What’s interesting in the news today?
1. First up today, two constitutional scholars, two very different interpretations.
First, Obama’s alleged abuse of executive orders will go before the Supreme Court today. You’d think he’d know better being the scholarly type, but no. Maybe this is why we can’t see his grades. 😯
From TheHill “Nothing less than the boundaries of executive power are at stake Monday as the Supreme Court considers whether President Obama violated the Constitution during his first term.
Oral arguments slated for Monday will center on a trio of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that were deemed unconstitutional by lower courts.
If they uphold the decision, experts say the justices could endanger hundreds of NLRB decisions.
Even more significant are the ramifications for future presidents, with the court poised either to bolster or blunt the chief executive’s appointment powers.”
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2. Here’s what Ted Cruz has to say about it. And he actually knows what he’s talking about, unlike the president, who only plays a scholar on TV.
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3. Not many people would be surprised to hear that some colleges provide things to student athletes that other students don’t receive. This piece gives you a look at just how much help these kids receive, as well as exposing allegations of cheating, and players with 4th grade reading levels. (and in some cases under) And in yet another example of fans behaving badly, the professor exposing it is already received death threats. 🙄
From TheHuffPost “An NCAA investigation into the football program in 2010 expanded into a probe of how the nation’s first public university provides academic help to athletes. It led to a discovery of fraud in a department with classes featuring significant athlete enrollments.”
“In a CNN story this week, Mary Willingham said her research of 183 football or basketball players at UNC from 2004-12 found 60 percent reading at fourth- to eighth-grade levels and roughly 10 percent below a third-grade level. She said she worked with one men’s basketball player early in her 10-year tenure who couldn’t read or write.”
“The topic of balancing academics and athletics isn’t unique to UNC, such as the AP reporting in 2011 that 39 schools had at least 50 percent of football players clustering in one, two or three majors. But the scope of problems here has often left officials sifting through what happened as much as looking ahead.
The NCAA academic violations involved a tutor providing improper help on research papers. UNC later reported fraud in the since-renamed African and Afro-American Studies department, including lecture classes that didn’t meet, possibly forged signatures on grade rolls, unauthorized grade changes and poor oversight.”
I bet a visit from the DoJ is in UNC’s future too.
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4. Like with most things from this administration, the more details you know, the less you like it.
From TheDailyCaller “Education experts decried a new memo from the Departments of Justice and Education that instructs public schools throughout the country to cease punishing disruptive students if they fall into certain racial categories, such as black or Hispanic.
The letter, released on Wednesday, states that it is a violation of federal law for schools to punish certain races more than others, even if those punishments stem from completely neutral rules. For example, equal numbers of black students and white students should be punished for tardiness, even if black students are more often tardy than white students.”
““Schools also violate Federal law when they evenhandedly implement facially neutral policies and practices that, although not adopted with the intent to discriminate, nonetheless have an unjustified effect of discriminating against students on the basis of race.”
“Pullmann also worried about the effect on classrooms. She said she has spoken to teachers who experienced a breakdown in the classroom learning environment when policies like this were implemented.”
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5. Judge Jeanine Pirro is blasting Obama for failing to act on Benghazi and the IRS scandal while immediately turning the FBI loose on Christie.
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Wandering Views 
Well, do colleges want exceptional athletes or scholars?
We’ve got both in my circle of close acquaintances and the different way the athletes were treated truly is stunning and remarkable.
But, many of those athletes will spend the rest of their life dealing with the physical pain and fallout from four stress-ful years of college.
And while I’m not encouraging you to feel story for the prince and princesses of the athletic field, at least one of them felt such shame by the way “real” scholars treated him in a seminar, that he dropped out of school as soon as he was done with his sport.
Two sides for every coin.
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So am I reading this correctly? Theo Huxtable continues to be tardy and in order for the school to punish him, they have to punish Alex P. Keaton who was only tardy once?
Back when I had a valid teaching certificate I substituted a lot in schools that were mostly minority or otherwise disadvantaged. The problem is that so many teachers and educators have their hands tied on really helping a student and eventually they give up. Perhaps this is why we have the other story where athletes can’t read or write? Pass them along and get them out of your hair.
For some reason the little boys always tugged at my heart more.
Brandon just couldn’t pass a spelling test for anything. I got to the point I would look at his paper as I passed his desk and give the class time to review their spelling before I took up the papers. “Listen carefully, Solid. Saaaaa LID.” One moning he old me he didn’t get much sleep the nigh befoe, his sister had beat up his dad and the police had taken her to the youth center.
Jacoby, lived in a women’s shelter part of the year with his mother. He loved me and if I could have brought him home I would have. They didn’t have hot water in the home and his mother was boiling some water on the stove to give the children a bath when she spilled it on his baby sister. Never did understand the details of that one. I hope he remembers that when he was in the 3rd grade Mrs. C told him to study and make good grades and he could be anything he wanted to be, that nobody including me “owned” him.
I had two different students whose daddy had killed their mamas and were in prison. That will really tug your heart.
What these children needed was someone who cared enough to hold them accountable, not to just pass them to get rid of them.
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Those stories are so heartbreaking, Kim. We do need to hear them, however.
The favoritism for sports starts earlier than the university level. I saw the same thing in high school from some teachers. Even hiring practices, at that level, favor sports more than some of the more important subjects. I know at least one math teacher who worked until he retired, in spite of the fact that he was a terrible math teacher. He was apparently a good coach, however.
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Sometimes a troubled kid will listen to a coach when they won’t listen to anyone else. I wonder what would have become of these college athletes without sports.
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Some questions.
It’s pretty obvious that someone with a 4th grade or lower reading and writing level is not college material. In many cases these kids are on full or close to full scholarships. Is this a good use of that scholarship money, and is it fair to more deserving (academically) students who have the necessary skills for college? (I’d imagine that’s what is behind the treatment Michelle mentioned above. They see it for what it is, and it angers them. Can’t say I blame them.) Doesn’t make sense to me. It also seems like a pretty strong indictment of the public school system as well. A kid with a 4th grade reading level shouldn’t have made it past 5th grade, let alone middle school or high school. How does this individual even get into college, if not for favoritism to athletes? And what does that say about your institution of higher learning that you even let them thru the door?
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When I was at South Carolina in the mid fifties, the coasches’ biggest adversaries wasn’t Clemson,it was the English Department. Athletes attended class with the rest of us. I knew some of them. That isn’t likely today. This is before the integration. And big TV money.
George Rogers is Gamecock’s only Heisman Trophy winner. His father was in prison. He bought his mother a house with his NFL sighning bonus. (so I hear)
He finished his degree when he ended football. It was a way out for him. Others don’t make it.
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The other thing is that so many of them get an obscene amount of money for signing with a Pro Football team. They have no idea how to manage that money and who to trust and who not to trust. So many of them go broke. Family and friends crawl out of the woodwork and have a great opportunity or need something, playing on the guy’s sympathy because he made it big.
We aren’t doing them a service sometimes.
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Kim, a guy who knows about these things once observed to me concerning the guys who were rich and now poor.
“It depends on what they do with their first money.”
That could be true of everyone.
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NCAA athletics is an interesting and humorous situation. It is essentially 21st century slavery. The largely black football and men’s basketball programs pump millions into the universities and completely fund all the women’s programs as well as the (largely white) minor sports such as soccer, golf, swimming, etc. This is allowed to continue because the Civil Rights types who would generally protest can not admit that most of the basketball and football players are incapable of receiving a college education.
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4. I read the letter (look at the two flow charts and examples) and the Daily Caller has it wrong. The second type of discrimination — adverse impact of equal application — is the Daily Caller’s focus. Interesting the example in the DofJ latter they use Asian Americans tardy as an example not blacks and they add more context; the Asian Americans are late for school because public transportation schedules don’t fit the school schedule. The DofJ also adds punishment must not adversely affect a group’s education. In this case, suspensions for tardiness don’t make sense.
I find their examples amusing — tardiness?? If some of my students show up no matter the time I’m happy. Vulgar language?? — if I suspended students or sent them to the office for every time I heard a vulgar word, the office would be violation of the fire code and half my class would be empty.
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ricky — its allowed to continue because it makes money.
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HRW, 19th century slavery and Roman slavery also made money. The wonder is that rich institutions are allowed to make millions off the free labor of largely black youth. It is permitted because of the myth that the athletes are receiving a “college” education. Civil Rights types don’t understand or won’t admit that the “college” education provided to most football and basketball players is a joke.
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I think almost everyone understands this, and Civil Rights types have tried to change this or at least have made complaints but the NCAA is a powerful institution.
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If Civil Rights leaders even whispered “racism” or “slavery”, the NCAA would quickly allow payments to athletes.
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