Rewarding failure in New York City
Roughly 5,200 black and Hispanic ex-Big Apple teachers and once-aspiring educators are expected to collect more than $1.8 billion in judgments after the city stopped fighting a nearly three-decade federal discrimination lawsuit that found a certification exam was biased.
It’s the largest legal payout in city history.
As of Friday, 225 people who failed the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test used for teacher licensing from 1994 to 2014 had already been notified they’re getting settlements of at least $1 million, according to an analysis of Manhattan federal court records.
Court rulings found the exam violated civil-rights laws, allowing far more white candidates to pass.
The case is expected to generate hundreds of other future million-dollar awards.
Herman Grim, 64, of Queens, on July 5 was awarded the biggest judgment to date — a jaw-dropping $2,055,383.
It includes $1,583,114 in back pay for time never clocked, lost interest accrued, and other compensation.
It was de Blasio who agreed to the payouts, during the last weeks he was in office. Taxpayers will, of course, be footing the bill – which includes hefty lawyer fees. The huge amounts of the payments reflect the amount of time the suit has been going on; earlier failed applicants get more money, later ones get less.
Grim said he’s in disbelief but the money can’t come fast enough because he’s racked up serious debt on his Queens home and credit cards.
He couldn’t recite examples of why the test was biased.
But Grim recalled hiring private tutors and studying for it during the early 1990s, before failing many times.
Here’s an example of this supposed bias:
More than 90% of white test-takers passed the 80-question multiple-choice and essay Liberal Arts and Sciences Test between March 1993 and June 1995 — one version of which had questions such as asking teachers to explain the meaning of a painting by pop artist Andy Warhol.
But black applicants on average scored passing grades only 53% of the time, and Latinos had an even lower passing rate, just 50%, according to the lawsuit.
Disparate impact can only be explained by bias these days; any other possibility – including normal variation among all groups, which exists on almost every dimension of life – is unacceptable.
It also seems to me that, if any such awards are given, they should be based on the difference between what the person supposedly might have earned as a teacher during those years and what that person actually earned doing something else. But that doesn’t seem to be the way these awards are being calculated.
More:
Arthur Goldstein, a recently retired veteran teacher at Francis Lewis High School in Queens, said the former test wasn’t a good indicator of how well candidates would perform in the classroom and the city would’ve been better off resolving the issue decades ago by hiring many of those who sued.
“All this money for nothing – nothing!” he fumed. “I’ve been teaching in … overcrowded classrooms in miserable conditions when we could’ve had more teachers working. Instead, we just have the city paying [money] for no reason at all. It’s ridiculous.”
One Brooklyn principal said the city was “crazy” to settle the case.
“The standards are the standards,” he said. “It shouldn’t be based on what would be easy for blacks or whites. To hire people who are not qualified and change the requirements because a certain group didn‘t pass the test is bulls–t.”
Yes, but it’s BS that is very popular in legal and leftist circles.
It is painful for anyone who has inhabited such once-vibrant cities as Chicago, NYC, and SF to admit that they are fully deserving of the calamities for which the citizens have voted (albeit, often, in small percentages of those eligible), nor can one sense much, if anything, in the way of contrition from those public intellectuals who have produced the propaganda (which they continue to produce) so successfully implanted in the brains of urban leftists. On a related note, C. Rufo’s book on America’s Cultural Revolution is being published tomorrow, nor can one forget the indefensible and outrageous payment, made some years ago, to the obviously-guilty “Central Park Five”, canonized by the evil leftist establishment.
The end of science education in the West?
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/69764.html
The cult has fully embraced Alice’s queen before breakfast. But why stop at six? EVERYTHING is a lie. Seriously, without hyperbole, everything the left claims is a lie. And every Democrat has embraced the left.
What better way to destroy a nation than to run every single aspect of it fraudulently and dishonestly?
I do have one question. It first occurred to me about Hillary and Bill. When someone lies so relentlessly about everything, at what point do they forget what the truth ever was? At what point are they fully in Humpty Dumpty land where claims of ‘truth’ and language are just convenient, disposable tools to be used to acquire power and twisted, turned, tortured and abandoned so often that they have long ago been rendered meaningless?
BTW — this is the reason why college is so expensive.
If the Supremes ever toss disparate impact in the trash where it belongs, college certificates of attendance will lose their significance.
The looting is non-stop now. This is how reparations will be done- class-action lawsuits that are settled the moment a Democrat can make the decision to stop fighting the lawsuit and pay up.
Some white people failed that exam, too- probably, numberwise, more than blacks and hispanics who failed. Do they get a settlement payment? I know, rhetorical question.
My take is its reparations by another method. It’s still Cultural Marxism giving money to minorities without reason.
“And every Democrat has embraced the left.”
Otay, we have it from the authority on all Democrats; stan knows every last one of them, personally, individually. Bless his heart.
Well, anecdotally, every Democrat I know fully supports the party and would never vote for any Republican. And as the party itself has been taken over entirely by the left, thereby implicating all those Demcrats exactly as stan suggested.
Well, anecdotally, every Democrat I know fully supports the party and would never vote for any Republican.
Well, you just became an anecdote of two. Same here.
om:
Well physicsguy and stan might consider that they aren’t representative, inconceivable. But who knows, working at a college might warp one’s perspective? Can’t speak of stan, who knows all.
om, did you miss the word “anecdotally”? Your snark is getting the better of you.
How long until lawsuits are filed against the airlines and the FAA because some identified group did not do sufficiently well on the pilot written test and/or the practical test?
There’s a great quote out there somewhere about Johnny Cash, [Paraphrasing] “There are two kinds of people in the world. Johnny Cash fans, and those who someday will be.” The point? Just a matter of time before you get it.
In that vein, there are two kinds of conservatives.
Seriously, without hyperbole, everything the left claims is a lie.
That sounds a bit over-the-top. But you either get it now, or someday will. Just a matter of time.
I remember reading about this insanity (see link below) when the idea was first being considered. Well, it’s here. CA and NY, two rotting peas in a pod.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2023/07/16/ca_approves_math_guidelines_that_emphasize_social_justice_603178.html
Anecdotally, did working at that college in Connecticut all those years warp your perspective?
Glad that you escaped to Florida in any event. 🙂
David Foster: “How long until lawsuits are filed against the airlines and the FAA because some identified group did not do sufficiently well on the pilot written test and/or the practical test?”
God points.
An anecdote. The airlines required pilot applicants to take the Srtanine test.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanine
I took it with five other applicants. I was amazed at the test. Nothing about flying at all. A lot of cultural questions and questions about situational decision making. I plowed through it but was thinking I didn’t do well at all. Afterwards the other guys were all saying that they thought it was pretty easy. I felt that I probably wouldn’t be hired.
Two days later, I got a call telling me my application for employment had been accepted. I never saw any of the other test takers at the airline. It was a mysterious outcome.
The pace of the initial training was such that if you weren’t really qualified, it would become apparent pretty quickly. The company didn’t want to waste money on trying to train someone that wouldn’t make it to the line.
I’m skeptical about these new pledges by airlines to have equitable representation of various groups in the pilot ranks. They can’t afford to spend money training people who need extra training to get through to working on the line. IMO, they should say they will accept all QUALIFIED applicants regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. That’s inclusive without lowering the standards.
So, I’ve often wondered, in a lazy sort of way, how the diversity in any position was decided. Is it by percentage of the whole population? That would be equitable right? If so then out of 100 positions 59 would go to whites, 12 would go to blacks, 19 to Latinos, 6 to asians and the rest of the positions to whoever. But that doesn’t seem to be the way it’s done.
For the record I firmly believe in meritocracy and I wouldn’t be able to talk about the meaning of Warhol’s art either. Other than as a scam to make money.
Pingback:Instapundit » Blog Archive » AND REMEMBER, YOU GET MORE OF WHAT YOU PAY FOR! Rewarding failure in New York City.
one version of which had questions such as asking teachers to explain the meaning of a painting by pop artist Andy Warhol.
A good example of a temporally and culturally biased question. It’s not as if Warhol were anything other than a hack marketeer. His brother was a better artist.
Unless “rich people and influential critics are deceived by words into buying art that is trash” is the correct answer, anyone should have sued.
Hunter Biden, on the other hand….
Utter madness. Can I now sue the NBA for never giving me a fair shot at pro basketball?
Speaking of fine art, here’s an ad for a fascinating alt-neu product….
the camera lucida:
https://youtu.be/vnC0niWnqIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida
– – – – – – –
…and speaking of rewarding failure, given the latest problem getting people to join the military, the poobahs have hit on a creative “out-of-the-box” idea to increase enrolment:
“John Kirby Defends Pentagon Abortion Policy”—
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pentagon-abortion-john-kirby/2023/07/17/id/1127432/
De Blasio was elected by Good People who didn’t bother to vote. At all.
That’s voting in failure politicians. Apathetic citizens, not voting, is killing NYC.
Is NYC populated by ignorant people ? or just Garbage People ? I write this while visiting a luxurious apartment in the Upper West Side of NYC.
Garbage politicians produce Garbage results. How difficult is that ?
Annenburg Foundation, you know the one that had Bill Ayers on the board, finds in it’s annual Civics survey that 53% of Adult citizens can’t name the 3 Branches of Government in the U.S. Constitution, 33% can’t name ONE.
8.5 % of New Yorkers voted for De Blasio. That’s what produced this heinous rapacious payout.
” As of July 2016, there are 8,537,673 people in New York City. According to the state Board of Elections, there were 5,053,842 voters in the city as of Nov. 1, and 4,596,813 of them are considered active by the state. Out of that nearly 4.6 million active voters, early reports from the New York City Board of Elections show that 1,097,846 voted in the mayoral election. Narrowing the scope even further, only 726,361 people in New York City voted for de Blasio.
The number of people who voted for de Blasio is not insignificant – it is greater than the populations of Seattle, Boston or Washington, D.C. – but in New York City, it is 8.5 percent of the population at large. ”
There was still good news for de Blasio, as the number of people who voted in the 2017 was higher than in the 2013 election, although the percentage decreased because there are now more registered voters. In 2013, 1,087,710 people voted in the mayoral election – and 795,679 voted for de Blasio. According to Steve Romalewski, director of the Mapping Service at the CUNY Graduate Center, the raw number of voters is more trustworthy than the percentage at this point, as the number of active voters as calculated by the Board of Elections may not be fully up to date.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2017/11/85-of-new-yorkers-voted-for-de-blasio-is-that-a-mandate/180812/
Speaking of popular insanity, here’s (just) another article on the joys and advantages of diversity….
‘…After Berlin Pool Closes Over Sexual Assaults From Migrants, Lifeguard Association President Warns “Violence Against Pool Staff Is Everywhere” ‘—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/germany-after-berlin-pool-closes-over-sexual-assaults-migrants-lifeguard-association
But Orban!!
JJ…you were ex-military, right?…when you applied for the pilot training program at the airline, did you already have an Airline Transport Pilot rating, or was that part of the airline training program?
My public school drilled the scientific method into us; ask a question, form a hypothesis, make a prediction based on the hypothesis, test the prediction, use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions. We learned what were viable tests and which testing methods were less optimal, or useless. We learned to limit variables when constructing a test.
Michael Mann’s hypothesis did not yield his predicted results.
The hypothesis of awarding extra points to minorities did not yield better teachers, policemen, firemen…
Letting biological boys and men compete in girls’ sports does not yield the predicted results.
Printing money to decrease inflation does not yield the predicted results.
Toppling Qadafi and Sadaam Hussein did not yield the predicted results.
Yet these people don’t use the real world results of their tests to re-examine their hypotheses and form new ones. They ignore the data. It’s just like Brecht’s poem, “Die Lösung.”
The students are educated under the new methods and the students fail to learn. It can’t be that the methods are wrong. It must be the color of the teachers administering the methods. And when we swap out all the light skinned teachers for dark skinned teachers and the students still fail to learn we’ll blame the books, and swap out all the western literature for Ibrahim X. Kendi texts.
“Michael Mann’s hypothesis did not yield his predicted results.”
But just maybe the NEW methods ARE, in fact, yielding the DESIRED results (that is, the desired results of our MASTERS…that is, chaos, confusion, panic, despair, rage, vengeance, angst…poverty of thought and of pocket…hopelessness….)
Why do we continue to allow entities to settle out-of-court instead of actually defending their policies and practices? It has created a large system of injustice.
It’s a proven fact. Millionaires are statistically more likely to be literate, more competent at math, more able to form and execute complex plans, etc. than non-millionaires.
To remedy this injustice we should award $1,000,000 to every body. Then Garrison Keiiler would be correct in saying that All the children are above average.
(okay, I made that whole “proven fact” thing up.)
“Annenburg Foundation, you know the one that had Bill Ayers on the board, finds in it’s annual Civics survey that 53% of Adult citizens can’t name the 3 Branches of Government in the U.S. Constitution, 33% can’t name ONE.
When did schools stop teaching civics? And what was the justification for stopping? Civics teaches people-citizens how government works, or is supposed to work. Richard Dreyfuss most likely has very different politics than I do, but we are on the same page in this. I greatly admire him for his work in trying to get civics back in education.
well social studies is a mix of history geography and anthropology salted liberally with leftism, for flavor,
Barry Meislin @ 10:51am,
Yes, the institutions have, by and large, abandoned science and results for emotion, but the institutions are losing their influence.
In a recent podcast comedian/Libertarian head of the Mises caucus, Dave Smith, made a great point about the recent Blaze TV event where Tucker Carlson interviewed most of the Republican candidates.
Until recently, CNN or Fox, or ABC/CBS/NBC would have a candidate on and question them on the amount of spending for Ukraine defense; “Should the U.S. spend eleventygajillion dollars on Ukraine defense or seventygajillion dollars on Ukraine defense?” But now something called Blaze TV and someone named Tucker Carlson can draw more viewers than those outlets and ask candidates to defend any amount of spending or defense on Ukraine. Candidates never had to face questions like that from anyone with an audience.
Candidate RFK, Jr. can go on Joe Rogan and tear down the CDC and Anthony Faucci and it (and clips of it) will be watched by tens or hundreds of millions.
I’ve been reading about more and more people replying with brief, well reasoned and defended, factual replies when liberals spout gibberish on Twitter. Elon Musk no longer deletes such rebuttals. Sure, the mind of the liberal tweeting the gibberish won’t be changed, but some percentage of those reading the exchange may be spurred to do some research.
Interesting book review on Legal Insurrection:
“…Untenable by Jack Cashill;
“The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities”—
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/07/book-review-untenable-by-jack-cashill/
Key quote (from the book):
“The most overlooked variable in assessing community strength was the percentage of families headed by a married father. By 1982, that percentage was approaching zero in many Newark neighborhoods.”
And wouldn’t you know it, here’s something related…from Don Surber:
“The riot that sent my family to the suburbs”—
https://donsurber.substack.com/p/the-riot-that-sent-my-family-to-the?r=1v5u0a&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
https://instapundit.com/595661/
…in which Surber mocks Michelle Obama for saying the usual silly things.
– – – – – – –
Meanwhile, the universities—among them some of the most highly regarded—appear to be trying to commit suicide in more ways than one. Perhaps it’s a new variety of university “research”….
“University of Michigan Hosts ‘#PoliceFreeCampus’ Project As Shootings and Sex Crimes Plague School”—
https://freebeacon.com/campus/university-of-michigan-pursues-policefreecampus-as-shootings-and-sex-crimes-plague-school/
Yep, the “Harvard of the Midwest”.
Nuff said, I guess.
DavidFoster: “JJ…you were ex-military, right?…when you applied for the pilot training program at the airline, did you already have an Airline Transport Pilot rating, or was that part of the airline training program?”
Yes, an ATP was required. In those days, if I recall correctly, military pilots could get an ATP by showing 1000 hours of Pilot n Command time, an instrument card, and pass a test on air traffic rules/regulations.
Sure, the mind of the liberal tweeting the gibberish won’t be changed, but some percentage of those reading the exchange may be spurred to do some research.
@Rufus T. Firefly
Yes.
Why is this such a hard concept for so many pessimistic conservatives?
@ Rufus > “some percentage of those reading the exchange may be spurred to do some research”
This is the same reason Neo often gave for why she spent so much time replying to our late, unlamented, trolls – the rebuttal was for the sake of the readers, because (as we well know), the trolls never changed their narratives.
And I guess Neo’s efforts are still working if we are still here.
Thank you, Neo.
This sort of thing is to be expected once the state establishes a new nobility (“protected classes”).
Can’t stop it without getting rid of the nonsense behind it.
Ridiculous, absurd, offensive settlement, but that Warhol question probably should have been weeded out. I wonder, though, how many other questions were like that one. This wouldn’t be the first time lawyers skewed public opinion on a case by picking out the most outrageous detail and feeding it to the jury and the media.
Abraxas:
I don’t know whether there were updated versions of the test. But there might have been, and that question may have been in the earliest versions, which were in 1994. Warhol and died in 1987, and had been extremely famous for decades leading up to that. He was based in New York, and therefore especially well-known there, but he was very well-known everywhere.