much differentiation.

“You have some kids who can barely read and some kids who are reading ‘Harry Potter’ in the first grade or kindergarten,” she said.

“How are you going to not only get those kids up to grade level, and also challenge those kids who are already easy above grade level?”

Some parents of black students in the program even argued against ending it.

“My request is that you please consider the disservice you would be doing to the minorities that are already in the HCC program,” one father said at the school board meeting to approve the new program in 2020, according to the Stranger.

“The program does more for black children, particularly black boys, than it does for their peers.”

But then-school board vice president Chandra Hampson shot back: “This is a pretty masterful job at tokenizing a really small community of color within the existing cohort.”

Over the past few years, though, more and more minority students have joined the ranks of the Highly Capable Cohort.

In the 2022-23 school year, 52% of the students were white, 16% were Asian and 3.4% were black, according to the Seattle Times.

Supporters of the new program say it will create a stronger sense of community because all of the students are from the same geographic area.

“They bring their home experience and their culture, and that is really unique,” View Ridge Elementary School principal Rina Geoghagan told the Seattle Times.

“Is it going to be perfect? No. But any time there is a change, it’s not perfect.”

https://nypost.com/2024/04/03/us-news/seattle-public-schools-shuts-down-gifted-and-talented-program/

Watch Live: Fed Chair Powell Speaks On The Economic Outlook

 Fed Chair Powell is likely to hammer home the message that rate-cuts are coming but not just yet in a keynote address at Stanford University this afternoon. His remarks follow an endless parade of his peers also jawboning market expectations down (successfully) to the point where the market is now more hawkish than The Fed's latest dots.

Fed's Bostic was the latest to speak; reiterating his view this morning that more time is needed to confirm the disinflationary path and that he expects only one rate-cut this year.

“I think it will be appropriate for us to start moving down at the end of this year, the fourth quarter,” Bostic said in an interview with CNBC.

“If that trajectory slows down in terms of inflation, then we’re going to have to be more patient than I think many have expected.”

Additionally, on the anniversary of SVB and the regional banking crisis, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman warned that the central bank should weigh whether discount-window borrowing capacity should be recognized in reviews of lenders’ liquidity resources.

Last week Powell said there is no rush to ease monetary policy.

He is likely "to remain consistent," AmeriVet's Gregory Faranello says in a note. "Perhaps he gets more granular."

Faranello expects the chairman to "stick to the notion on monetary policy that 'at some point this year' it will be appropriate to begin lowering rates."

Treasury yields are rising ahead of the speech and rate-cut odds fading.

The Fed could risk losing its credibility if it cuts interest rates too soon.

“Jerome Powell said very early on he is a student of what happened in the seventies,” according to Eric Veiel, chief investment officer and head of global investments at T. Rowe Price Group Inc.

“If they go ahead and start cutting now, I think they are in danger of making the same mistake.”

So Powell has lots of potential points to make today, but as many expect, he will carefully walk the tight-rope between being too positive about the economy, overly worried about inflation re-igniting, and avoiding the appearance of politicization - cutting rates in an economy that (based on aggregate data) is firing on all cylinders... with  inflation expectations surging...

Watch Powell speak here (due to start at 1210ET)

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/watch-live-fed-chair-powell-speaks-economic-outlook

MTA demands NYC Marathon cough up $750K for Verrazzano toll in new congestion pricing scheme

 The MTA’s latest congestion pricing scheme: Charge runners for crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

The transit agency is waging war against the organizers of the New York City Marathon, demanding $750,000 to make up for toll revenue lost during the iconic race.

And if New York Road Runners doesn’t pay up, the agency is threatening to restrict use of the bridge, potentially reducing the number of runners who can compete in the wildly popular event each November, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing internal memos.

During hardball negotiations, the MTA initially said runners — who start the marathon on Staten Island — would only be allowed to use the darker lower deck of the bridge for the 26.2-mile race if organizers don’t pay up.

Officials backtracked slightly, though, in recent weeks by saying marathon organizers could have their pick of the upper or lower level for the race — but not both, according to the memos.

The marathon, which is expected to draw 50,000 entrants for this year’s race, has used both decks of the Verrazzano Bridge for the past 36 years.

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The MTA is demanding New York City Marathon organizers cough up roughly $750,000 a year to make up for toll revenue lost from shuttering Staten Island’s Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.REUTERS

New York Road Runners isn’t caving to the MTA’s demands.

They have argued they’ll have to likely restrict the number of entries going forward if runners are banned from using both levels. Otherwise, the race’s duration will have to be extended — meaning the bridge and local streets will be shuttered for longer to allow all runners to complete the race, according to the memos.

“New Yorkers love Marathon Sunday, but taxpayers cannot be expected to subsidize a wealthy nongovernment organization like the New York Road Runners to the tune of $750,000,” the president of MTA Bridges and Tunnels, Catherine Sheridan, said in a statement. 

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The MTA said runners would have to pick the upper or lower level of the Verrazzano Bridge if they won’t pay.Gregory P. Mango

“The MTA is prepared to continue working toward a final agreement with the NYRR, provided it leads, over time, to full reimbursement for the lost revenue.”

In 2021, New York Road Runners started paying some personal costs tied to shutting down the bridge for the marathon. For last year’s race, the group said it forked over $150,000.

Separately, the MTA has also demanded Bike New York — an organization that uses the bridge’s bottom level during its annual Five Boro Bike Tour each May — to cough up, too.

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The marathon is expected to draw 50,000 runners.Getty Images

It wasn’t immediately clear how much Bike New York has been ordered to pay, but the transit agency threatened to ban the group from using the bridge if it doesn’t agree, the Times reported.

News of the negotiations emerged a week after the MTA’s board approved the controversial congestion pricing plan to slap drivers with a $15 toll to enter Midtown Manhattan below 60th Street.

The MTA has long argued the increased tolls will generate billions for much-needed transit and railroad upgrades for the cash-strapped system.

The tolls on the Verrazzano Bridge, too, subsidize the Big Apple’s subway and bus system.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/03/us-news/mta-wants-nyc-marathon-to-cough-up-750k-for-lost-tolls-during-race/

Hunter ex-biz partner calls out Dem lies and corruption in new Tucker Carlson documentary

 If anyone deserves to be immortalized on film it’s Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden’s former business partner.

His public testimony to the House impeachment inquiry into Biden corruption last month is the subject of a new Tucker Carlson short documentary on X, The Man In the Arena.

This is a patriot who is built for combat. The successful Californian businessman is a former Penn State champion wrestler, naval officer, and nuclear submarine instructor, from a family of Navy, Army, and Air Force veterans going back three generations on both sides. 

The short film opens with Bobulinski working out in typical hard-core fashion in the Westin hotel gym in Washington DC before he heads into Congress to do battle with Democrats and their hand-picked Ukrainian disinformation artist, convicted felon Lev Parnas. 

Bobulinski calls them all liars to their faces, and their umbrage is a delight to watch.

 “Rep Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin, both lawyers… will continue to lie today in this hearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies,” he testified.

Bobulinski also called President Joe Biden “a serial liar and fabulist now under this impeachment investigation for public corruption.” 

He accused the president of violating federal laws against bribery, unregistered foreign lobbying, and participating in a criminal conspiracy when he met Bobulinski, Hunter, and his uncle Jim Biden in May 2017 to discuss a joint venture with Chinese energy company CEFC.

“Do you believe [Joe Biden] should be impeached?” he was asked.

“I do,” Bobulinski answered. “I know he committed high crimes and misdemeanors. I was involved and saw them happen.”

Bobulinski has been targeted by left-wing opposition research groups protecting the Biden family and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money on lawyers to get the truth before the American people. 

Facts First USA, funded with more than $10 million of Democratic dark money, was founded by self-described former “right-wing hit man”-turned Democratic activist David Brock as a “SWAT Team to Counter Republican Congressional Investigations” into Joe and Hunter.

The group is part of an elaborate strategy by Biden donors to protect the president, including a legal defense fund for Hunter, and extensive dirt digging on witnesses such as Bobulinski.

Brock laid out his plans in a fundraising memo in October 2022. He would target witnesses, journalists, and members of Congress investigating the Bidens, weaponize social media, and suppress the story, or as Brock put it: “limit the reach of the right-wing rage machine – to keep it within their own echo chamber rather than allowing it to become part of the mainstream media coverage… putting the mainstream reporters on notice that they will be held accountable if they simply buy into Republican propaganda…

“Facts First will win the war of public opinion by controlling the narrative – not just by defending against the partisan witch hunt, but by aggressively turning the tables on the attackers with offensive maneuvers and strong counter-narratives that reveal their motivations and misconduct and tell our side of the story.”

They were as good as their word, but the weight of the evidence against the Bidens has denied them a narrative victory. 

By the end of last year, an AP-NORC poll showed more than two-thirds (68%) of Americans believed Joe had at the very least acted unethically in his handling of his son’s overseas business dealings, including a third who thought he did something illegal. Only one-third thought he had done nothing wrong. 

A good deal of the reason that the false narrative didn’t take hold was Bobulinski’s relentless effort to expose the corruption he witnessed in the CEFC venture.

“There’s still a huge portion of the American population that don’t understand the story [and] don’t understand the facts,” he says in the film. “I was willing to die for this country and I’m willing to fight and tell the American people the truth.”

Bobulinski told the inquiry that the American people were being presented with “two narratives in this investigation: A false one being pushed by Joe Biden [and his defenders].

“You also have before you the truth, confirmed by multiple Biden family business partners over many years and backed up by mountains of irrefutable evidence, including text messages, emails, documents, and recordings. I am the only Biden family business partner with an impeccable military record… I worked hard to become independently wealthy. [and] my business success is why the Biden family enterprise sought me out.

“However, what they have done is repugnant to me. I am here today because I am a patriot and a truth-teller.”

The film captures the farcical climax of the hearing when Squad member Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez deployed the Dan Goldman Method of asking the boomerang question that comes back to smash you in the face.

“Is it your testimony today that you personally witnessed President Joe Biden commit a crime?”

“Yes,” said Bobulinski, deadpan.

“And what crime have you witnessed” she asked smarmily.

“How much time do I have to go through it?” he replied.

“It is simple,” said AOC. “You name the crime. Did you watch him steal something?”

“Corruption statutes, RICO and conspiracy, FARA,” said Bobulinski.

AOC, panicking, shouted over him. “What is the crime, sir, specifically!”

“You asked me to answer the question. I answered the question. RICO, you’re obviously not familiar with, corruption statutes, FARA,” Bobulinski repeated.

AOC, her voice a high-pitched squeal: “Excuse me sir. Excuse me sir. Excuse me sir. RICO is not a crime. It is a category. What is the crime?”

Violating RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) laws obviously is a crime. RICO has been described as the “ultimate hit man” in mob prosecutions, allowing prosecutors to go after the leadership of a corrupt organization, not just the foot soldiers and bagmen.

The camera captures a relaxed Bobulinski in a break after the altercation.

“I guess I must have pounded on AOC,” he says. “It didn’t really feel like it but my phone is melting down [with] all my friends going ‘AOC, AOC’”.

It was no contest, and we’re all the better for it. Bobulinski: 1. Democrat apologists for corruption: 0.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/03/opinion/hunter-bidens-ex-business-partner-subject-of-a-new-tucker-carlson-documentary-after-bombshell-testimony/

Calif. fast-food minimum wage law’s ALREADY a disaster — and NY wants some too

 California’s absurd fast food wage law has been in effect for less than a week and it’s already got prices hotter than a fryolator. 

The law mandates $20-an-hour minimum wages for fast food workers (with one corrupt carveout made to order for a campaign donor and biz buddy of Gov. Gavin Newsom). 

That’s translated to price hikes like $4 on a Big Fish meal at Burger King, 53% higher than pre-law prices. 

A comparison of the menus from March 29 and April 1 at an In-N-Out.

On the chain’s signature double Whopper meal, the hike was $1.80, a bump of nearly 12%.

Progressives have turned Have it your way into Pay up, chumps!

Don’t forget big chains like Pizza Hut are planning to slash jobs, leaving less opportunity for kids and less-educated, less-affluent adults. 

The move — much vaunted by progressives obsessed with economic justice — is going to make the state far less just, with higher costs and fewer jobs.

And it ain’t rich white guys like Newsom who will be bearing the brunt. 

Don’t forget the carve-out: Greg Flynn, a bigtime Newsom donor and Panera franchise owner, will not be facing any new wage mandates, because restaurants that bake and serve bread as a standalone item and did so before the law passed (basically only Panera) aren’t subject to it. 

The law’s a regular McFlurry of corruption, swirled with insane economic policy and big chunks of payola. 

And guess what?

New York’s lefties are hungry for what Cali’s having. 

A city minimum-pay mandate for food delivery drivers kicked into effect here April 1, to almost $20 per hour.

In response, as anyone capable of doing third-grade math foresaw, Doordash and Uber Eats have hiked fees and mom-and-pop places dependent on app deliveries are taking a hit. 

And a bill percolating in the Legislature would vest decisions about wages and benefits not with businesses themselves but with unelected and unaccountable external boards, for all sectors covered by minimum wage law — not just fast food.

If Cali and the Empire State keep on down this path, we can expect a real Hunger Games to begin all too soon.  

https://nypost.com/2024/04/03/opinion/calif-fast-food-minimum-wage-laws-already-a-disaster-and-ny-wants-some-too/