Big E Blog

Images of Jesus on French Toast

2011-05-28T13:56:00.004-05:00

This rant by Bill McKibben is emblematic of the kind of slap-dash, free association that passes for smart commentary by global warming fanaticists.   The author seeks to discredit those who would not readily assume that a series of recent severe weather events constitute evidence of climate change. By mocking those who would assert otherwise, McKibben is, in effect, arguing that recent torandos in Joplin, MO, and Tuscaloosa, AL, and the "enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that" are related events, and that the link is . . . (you guessed it) manmade global warming!

What a rube I must be.  Here I've lived in the upper Midwest my entire life, and just assumed that tornadoes occur when air masses of certain temperature and barometric pressure collide. I also believed what I heard in statistics class about random, independent events seeming to come about in discernible patterns.

Until now, when people told me that "deaths come in threes," I would gently suggest to them that it just seems that way, given a never-ending string of deaths in our lives, and a vague idea of just how close those deaths would have to be in order to be related.   If A dies on April 27, and B dies on May 22 (the span of time between Tuscaloosa and Joplin), are those deaths close enough to be part of the same tri-part event? Does that mean that C has to die on or before June 22?   What if C doesn't die until July 15?

Some people see religious imagery in knots on trees, on rust stains on stone walls, and in the random designs "visible" on burnt toast.

As is typical in screeds posted by true believers, the facts get in the way of McKibben's thesis. McKibben points to 2011 tornadic activity as evidence that global warming is heating up the atmosphere.  The problem is that there are HUNDREDS OF TORNADOES EVERY YEAR in the United States. Once, over a two day span (April 3-4, 1974), there were 147 separate tornadoes in 13 states! (see the Online Tornado FAQ hosted by NOAA).   Per the same source, the month of May, 2003, saw 543 tornadoes in the United States!

Let's face it, Bill, there are ALWAYS severe weather events (hurricanes, tsunamis, blizzards) trundling one after the other across North America and the world. You can group them any way you wish in order to suggest a pattern (or lack of one, for that matter).

I'm not saying that there could never be a link between global temperature change and severe weather. It makes perfect sense that there could be such a link. I for one, haven't seen the straw people that McKibben hypothesizes (the myopic d-e-n-i-e-r-s) who adamantly assert that there can't be a link. But I can well imagine the intelligent and thoughtful (not necessarily readers of WaPo) who admit the possibility but intuitively understand the risks of jumping to broad conclusions based on clusters of more or less random events.

It is silliness to suggest that a cool spring debunks theories of global warming. It is just as silly to assert that a couple of severe weather events in a 3 or 4 week period supports those same theories.

While there "could be" a link between 2011 tornadoes and global warming, I suppose that there could also be a link beween the death of my mail carrier and that of Aunt Agnes about 6 weeks ago.

If it is wrong to be skeptical about the conclusions of fanatics and true believers, then I don't want to be right.

One America

2011-02-27T01:55:00.000-06:00

As I look out over I-57 tonight, I think that the differences between us are not so great, that we are but one America. One country. Allied and aligned. And what we all want is universal: a good life for ourselves, our children, and our fellowman. And how to get there: hard work (who among us wants to reward the slothful?), hope, and an omnipresent eye on the prize relative prosperitry, a tomorrow brighter than tonight).

I cringe at those among us who want the working and giving amng us to give even more to those who think that they haven't been given enough. I cringe at the sight of those who beg at the steps of the county courthouse: Give me some more! (For you seek but a gift, exactly like those at the food line at the homeless shelter).

This man's America is a land where we all work hard, and we all do well. Not well enough to fly in jet airplanes to tropical beaches to frolic in the saline tides, but well enough to dine on eggs and sourdough biscuits and bacon. To live well, in the humblest sense of the word.

This man's America is a land where we stop crying, and stop begging. Where we get off our chairs and stoops and take what is ours, what is our birthright: wealtth, prosperity, happiness.

What do we need from Uncle Sam, from Government?

Nothing, except open roads and freedom from interference.

Freedom made this land great. Freedom from oppresssion. Freedom from contol. Freedom from those who would make their pet issue ours. Freedom from those who demand 'rights,' when the only authentic right is that to be left alone to pursue our destiny.

From Diversity to Sustainability: How Campus Ideology is Born

2010-11-28T10:07:00.000-06:00

October 12, 2010 By Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars.

(Originally published by The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Recently I came across a photograph of students at an event gathered around a cake that bore the iced command, "Celebrate Sustainability!" Clearly the candle had been passed. For more than a generation, cakes at campus events have tutored students to "Celebrate Diversity!" Something has changed—besides the frosting.

The pursuit of diversity on campuses remains a highly visible priority, but it is being subtly demoted by enthusiasm for sustainability. As an ideology, diversity is running out of steam, while sustainability is on fire. This month hundreds of colleges will mark the eighth annual Campus Sustainability Day, with activities to include a Webcast offering "social-change strategies and tools" to help campuses lower carbon emissions.

How did this happen? Partly it is the Macy's-window effect: Ideologies have to be replaced from time to time to attract attention. But sustainability is gaining ground also because it offers college students a stronger sense of personal significance than diversity does.

Diversity and sustainability are the two most characteristic ideas of the modern academy. Diversity asks us to focus on group identity and personal affiliation, and it puts race at the center of the discussion. Sustainability asks us to focus on humanity's use of natural resources, and it puts climate at the center of discussion. Outwardly, diversity and sustainability belong to separate narratives. They deal with different topics and might, in principle, have no more friction between them than typically exists between English departments and physics labs. Or between polar bears and tropical fish. But in fact, diversity and sustainability have a complicated, decades-old rivalry.

They vie, in effect, for the same conceptual space and the same passions. Both are about repairing the world; both invite exuberant commitment; both are moralistic; and most of all, both are encompassing ideas that crowd out other encompassing ideas. They also compete for the same financial resources.
Diversity and sustainability are also both second-wave movements. Diversity is second-wave affirmative action; sustainability is second-wave environmentalism. Like all second-wave movements, each embodies a complicated awareness of its predecessor, by turns appropriating and repudiating the earlier movement. Diversity set aside the ideal of racial integration as a moral imperative for equity in favor of a convoluted claim that racial preferences should rest on pedagogical advantages. Few proponents of racial preferences actually believe this, and the old moral imperative lurks in the background. But the pedagogical rationale became enshrined in law in Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's majority opinion in the 2003 case Grutter v. Bollinger.

Likewise, sustainability set aside the driving idea of the original environmental movement, that we help ourselves when we clean up the environment. Sustainability shifts the focus to both the imagined future and the supposed needs of the earth itself. Sustainability decenters environmentalism from the health and enjoyment of living people to the world beyond and replaces a focus on the dangers of pollution with the idea that Western society itself is profoundly at odds with the earth.

Diversity and sustainability are not simply repackaging of old ideas. Both are distinct ideas in their own right, and both aspire to be cultural concepts that impose a general order, not only on the university but also on society at large. Both express vigorous dissatisfaction with the social order, but beyond that, they convey ideals that are probably irreconcilable. Diversity calls for a fractionated America but leaves intact a vision of personal success and amenity. Sustainability is, not far beneath the surface, a doctrine of privation, offering only the psychological comforts of asceticism.

One index of the rise of sustainability at the expense of diversity is the size of the institutional memberships of their professional groups. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education now lists as members 800 colleges and universities in the United States. The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, by contrast, has about 150 member institutions.
Diversity is a story of a once-fresh ideology that swept through higher education in a spirit of triumph but that quickly seems to be losing its status as the sexiest ideology on campus. Diversiphiles would like to keep the adrenaline flowing, but it is hard. Freshmen now arrive on campus already having sucked on multicultural milkshakes from kindergarten to senior prom. Diversity for them is just the same ol' same ol'.

That doesn't stop the diversicrat establishment from trying to pump new excitement into the project. California State University at Chico, for example, recently circulated a new "action plan" titled "To Form a More Inclusive Learning Community," in which the university president sets his sights on placing "diversity at the core of our mission, vision, and priorities." The practical goal is to get ChicoState listed as an official "Hispanic-Serving Institution" by 2015, which requires substantially increasing Hispanic enrollment past the university's current 13.5 percent. (ChicoState serves mostly a local population in a part of the state with relatively few Hispanics. Hispanics are already "overrepresented" at Chico from a purely demographic standpoint.) The federal designation "Hispanic-Serving Institution" would bring access to additional federal support. But the diversity game is never about just numbers and dollars. It is also about ideology and intimidation, and Chico State is actively pursuing those, too. As part of the new campaign, it invited the "Diversity Guru" Lee Mun Wah to provide workshops including "Unlearning Racism in the Classroom." Faculty members get the message: Openly expressed doubts about the diversity program will be treated as racist conduct.

Sustainability hasn't yet achieved this level of intimidation, but not for want of trying. AASHE keeps a directory of "peer-to-peer sustainability outreach programs," or "eco-reps." These are the busybodies who do things like go through students' trash to make sure that everyone is diligently recycling, and who hector everyone to squeeze into a tighter carbon footprint. The Green Gator at Allegheny College is promoting dorm-based compost bins and planning to map energy usage. It urges lights out in the bathrooms and laundry. BardCollege students, meanwhile, are working on "the psychology of fostering sustainable behavior" and are promoting "Recyclemania." If it sounds like the "psychology" of sustainability is akin to OCD, maybe that isn't far off. At the University of California at San Diego, the enforcers posted a shocking discovery complete with photos: "Sadly today we found a bunch of recyclables in the GARBAGE!" A happy ending, though: "We rescued all the recycling ... and got them in the recycling bin."

The power to enforce something, of course, always finds takers, no matter how petty the rules. Sustainability, however, seems especially suited to the rise of student enforcers. They might best be described as sustainabullies. Why does this have the power to light up the imaginations of so many students? How did it become the distinctive banner of this generation?

I view this changing of the ideological guard with wariness. Diversity was pretty bad; sustainability may be even worse. Both movements subtract from the better purposes of higher education. Diversity authorizes double standards in admissions and hiring, breeds a campus culture of hypocrisy, mismatches students to educational opportunities, fosters ethnic resentments, elevates group identity over individual achievement, and trivializes the curriculum. Of course, those punishments were something that had to be accepted in the spirit of atoning for the original sin of racism.

But for its part, sustainability has the logic of a stampede. We all must run in the same direction for fear of some rumored and largely invisible threat. The real threat is the stampede itself. Sustainability numbers among its advocates some scrupulous scientists and quite a few sober facilities managers who simply want to trim utility bills. But in the main, sustainability is the triumph of hypothesis over evidence. Its scientific grounding is mostly a matter of models and extrapolations and appeals to authority. Evoking imminent and planet-destroying catastrophe, sustainatopians call for radical changes in economic arrangements and social patterns. Higher education is summoned to set aside whatever it is doing to help make this revolution in production, distribution, and consumption a reality.

Sustainability combines some astonishingly radical ideas with mere wackiness. Many sustainability advocates want to replace free markets (a source, as they see it, of unsustainable growth and exploitation) with some kind of pan-national rule with little scope for private property rights. On the other hand, sustainatopians also busy themselves with eliminating trays from cafeterias and attacking the threat of plastic soda straws. Sustainability thus unites vaunting political ambition and comic burlesque.
Both are at odds with patient and open-minded intellectual inquiry.

The diversity movement has always been rife with contradictions. Seeking to promote racial equality, it evolved into a system that perpetuates inequalities. But whatever else it is, the diversity movement thirsts to be part of mainstream America. Its ultimate goal is to make diversity a principle of the same standing as freedom and equality in our national life. The sustainability movement, by contrast, has no such affection for the larger culture or loyalty to the American experiment. It dismisses the comforts of American life, including our political freedom, as unworthy extravagance. Sustainability summons us to a supposedly higher good. Personal security, national prosperity, and individual freedom may just have to go as we press on to our low-impact, carbon-free new order. In this sense, it goes beyond promising to redeem us from social iniquity to redeeming us from human nature itself.

Many campus adherents to sustainability may eventually tire of its puritanical preachiness and its unfulfilled prophecies, but for the moment, sustainability has cachet. Diversity, meanwhile, has aged into a static bureaucracy, and diversicrats increasingly spend their energy polishing the spoons. The current displacement of diversity by sustainability can be traced back to two developments. In June 1992, Sen. John Kerry and Teresa Heinz attended the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development—the Rio Summit. On their return to the United States, they founded an advocacy group called Second Nature, specifically dedicated to bringing the sustainability movement to the American college campus. Second Nature is explicitly radical. It calls for making "sustainable living the foundation of all learning and practice in higher education." Second Nature chose as its primary tactic the winning over of college and university presidents, and it has so far succeeded in getting 674 to sign its "American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment."

The other development that seems to have pushed sustainability forward as a campus movement was the rise of social activism in residence-life offices. Responding to a call from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for colleges to do more to promote "community" on campus, residence-life staff stepped up in 1994 with new "co-curricular" programs heavily freighted with leftist ideas about social transformation. Sustainability soon became part of that package. In 2005, nine higher-education associations teamed up to create the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium. They aimed, like Second Nature, to make "education for sustainable development" the priority for American higher education. The HEASC announcement was timed for a "United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development," from 2005 to 2014.

Sustainability thus did not grow up organically on campus. While there were faculty members who pursued research on climate change and a few, such as the Oberlin professor David Orr, who gained recognition as uncompromising proponents of radical environmentalism, there was no mass movement behind them, nor did such a movement well up from students. It arrived, Cortés-style, as a well-financed and shrewdly organized expedition bent on conquest. And its immediate target was academic administrations.

One wouldn't think on that basis that sustainability would have had much of a chance in displacing diversity as the dominant campus ideology. Yet here we are, eating our sustainability cake without a tray and sipping our bug juice without a plastic straw. In the end, I suspect that a quarter-century or so of hugging identity politics close and trying to feel perpetual shame about the nation's racial past just proved too dreary. Sustainability may be based on a grimmer view of life in general, but it offers relief from that ever-expanding story of group oppression that had eventually become all that diversity had to offer. In an odd way, sustainability is liberating.

Earth from 3 Billion Miles Away

2010-08-18T22:08:00.000-05:00

Photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by Voyager 1

CARL SAGAN: "From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

-Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)

Cheering Immaturity

2010-08-10T21:04:00.000-05:00

This article by Thomas Sowell touches upon one my all time pet peeves: the expectation of liberals that the world should operate on a quota system, when the reality is that outcommes depend on inputs.

Please No Romney, No Palin

2010-03-31T19:56:00.000-05:00

Mitt: Don't run in 2012. You are nothing but a carpet-bagging, slightly more conservative version of Bill Clinton. Like Bill, you have proven that you will do anything, say anything to get elected. You are a carpetbagger and an unprincipled opportunist. Not only will I not vote for you, I will oppose you.

Sarah: Don't run in 2012. You are a lightweight; you lack what the pundits called "gravitas" in 2000. Turned out that W had a hell of a lot more gravitas than the Associated Press gave him credit for when 9/11 struck. You have none. You lack a conversational understanding of most of the issues which you would confront as the leader of the free world. Love the glasses, but I can't support you.

People I can support:

Bobby Jindahl
Paul Ryan
Mitch Daniels

ObamaCare Redux

2010-03-27T13:35:00.000-05:00

I highly recommend an excellent overview/summary of the shortcomings of ObamaCare at the Weekly Standard ("REPEAL - How and Why Obamacare Must Be Undone"). In it, Yuval Levin eloquently makes the case for repeal of this monstrosity, both as to the whys and the practical possibilities.

The Wall Street Journal Opinion blog also has a great article discussing immediate real world impacts of ObamaCare on the financial statements of some major American companies such as AT&T, Deere & Co., Caterpillar and others.

Thanks again to Barry, Nancy, Harry and the other fools who made all of this possible.

Toyota's Redemption

2010-03-18T18:45:00.000-05:00

I have been following the "runaway Toyota" stories with great skepticism for a while. They are reminiscent of the Audi 5000 stories that circulated in the mid-1980s.

In today's news, the NHTSA looked at the "black box" of a Toyota Prius which allegedly suffered from the sudden acceleration problem. Turns out that the black box (which records various metrics of vehicle operation) showed no braking and wide open acceleration in a New York case. In the case of the Audi 5000, the car was ultimately exonerated.

Now that the fools that are operating these killer Toyotas know that there IS a black box, and now that doubt has been cast on the driving abilities of the people who have experienced problems with their Toyota, my modest prediction is that this story is going to wind down in the media, and that reports of these incidents will stop.

Of course, if you are dumb enough to throw rubber, winter floor mats on top of the carpeted ones (which are actuallyfastened to the floor), you deserve what you get.

We Have Race on the Brain

2010-02-28T19:35:00.001-06:00

We Have Race on the Brain

Anyone Can Do Anything (Article by B.B. Robinson, Ph.d)

2010-02-28T18:48:00.000-06:00

Black History Month is an ideal time to measure progress. This year is especially appropriate as we embark on a new decade.

Some indicators of progress are how blacks are catching up with their white counterparts with regard to income, education and political participation. In the latter two categories, reports say blacks made marginal progress. But we have not yet really progressed on equalizing incomes.

Some might argue this income disparity is of overwhelming importance and must be rectified immediately. They may contend it directly affects education and other opportunities.

Our nation's unfortunate history of discrimination has residual effects that remain today. There are also post-civil rights era problems related to entitlements that breed a reliance on government. We can acknowledge these problems, but we must not dwell on them.

To keep from spending the next 90 years debating reasons for this income disparity, let's focus on what can be done to increase black earnings. Solutions include encouraging more blacks to train in the financial, mathematical and scientific fields. Entrepreneurship is also ideal - starting one's own business to actually become the employer.

Classroom education alone is not sufficient to boost income levels. There are too many blacks with doctoral degrees who lack jobs or have jobs that earn less than one might expect. Put simply, their degrees are not in growing or lucrative fields.

Rather than focusing on great black scholars or heroes this Black History Month, why not focus more on black Americans who achieved financial success and how they did it? Think about BET founder Robert Johnson or the late venture capitalist Reginald Lewis.

Americans earning the most money do not necessarily have a multitude of advanced diplomas adorning their walls. Instead, they are thinkers who bring about new wealth-generating ideas. They are go-getters with the drive and ambition who are willing to take the risks to get ahead.

This is not to say the most successful people aren't educated. They can have such degrees, but their smarts aren't always obtained in school.

Think about how many university professors are very wealthy. Not many. What professors can do successfully is impart wisdom upon others. They can school someone about becoming a doctor or a lawyer or to understand the world of business. But what then?

It all comes down to how someone applies his talents. Anyone can do virtually anything when given the proper training.

Oprah Winfrey, for example, was a television reporter who used her ambition and talents to become a media mogul. She did not enter her profession with a Harvard MBA.

Black Americans must understand that anyone can do almost anything - from plumbing to nuclear physics. There's little holding most Americans back if they are given the proper training and have the ambition to succeed.

Again, it's not always education as much as it is training. Put a young mind that is willing to learn in the proper position, and that young mind will master the job. We can't be fooled that one must first obtain a advanced degree to be a success.

Those who know will tell you that, the first day on the job, even the newly-minted Ph.D. may be told by an experienced supervisor to "forget everything that you learned at the university."

Black History Month should help to identify wealthy and successful black Americans. People should learn how they became wealthy and commit themselves to replicating that model.

If we use self-study, mentoring and commit ourselves by supporting each other (especially black businesses), then we can certainly produce considerably more wealthy black Americans. In turn, those wealthy blacks can help other blacks become wealthy because "anyone can do anything."

*****

B.B. Robinson, Ph.D. is a member of the national advisory council of the black leadership network Project 21. You can visit his website at www.blackeconomics.org. Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.

SOURCE: The National Center for Public Policy Research.

Bipartisan Indifference to Controlling Health Care Costs | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

2010-02-28T16:52:00.001-06:00

Bipartisan Indifference to Controlling Health Care Costs | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

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Obama Watch - Nov. 8 2008

2008-11-08T18:19:00.005-06:00

Memories are faulty. Big E is going to try to keep track of Barry Obama's

3. Income Tax Cut for 95% of America. Never mind that about 40% of Americans don't currently PAY income tax; BO promised during the campaign that he would give a tax break to the 95% of Americans making less than $250,000 per year.

From the Obama Campaign Website (http://www.barackobama.com/taxes/11-8-08)

-No family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase.
- Typical middle class family will receive well over $1,000 in tax relief
- Families making more than $250,000 will pay either the same or lower tax rates than they paid in the 1990s .
- Cut taxes overall, reducing revenues to below the levels that prevailed under Ronald Reagan (less than 18.2 percent of GDP). "The Obama tax plan is a net tax cut – his tax relief for middle class families is larger than the revenue raised by his tax changes for families over $250,000. Coupled with his commitment to cut unnecessary spending, Obama will pay for this tax relief while bringing down the budget deficit."

If Barry does all this, I will vote for the fool in 2012.

4. Fiscal Stimulus Package. From BO's press conference 11-7-08:

"If it [stimulus package] does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States . . . A fiscal stimulus plan that will jump-start economic growth is long overdue. I've talked about it throughout this - the last few months of the campaign . . . we should get it done.""

While I have little doubt that Barry, Harry and Nancy will try to dust off the ineffective gimmick of sending out $500 checks; I doubt that it will get done before March and I guarantee you that it won't be effective.

Obama Watch - Nov. 7 2008

2008-11-07T19:00:00.004-06:00

Big E will be memorializing the gaffes, mis-steps, scandals, contradictions and campaign reneges of the ill-fated Obama Administration.

Let's see: today is Friday November 7. The election is 3 days old.

Item 1: Obama's New Politics. This is going to be a "post-partisan" administration pursuing new politics, one that rises above entrenched partisan rifts to unite a divided country. Remember "Change We Can Believe In"? So who is Barry's first appointment? Rahm Immanuel, a retro play (was senior advisor to Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1998), one of the most partisan choices available. Yah, "New Politics." Right.

Item 2: Cut and Run in 16 Months. We heard often during the 21 month Obama campaign about how opposed he was to the Iraq war, and his plan to get the troops out in 16 months, despite the fact that major combat operations had already been over for years, the efficacy of the 2007 troop surge had exceeded expectations, and the U.S. role had already been reduced to peace-keeping and transitioning the job of keeping the peace to the Iraqi military.

"Barack Obama will work with our military commanders to begin the phased withdrawal of our troops out of Iraq in the first 16 months," Sen. Jack Reed told delegates at the Democratic National Convention in August. This strategy is still being touted on Barry's transition website today. http://change.gov/agenda/iraq/

That would mean troops out May20, 2010. Won't happen. And Big E will be there to document that failure.

Hillary's Comeuppance

2008-05-11T13:54:00.003-05:00

This excellent article by the Associated Press is an excellent summary of how Hillary got to be where she is today.

Her biggest problem is that she is not likable; that's not a fault, it's a fact. But surrounded by yes-men and sycophants, she never heard that. It's like the worst of the worst on American Idol: all of their lives they have been singing in the church choir, and they are shocked when they learn that the larger world is a much harsher judge.

Bolstered by her own hubris, she always believed that this was her turn, and still can't seem to grasp that she'll have to wait for another day to get her ride on the carousel.

Muddled Vision for Champaign County Nursing Home

2008-05-11T10:16:00.003-05:00

Today's News-Gazette article about the Champaign County Nursing Home really gets to the crux of the problem behind this debacle of local government. I confess I haven't been paying attention, but it appears that the place we find ourselves in today is the result of a lack of clear goals for this facility.

County homes have historically been a place where folks without means (either because of age, infirmity or mental illness) were allowed to live. They were clearly charitable institutions, funded largely by taxpayer subsidy. There was no discussion about breaking even, or making a profit; the budget discussion was about how to pay the bills.

Here in Champaign County (home of the dysfunctional 27-member County Board), there appear to be competing visions regarding the County's $27 million investment. [Not surprising, given that the biggest dream that some of the members have is to get elected to the worst-in-the-nation Illinois General Assembly, or worse, to be mayor of Urbana. ]

Some apparently expect the home to run on at least a break-even basis. But if that is the case, why is government involved at all? Is there a lack of private nursing home companies out there? Not likely. Why in the world would an impotent county government imagine that it is in a better position than a professional private company to run this operation? If the goal is to minimize expense to taxpayers, sell the damn thing to a professional operator and cut your losses.

It is not a little ironic that the idea of booting impoverished Medicaid recipients is being floated. If the goal of the facility is to provide refuge to those who would otherwise be out in the cold, this step would be absolutely contraindicated.

So what's it going to be, you dummies? A decision to provide heavily-subsidized care, or to make the facility a self-sufficient enterprise? The choices could not be more stark, but resolution will require courage and clear-thinking. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

Its NOT the Economy, Stupid

2008-05-02T20:27:00.003-05:00

The economy showed "remarkable signs of resilience Friday as job losses slowed, the dollar gained a bit of muscle for a change and there were even indications that food prices may be easing." The unemployment rate actually decreased by 1/10th of 1%, although the actual number of jobs decreased.

While the economy is obviously taking a rest, those who traffic in gloom and doom will have to temper the hand-wringing a bit.

That's bad news for the Hill and Barack crowd, who are heavily engaged in the rhetoric that we are all going to hell in a handbasket, NOW.

We heard the same tripe in 1992, when, despite evidence that the economy had started to rebound in late summer, the disaster drum continued to be beaten, all to the benefit of a certain New Democrat from Arkansas.

This year, let's all keep in mind that (a) the economy has ups and downs, (b) we are probably in a down, (c) in life, it's almost never as great or terrible as we think, and (d) the news media is slow to pick up on change, as the inertia pushes last month's story about 6 months past its prime.

My question: is is REALLY that bad?

The phony-baloney 'subprime mortgage mess' is a total red herring; 99% of Americans are indifferent.

Gas prices? Yes, they've gone up, along with the price of eggs, groceries and everything else that is transported by truck. Call me insensitive and elitist, but I'm hard-pressed to believe that an additional $20 a week for gas is going to ruin anyone's life.

The stock market? Sure, your 401(k) has taken a beating. But, unless you are retiring tomorrow, it's just numbers on a piece of paper.

The truth? Things are about like they've been for a long time. To hell with any politician who tells you any different.

Al Gore = Henny Penny

2007-03-11T21:33:00.000-05:00

According to Wikipedia, global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. Former Vice President has appointed himself the world's gadfly on the issue, and has won accolades from the save-the-whale set for his efforts. (The cynical view is that he is using the issue as a medium for shedding his "Wooden Al" persona in an effort to garner support for an '08 run for prez).

Let's big picture this thing.

First, who with a functioning brain would expect the earth NOT to be warming? Think about it - the sheer number of warm human bodies has multiplied hundreds of times in the last millenium. Even the most primitive cultures start fires, and the most developed among us heat our dwellings and drive vehicles powered by combustion engines. In other words, Al, damn straight human activity is warming the earth! And since there are more of us every day, expect that trend to continue.

Second, no one really knows just how quickly the earth is heating up, and no one knows what the effects are going to be, either short or long run. The earth is too big and long term weather patterns too complex to understand with much certainty. Anyone who claims too strongly to the contrary is reading tea leaves. Myopia sets in when such calculations are made. For example, while arctic glaciers might melt (massive flooding!), have the geniuses making such calculations factored in the additional moisture that the warmer atmosphere will hold?

Third, any effects will come about gradually. The sky is not going to just cave in one day, Al.

Fourth, in the big picture, who cares if the world does warm up? Will it be such a tragedy if we lose some coastline in Florida? If you can grow produce in Illinois? If there is an uptick in severe storms?

Finally, given the vast and diverse number of persons and activities on this earth, it is highly unlikely that trivial and silly efforts by developed countries to 'reduce greenhouse gases' will have any meaningful effect. In other words, by far the greatest contributors to global warming are non-discretionary: we need to generate heat to warm our homes, manufacture goods, and transport people and things around the world. Even if everyone on the earth started using solar power tomorrow, think about the aggregate amount of heat from sunlight that we would be trapping and absorbing!

Global warming is inevitable. Enjoy it and think about moving to Minnesota.

School Desegregation / Integration

2006-12-04T21:14:00.000-06:00

Today, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases (Meredith v. Jefferson County Public Schools (Louisville, KY) and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District (Seattle, WA)) challenging the ability of public schools to use race as a factor when assigning students to schools.

My question: why does anyone think, in 2006, that it is appropriate to use race as the basis of eligibility for ANYTHING?

While desegregation might have been a necessary tool to jerk America out of the Jim Crow south in the 1950s and 1960s, those days are long since past. At some point, we need to stop using race as a factor, even in supposedly benign ways and with the stated goal of remediating past discrimination.

Is it fair and just to bus kids (regardless of race) across town just so their neighborhood school can be "racially balanced"? No.

Is it fair and just to deny black parents the right to send their kids to a neighborhood school, if that is what they want to do? No.

Is it fair to give one kid the last spot in an elite school, at the expense of some other kid, who goes to a lessser school? No.

None of these things was fair, just or right when it was being done to black kids, and it's not fair, just or right now for anyone else.

Let's take race off the school application, the job application, and the scholarship application. Race should be as irrelevant as the color of one's eyebrows or one's height. THAT is the colorblind ideal of the civil rights movement, not blind adherence to a quota or preference system that is badly outdated.

The Real Reason for Declining Enrollment in Champaign Schools

2006-12-03T10:53:00.000-06:00

Jim Dey had another informative piece in Saturday's News-Gazette regarding declining enrollment in Unit 4 schools, and the corresponding increases in enrollment at private schools and schools in satellite communities such as Mahomet and St. Joe.

Of course, most of the dialogue involving our schools concerns issues of race and the continuing consent decree that mandates federal district court involvement in monitoring efforts to improve educational opportunities for racial minorities.

While I would readily concede that racism is alive and well in Champaign-Urbana (and everywhere else on this planet), I think there has been too much focus on racsim as the source of Unit 4's troubles.

The unfortunate part of the consent decree mess is that the focus has shifted from the old utilitarian "greatest good for the greatest number" to an incredible over-emphasis on student skin color and a need for administrators to weigh each decision, first and foremost, on disparate impact considerations.

In my view, the biggest part of the exodus from Unit 4 schools involves issues of class, rather than race. For the same reason that wealthy families in New England send little Muffy and Charles off to rich-kid prep schools, middle class Champaign county families send their kids to relatively expensive private schools locally: they want their kids to intereact with kids of similar socio-economic means.

While there are a handful of idealists who believe that there is educational value in having their (privileged) kids hang out with kids who live in trailer parks, there are far more who go to great lengths to avoid those kinds of interactions.

Elitist snobbery? Sure. Racism? Not so much. It's easy to confuse race and class, because a disproportionate number of blacks fall on the lower end of the economic spectrum.

My kids go to private school, not because I hate black people or poor people. They go to private school because they can get a great education and make friends with kids who come from achievement-oriented families who make education and personal success a priority. They go because order and discipline is a constant requirement, can be meted out swiftly and uniformly, and can include expulsion, where the situation demands it.

Can you attend public schools and get a great education? Sure.

Are there families of modest means (including single-parent families) who are achievement-oriented and upwardly mobile? Certainly.

Are there kids at private school (including weathly and "upper class" kids) who are a horrible influence on the kids around them, and who come from wholly-dysfunctional families? Without a doubt.

Are there kids in public schools who are brilliant and headed for a lifetime of success? Yes.

Am I somehow sheltering my kids from the 'real world'? Probably.

But what I am really doing is sending our kids to schools that, on balance, give them the best educational environment.

Unit 4 Consent Decree - October 19, 2006 Order

2006-10-19T19:38:00.000-05:00

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

SA'DA JOHNSON, ET AL.,

Plaintiffs,

v.

BOARD OF EDUCATION CHAMPAIGN
COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL
DISTRICT #4,

Defendant.

Case No. 00-1349

Having found Defendant’s brief to be largely unresponsive to the Court’s July 31, 2006 Order in that it did not, in collaboration with Plaintiff’s, adequately address specific targets, steps, and responsibility for accelerating the progress of African American students as agreed under the Second Revised Consent Decree, the Court hereby orders Defendant to work collaboratively with Plaintiffs to produce a plan that is responsive to the Court’s Order, and which addresses all areas of the Consent Decree including all objectives and goals as stated in the Education Equity Implementation Plan.

The proposed plan must be reviewed and approved by the Monitoring Team. Any disputes that arise during the negotiation of this plan should be submitted for mediation. The plan should include a mutually agreed upon process for fulfilling the District’s good faith commitment for the provision of student seats in North Champaign. The plan must be submitted to the Court no later than January 15, 2007.

ENTERED this 19th day of October, 2006.

s/Joe B. McDade
JOE BILLY McDADE
United States District Judge

Thanks, Ken!

2006-10-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks, Ken! Lest anyone thought that you actually have a brain, you have now gone and eliminated all doubt. In today's News-Gazette, His Idiocy has proclaimed, in pure, simple-minded fashion, that 'if we don't increase the tax rate, we haven't increased the tax.'

What a moron! Let's see, yesterday, the city taxed and spent $100. Today the city taxed and spent $120.

I know it's hard, dumb ass, but you just increased taxes by $20. Whether that increase was accomplished by increasing the rate or increasing the levy, what's the difference? Taxpayers are paying $20 more.

I guess, in Pirok's simple-minded world, if my house increases in value by 10%, the cost of everything the city does must have also increased 10%. Wake up, Ken! There is virtually NO logical relationship between increased housing values and the cost of city services. If you wanted to increase the total levy by the Consumer Price Index, that would be one thing. But to just leave the rate constant in the face of dramatically escalating values and then delude yourself into thinking that taxes are static is just dumb. Even Ken's sister, Kendra, agrees with that.

Now, unless you are a moron as big as Ken, you know that the price of providing city services increases over time, and, all things being equal, the city has to collect additional tax revenue to provide those same services.

The larger question (not sure Ken-boy has ever considered this) is whether the city could (and should) get by with less. Has it ever occurred to the city council that it would be OK, even noble, to reduce the overall tax levy?

I think all the booze has killed the 17 brain cells that KP was born with.

Mark Foley

2006-10-02T21:29:00.000-05:00

The following is copied in its entirety from Redstate.com:

"Here's an interesting bit of transcript. This bit involved the Congressman having an explicit IM conversation with a 16 year old with whom he had sexual relations. "M" is the Congressman. "B" is the minor.

M: What you gonna wear?

B: Well, my peach underwear, like you told me to. I was hoping that we could do something really special but I see that's not gonna happen, I guess.

M: I was definitely gonna stick [. . . .] in you.

B: Really?

M: Right in my office. I was gonna [. . . .] too.

B: Really?

M: I was looking forward to it.

B: Yeah, I been thinking about a lot times we had together. We had some really good times.

M: Uh-huh, that summer when I used to [. . . .] you out south in that Riverdale apartment?

Of course that was Mel Reynolds, not Mark Foley. And Mel got a pardon from Bill Clinton." Credits: www.redstate.com; www.polipundit.com

Gas Prices and Politics - The Phantom Connection

2006-09-30T12:22:00.000-05:00

Brent Baker credits Brian Williams for adding to the silly speculation about a link between the recent decline in gasoline prices and the upcoming mid-term elections.

USA Today dutifully reports a statistical relationship between gas prices and President Bush's popularity rating.

OK, one more time. I'll go slow.

1. Retail gasoline prices are driven by several 'macro' factors. What the President of the United States or his Big Oil friends want those prices to be is not one of those factors.

The biggest factor is the price of crude oil in the world market, a market that is dominated by OPEC, the oil cartel.

The second biggest factor is refining, as refiners change the mix of their production among gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, and other petroleum-based products. Those refining decisions, in turn, are affected by wholesale prices (refiners produce what will bring the highest price).

The third factor is consumer demand. In the fall, demand for gasoline drops, as consumers' summer travel is over. Plus, persistent high prices may have finally caused people to drive less, to save money. Demand for heating oil increases, as consumers in northern climes fill their tank for the winter heating season. So, the late September drop in gasoline prices is completely consistent with declining demand for gasoline.

2. Basic Economic Theory. Sorry, I probably didn't go slow enough on one point, which is this: the most basic element of microeconomic theory is that the price of a good is a function of the relationship of the supply of that good with the demand for it. If demand is constant, a greater supply means that prices will decline, as buyers have leverage against sellers and can price shop. A decreased supply means that prices increase. This is pretty intuitive.

A slightly more advanced concept is that suppliers adapt to the marketplace. When gas prices are high, refiners will produce more, thus lowering the price. Of course, that takes time, as producers may have existing contractual obligations to deliver alternative products, for somme period of time, or may have to make changes to their production process to switch to a more profitiable product.

3. The President Doesn't Have That Much Power. There are a lot of things the POTUS can do: declare war, hand out discretionary funds, establish relationships with foreign governments.

But there are a lot of things the President can't do jack squat about: he can't control the capital markets (though in times of turmoil he might give a rah-rah speech to calm everyone down), interest rates, gas prices, or oil prices.

He doesn't have that power, and his "big oil" buddies don't either. The whole thing is driven by huge, worldwide economic forces that are beyond EVERYONE's control (yes, even OPEC, to a great extent).

4. Everything You See Is Not a Conspiracy. Grow a brain, and realize that, in this big, crazy world we live in, every little happening or occurrence is NOT a big conspiracy. Sometimes we, as 'little people,' imagine that there are big, powerful people out there with lots of strings to pull and lots of things to control.

While there is such a thing as influence, and people DO manipulate governments and markets, those manipulations are on a tiny, micro level. They are things like getting your 3-acre lot re-zoned, or getting a $100,000 grant from corrupt Governor Blagojevich.

Huge, world-wide commodities markets are not manipulated by a guy who spends most of his day meeting with the Girl Scout troop from Cleveland who sold the most Girl Scout cookies.

Ken Pirok is Misunderstood

2006-09-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

Ken Pirok has plead guilty to drunk driving in Champaign County court on Friday. You will recall that he turned the White Horse parking lot into a bumper car game in the wee hours of August 11, 2006.

In the classic manuever of trying to turn the tables, now it turns out that my hero Ken is a victim of a police smear campaign. He didn't try to drive away after he parked into a car, he says, he went back into the bar to find the owner. No word on whether he was hoisting a fresh drink when Johnny Law found him.

I'm surprised that Ken can even stand to be in bars, given that, for the moment, they remain all smoked up and unhealthy. Thanks to Progressive Ken, however, that will chnage soon. Then Ken can go out, get tanked up, and endanger everyone else without the inconvenience of having to wash his clothes when he gets home.

I Don't Get the Anti-Chief Crowd

2006-09-30T11:47:00.000-05:00

Here's what I don't get about the anti-Chief crowd, i.e., the Charlene Teeters, the Debbie Reeses:

Do they identify with Chief IIliniwek and imagine that THEY are somehow related to him?

Or are they taking the viewpoint of unnamed others who they think might identify with him?

Or are they just imagining that majority white society really believes that stereotypic depictions of American Indians are accurate?

Here's the thing: as a part of that majority white society, I don't take offense to depictions of drunk or evil white people as anyone that I have a connection to. If I see the classic "cowboy" movie on television, I don't think for a minute that people living on the frontier really dressed, talked or acted like that. Nor do I worry that I will be confused with evil, white trash hillbillies running amok on the plains.

My ancestors came from Germany in the 1870's. But I don't get offended when I see or hear things about Krauts or Germans or their particular qualities. I don't get all worked up when I hear about Aryan skinheads, and worry that somehow I will be lumped in with their particular brand of politics.

Similarly, I do not for a minute imagine that the depictions of Indians as "savages" are accurate representations of what those people were actually about.

I do not define myself by my membership in any particular racial or ethnic group, and I don't give a damn if others do. I don't really care if you call me a racist bigot. You are the people with a perceived problem, and apparently not a lot else to worry about.

That's what I don't get about the anti-Chief whiners.

Fight Back America

2006-09-29T18:50:00.000-05:00

Lest we need another reminder, the disturbing news about the murder of 16-year-old Emily Keyes in a school shooting in Bailey, Colorado this week confirms it. This country needs to toughen up.

Everyone, now: turn to your kids, your parents, your loved ones, your colleagues and co-workers, and tell them that they have to save themselves, and that they should not hesitate to do it.

If and when some deranged clown comes in to your school, or onto your plane, or into your office, or your restaurant, or your shopping mall,waving a gun and intending harm, get out if you can. But if you can't, or if you believe that you can intervene and do some good, TAKE THAT CLOWN OUT!

Naturally, it's easier said than done, and when loud blasts start going off down the hall, our human instinct is to cut and run, duck and cover, get out alive. And that's probably a good idea. Let's be clear: I am not in any way being critical of anything anyone has done who actually been in such a situation. In some cases, it might be best to lay low. And not all of us are inclined to jump a gunman.

But when conflict with the gunman is inevitable, when you or others are backed into a corner, or your only choice is to submit and turn your life and safety over to a stranger who means you harm, don't hesitate. Go at him or her with everything you have.

We need to be like the brave souls on Flight 93, and defend ourselves. Let's face it: there aren't enough cops or troops or airline security screeners to do a damn thing for you when the stuff hits the fan.

I tell my kids: if someone comes up to you with a gun and tells you to get in his car, DON'T DO IT. Run like hell. They probably won't shoot, and even if they do, you're better off being dead or injured than getting in that car and putting your very existence in his hands.

And if you are a kid in school, run like hell. Don't wait for anyone to give you permission. Don't expect your principal or your teacher to get control of the situation. They are undoubtedly good and conscientious people, and you should give them the benefit of the doubt. But if you see a way to get clear of a bad situation, take it.

Or, if you have some size and confidence, and the situation is such that you can overcome the killer, don't wait. Jump in. Better to go down trying than go down cowering or pleading. And if you are in a situation, and someone tackles the murderer, pile on. Grab the gun. Shoot the bad guy. Kick him in the head. Drop a rock on him. Poke a scissors into his eye.

Katrina should have taught us: don't wait for the cavalry to show up with the evacuation bus: get on your own two feet and get out of town on your own power. Carry someone else on your back.

Flight 93 should have taught us: if the choices are bad and worse, do what you can to get the hell out. Even if your odds aren't good. Better to go down swinging than to duck and cover. Don't passively prepare to die; prepare to conquer your attacker.

Fight back, America! (People are trying to kill us).

Kaufman Kills Future of Illini Sports

2006-09-21T21:28:00.000-05:00

NOOOOOooooooooooooooo!

Now that wacky and irrepressible prof Stephen Kaufman has gone and done it! He has upped the ante and will really put the screws to the University of Illinois administration by {gulp} sending out mailers to prospective athletes! News-Gazette (September 21, 206)

The mailers (24 pages strong!) will "inform potential student athletes of the racial discrimination and stereotyping the university chooses to maintain." U of I professor Phillip Phillips (still a bit pissed at his parents for the fun they had filling out the name on his birth certificate) and some other prof types will assist Special K.

Well, folks, it was a good run, but now it's over. Once would-be Illini learn that there is a group of dim but well-meaning sandal-wearers (middle-aged white guys from somewhere else, in the case of Kaufman) who want to dictate the "right" way to celebrate Native American culture to the less enlightened, well, those guys and gals will want to take their ball somewhere else.

Ok, they won't take it to North Dakota (Fighting Sioux and LOTS of Native American names plastered on everything from roads to coffee mugs); or Bradley (oh, wait, I think they are changing their name to the Bradley Brave (no 'S'), so maybe they're OK now).

Let's see, you're 17 or 18, and you have a chance to play football or basketball at the University of Illinois. You're all set to put your John Henry on your national letter of intent, but then pause, noticing the large, impressive envelope from the school of your choice. You open it, and your worst fears are confirmed -- that WAS a white kid doing the halftime performance at the football game that you attended last weekend!

Shocked and horrified, you put down the pen. You'll have to tell your parents.

"Mom?. . . Dad? . . . I . . . I'm not going to Illinois."

Why not, son? What's happened?

"They . . . discriminate against . . . Native Americans. They have this Chief symbol thing . . . something about tribes that used to live in IIlinois. They've been doing it for 80 years. But now some people say it's wrong, but they won't stop. It's horrible."

Son, those must be some bad, ugly people over there in Urbana-Champaign (or is it Champaign-Urbana?). If they hate Indians so much, I bet they'll hate you too. Damn hillbillies. I think you should look at a different school. How 'bout Indiana? They don't have an offensive mascot, and guess what, their coach is a real Indian!

"Good thinking, Dad. Cuz' that's what I really care about. Not the school,or the coaches, or the microbiology department (although I hear there are some very caring and sensitive professors), the practice facilities, or the quality of the athletic programs. Nope, what I care about is going to a school where no one has to be offended."

That's the spirit, Jimmy!

One question, though, Dad. Isn't "Indiana" derived from the fact that Native Americans lived there? Aren't they just as bad as Illinois?

No, son, because they don't even try to remember the Indian culture. They are progressive and have moved on to the "Hoosier" as their great symbol.

Oh, I get it. Since no one knows what it is, no one can be offended by it. That's smart. And progressive. AND they are in the same state as NCAA headquarters, where they are trying to put a stop to ugly racism like Chief IIliniwek. I want to go to school there. One last thing, though, Dad.

Yes, son.

Do they still . . . smoke . . . in Indiana?

2006-09-09T23:16:00.000-05:00

Deconstructing Tom Bruno, Ken Pirok

2006-06-01T12:28:00.000-05:00

As if we needed more evidence that they are morons, Tom Bruno and Ken Pirok supplied more ammunition in the May 31 News-Gazette.

First, Bruno, who believes deeply in this great country, and is sure that all of these hookah bar owners can still be successful, if they only change the fundamental nature of their business:

"It's going to put the hookah out of business, not the bar," Bruno said. "If he (the owner) has a nice atmosphere and a good clientele, he can stay in business."

Sure, he can, Tom. And I suppose if they take your law license
tomorrow you will, overnight, become a best-selling author. Not too likely, in either case.

Then we have Ken "I Want to Be Like Chicago" Pirok, who believes, like so many who live here, that we are a bunch of yokels who need to think and act more like the big city folk.

"A lot of people want us to remain a small town like we were 25 years ago," he said. "Everything we do fits together: establishing a (tax increment finance) district downtown, having a smoking ban and providing economic development funds to the (UI) research park. The long-term goal is to become bigger and more sophisticated and becoming a forward-looking city that will support a world-class university."

Whether he knows it or not, Pirok has just pissed all over the small bar owners in the City of Champaign, and those who would patronize them.

Pirok's Message:

1. Being a small town is bad (being a 'big town' is good?)

2. Smoking in public places inhibits economic growth. (Someone should tell Charlotte or Raleigh-Durham, NC, which continue to experience exponential growth).

3. Champaign should aspire to be "sophisticated." (Like Paris, France?)

4. The act of imposing a smoking ban makes C-U "forward-looking," and will enable the cities to support a "world-class university." (Wow, I thought that C-U had been that way all along).

The real answer is that the Gang of Five got sucked in by political correctness, the concerted efforts of a few, and a desire (born out of a basic inferiority complex, I guess) to jump on the bandwagon).

I think that next they are going to make the metric system mandatory for all City of Champaign employees, to "catch up" with Europe.

Ban Ken Pirok

2006-05-25T20:10:00.000-05:00

The time to start planning for the future of Champaign city governance is now.

In the aftermath of the ill-considered smoking ban, it is time for concerned business owners in Champaign to identify and rally around viable candidates who understand that the primary role of city government is not to set social policy, but to efficiently allocate public resources for the benefit of all.

If you haven't had enough of Ken Pirok and his passive-agressive brand of socialism, compare his recent vote on the C-U smoking ban to this quote from (what!?) only 8 months earlier:

"I do see a difference between restaurants and bars," he explained. "One, you eat at a restaurant and, two, children go to restaurants. I was OK at banning smoking in restaurants, but I draw the line at banning smoking at bars."
(News-Gazette, Sept. 19, 2005)

Way to go, Ken! Way to "draw that line".

Well, thankfully Ken explained his change of heart at the council meeting. Except that, he didn't. He didn't say a word. So much for his desire to be on the council to 'debate the issues.' (Feb. 19, 2002 Champaign City Council meeting minutes: "[Pirok] feels the fact that the Council can debate issues is what a democracy is all about."

Let's actively encourage some civic participation by candidates who believe that:

1. Government should support, not destroy, local businesses by getting out of their way.

2. Tax rates CAN and sometimes SHOULD be adjusted downward. (Mayor Jerry thinks that, unless it puts $1,000 in everybody's pocket, let's don't bother to give back a revenue surplus).

I pledge here that I will blanket the local blogosphere raising funds for any qualified candidate who promises to inform city council debate with the concerns of citizens (not carptetbaggers from upstate New York who fancy themselves as grassroots activists).

People's Republic of . . . Champaign?

2006-05-17T08:21:00.000-05:00

Well, it's finally happened. Thanks to the likes of Tom Bruno, Ken Pirok, Marci Dodds, Giraldo Rosales, and Gina Jackson, the City of Champaign has thrown all kinds of private property and personal rights out the window, egged on by a tiny but determined minority of do-gooders who are sure they know what is best for all of us.

Given the stakes for lots of small business owners, and a raft of opportunities for fine-tuning a proposed ordinance of sweeping proportions, this act looks more than a little reckless. While lots of people, including me, would support a ban on smoking in true restaurants (let's don't confuse bars that serve food), a ban in bars like the Tumble Inn, Hubers, and the Esquire is asinine.

Something tells me we haven't heard the last of this issue. Once the above-named yokels realize what they have voted for, they may be convinced to add some exceptions before the ordinance goes into effect on August 1.

Remmber to vote against Bruno, Pirok, Dodds, Rosales and Jackson, aka "the Politburo."

All Men are NOT Created Equal

2006-05-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

In 1961, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., wrote a much-anthologized short story titled "Harrison Bergeron." The complete text of the story is completed below, and it is part of a book of short stories by Vonnegut entitled Welcome to the Monkey House.

The point of the story is that, not only are we not equal, we shouldn't even strive to be, at least in the sense that we try to pretend that we are all equally intelligent, talented, and capable. Equality before the law? A laudable and more or less attainable ideal.

What galls, however, is the somehow mixed up idea that all races, sexes, and body types are equal and identical in all respects. Where did that inane idea come from? Why does it persist?

One of the harder, colder and more fundamental facts that we all have to face on this earth is that WE ARE NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL. And (consistent with today's theme over at IlliniPundit), that also means that life usually ISN'T FAIR.

Some people are smarter than you, some are stronger, some are more physically attractive, a lot are probably wealthier, and a lot are probably a lot happier. You can piss and moan about it, or face it and move on, remembering that, while others may have things and attributes that you don't, you probably have some great qualities too.

Now that we've cleared that up, let's get to the meat of this post:

1. If you're kids don't get good grades, it's not necessarily the fault of the school, the teacher, the principal, or the textbook. Maybe your kid isn't God's gift to academia.

2. The Man doesn't really exist.

3. There are way more African-Americans in the NBA than there are caucasians, Asians, or Native Americans. As a white boy, that doesn't bother me. For whatever reason (including the very real possibility that they have fewer alternatives for childhood recreation), they must be better ballers.

4. Some people sleep in $500 a night hotel rooms; other people clean them.

5. Bad things happen to good people, and vice versa.

6. We will not all have the same things. Ever.

7. You can be punished for good deeds, and rewarded handsomely for doing doodly squat. Sometimes someone buys you a drink, sometimes you buy for the whole damn bar.

**********
Harrison Bergeron

by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though. April, for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel’s cheeks, but she’d forgotten for the moment what they were about.

On the television screen were ballerinas.

A buzzer sounded in George’s head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.

"That was a real pretty dance, that dance they just did,” said Hazel.

"Huh?” said George.

"That dance – it was nice,” said Hazel.

"Yup,” said George. He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren’t really very good – no better than anybody else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in. George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped. But he didn’t get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.

George winced. So did two out of the eight ballerinas.

Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap herself she had to ask George what the latest sound had been.

"Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer,” said George.

“I’d think it would be real interesting, hearing all the different sounds,” said Hazel, a little envious. “All the things they think up.”

"Um,” said George.

“Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what I would do?” said Hazel. Hazel, as a matter of fact, bore a strong resemblance to the Handicapper General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. “If I was Diana Moon Glampers,” said Hazel, “I’d have chimes on Sunday – just chimes. Kind of in honor of religion.”

“I could think, if it was just chimes,” said George.

“Well – maybe make ‘em real loud,” said Hazel. “I think I’d make a good Handicapper General.”

“Good as anybody else,” said George.

“Who knows better’n I do what normal is?” said Hazel.

“Right,” said George. He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son who was now in jail, about Harrison, but a twenty-one-gun salute in his head stopped that.

“Boy!” said Hazel, “that was a doozy, wasn’t it?”

It was such a doozy that George was white and trembling and tears stood on the rims of his red eyes. Two of the eight ballerinas had collapsed to the studio floor, were holding their temples.

“All of a sudden you look so tired,” said Hazel. “Why don’t you stretch out on the sofa, so’s you can rest your handicap bag on the pillows, honeybunch.” She was referring to the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in canvas bag, which was padlocked around George’s neck. “Go on and rest the bag for a little while,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re not equal to me for a while.”

George weighed the bag with his hands. “I don’t mind it,” he said. “I don’t notice it any more. It’s just a part of me.

“You been so tired lately – kind of wore out,” said Hazel. “If there was just some way we could make a little hole in the bottom of the bag, and just take out a few of them lead balls. Just a few.”

“Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out,” said George. “I don’t call that a bargain.”

“If you could just take a few out when you came home from work,” said Hazel. “I mean – you don’t compete with anybody around here. You just set around.”

“If I tried to get away with it,” said George, “then other people’d get away with it and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn’t like that, would you?”

“I’d hate it,” said Hazel.

“There you are,” said George. “The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society?”

If Hazel hadn’t been able to come up with an answer to this question, George couldn’t have supplied one. A siren was going off in his head.

“Reckon it’d fall all apart,” said Hazel.

“What would?” said George blankly.

“Society,” said Hazel uncertainly. “Wasn’t that what you just said?”

“Who knows?” said George.

The television program was suddenly interrupted for a news bulletin. It wasn’t clear at first as to what the bulletin was about, since the announcer, like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment. For about half a minute, and in a state of high excitement, the announcer tried to say, “Ladies and gentlemen – ”

He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina to read.

"That’s all right –” Hazel said of the announcer, “he tried. That’s the big thing. He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard.”

“Ladies and gentlemen” said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred-pound men.

And she had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice for a woman to use. Her voice was a warm, luminous, timeless melody. “Excuse me – ” she said, and she began again, making her voice absolutely uncompetitive.

“Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen,” she said in a grackle squawk, “has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under–handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.”

A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen – upside down, then sideways, upside down again, then right side up. The picture showed the full length of Harrison against a background calibrated in feet and inches. He was exactly seven feet tall.

The rest of Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever worn heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H–G men could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.

Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard. In the race of life, Harrison carried three hundred pounds.

And to offset his good looks, the H–G men required that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle–tooth random.

“If you see this boy,” said the ballerina, “do not – I repeat, do not – try to reason with him.”

There was the shriek of a door being torn from its hinges.

Screams and barking cries of consternation came from the television set. The photograph of Harrison Bergeron on the screen jumped again and again, as though dancing to the tune of an earthquake.

George Bergeron correctly identified the earthquake, and well he might have – for many was the time his own home had danced to the same crashing tune. “My God –” said George, “that must be Harrison!”

The realization was blasted from his mind instantly by the sound of an automobile collision in his head.

When George could open his eyes again, the photograph of Harrison was gone. A living, breathing Harrison filled the screen.

Clanking, clownish, and huge, Harrison stood in the center of the studio. The knob of the uprooted studio door was still in his hand. Ballerinas, technicians, musicians, and announcers cowered on their knees before him, expecting to die.

“I am the Emperor!” cried Harrison. “Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once!” He stamped his foot and the studio shook.

"Even as I stand here –” he bellowed, “crippled, hobbled, sickened – I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived! Now watch me become what I can become!”

Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds.

Harrison’s scrap–iron handicaps crashed to the floor.

Harrison thrust his thumbs under the bar of the padlock that secured his head harness. The bar snapped like celery. Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacles against the wall.

He flung away his rubber–ball nose, revealed a man that would have awed Thor, the god of thunder.

“I shall now select my Empress!” he said, looking down on the cowering people. “Let the first woman who dares rise to her feet claim her mate and her throne!”

A moment passed, and then a ballerina arose, swaying like a willow.

Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of all, he removed her mask.

She was blindingly beautiful.

Now” said Harrison, taking her hand, “shall we show the people the meaning of the word dance? Music!” he commanded.

The musicians scrambled back into their chairs, and Harrison stripped them of their handicaps, too. “Play your best,” he told them, “and I’ll make you barons and dukes and earls.”

The music began. It was normal at first – cheap, silly, false. But Harrison snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved them like batons as he sang the music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back into their chairs.

The music began again and was much improved.

Harrison and his Empress merely listened to the music for a while – listened gravely, as though synchronizing their heartbeats with it.

They shifted their weights to their toes.

Harrison placed his big hands on the girl’s tiny waist, letting her sense the weightlessness that would soon be hers.

And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang!

Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.

They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.
They leaped like deer on the moon.

The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers nearer to it. It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling.

They kissed it.

And then, neutralizing gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended in air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long time.

It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.

Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on.

It was then that the Bergerons’ television tube burned out.

Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George.

But George had gone out into the kitchen for a can of beer.

George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. “You been crying?” he said to Hazel.

“Yup,” she said,

“What about?” he said.

“I forget,” she said. “Something real sad on television.”

“What was it?” he said.

“It’s all kind of mixed up in my mind,” said Hazel.

“Forget sad things,” said George.

“I always do,” said Hazel.

“That’s my girl,” said George. He winced. There was the sound of a riveting gun in his head.

“Gee – I could tell that one was a doozy,” said Hazel.

“You can say that again,” said George.

“Gee –” said Hazel, “I could tell that one was a doozy.”

The High Price of Gasoline

2006-05-04T19:48:00.000-05:00

Gasbuddy.com has a map which shows gasoline prices, by county, for the whole country.

Yeah, gasoline prices have skyrocketed in the last year. Yeah, I've noticed, and so have you. And yes, that means I have less money to spend on other stuff. And, yes, finally, I don't like it. But I haven't mentioned it to anyone, because I am a big boy and, if it's a real problem, maybe I could drive less.

All of that being said, let's clarify a few things for all of you damn whiners out there:

1. Don't expect your elected officials to do a thing to help you. They can't. Gov. Blago could push through a temporary cut in the state's gasoline tax in a snap, but the truth is, Rod needs those revenues to fill some big holes in the state's budget.

2. Gas prices are not going down below $2.00 / gallon again anytime soon, if ever.

3. Gas prices are still a very, very small fraction of most people's budget. If you drive 12,000 miles per year, and your car gets 20 miles per gallon, a fifty cent ($0.50) per gallon increase in price costs you an additional $300 per year. To put that in perspective, you probably spend eight times that much ($2400) or more per year for gas & electric to your home. If you took a family of 4 to Great America for the day, you would spend at least that much, if not more.

4. Sure oil companies make big profits; they are immense, worldwide organizations with billions in sales. So do lots of other companies; should we investigate all of them, too? Last time I checked (just last week), we are a CAPITALIST society and economy.

5. High gas prices are good in the long run, as they will (a) spur oil companies to work harder to develop hard to access oil reserves, (b) encourage people to conserve and auto makers to innovate, and (c) encourage development and refinement of alternative fuels.

Any questions?

Deport the Illegals NOW

2006-04-28T21:20:00.000-05:00

If you want to live here, DO this: apply for status as a legal immigrant, and wait to be accepted. When you come here, work hard and behave, and you will do fine.

DON'T:

1. Sneak in across the border in the dark of the night.

2. Hold rallies to protest not getting amnesty.

3. Complain about how important you are to the economy, and yet how unappreciated.

4. Record a loose translation of the Star-Spangled banner IN SPANISH.

5. Mount a "protest" by not showing up for your job, and thinking that anyone will care.

FIRST: None of these things will endear you to the people in your chosen new country.

SECOND: Let's use this opportunity to get a list from suspected employers of illegals. Get the list of their absent employees on Mon. May 1, and investigate the status of those people.

THIRD: Permitting illegal aliens to remain in this country WHILE THEY finally apply for legal status is AMNESTY and IS PUTTING THEM IN THE FRONT OF THE LINE.

Just Say NO to Smoking Ban

2006-04-21T19:50:00.000-05:00

Per the News-Gazette, both Champaign and Urbana will consider a general SMOKING BAN in May. This courtesy of the high-minded folks at the "C-U Smoke Free Alliance" (just who is an 'ally' of the Alliance is not clear to me).

This is just another example of a vocal minority seeking to impose its will on everyone else. It can be an effective strategy, if the minority is seeking to curtail an activity that doesn't involve a right or activity that is important to most people. Public bodies and civic boards are impressed that 100 people show up at their meeting to advocate the will of the minority. They may not realize that the "silent majority" is simply not moved enough to speak their mind, they may not have unbiased facts on the topic, and they may get worn down by repeated attempts.

Say that the "Alliance" decides that chain saws smoke too much too, and petitions local city councils to ban them, too:
____________________________

"I can't be around the exhaust from those gasoline engines. If they are trimming trees in the park, I can't go there."

"Why do they have to use gas engines, can't they use electric?"

"It's not fair for the workers using those chain saws; they shouldn't have to inhale fumes all day while working with their chain saw."

____________________________

Anyway, 50 professional activists show up at the City Council meeting. The only people who show up to oppose the ban are 4 people who happen to own landscaping / tree trimmng businesses.

Meanwhile, 60,000 others sit at home, unmotivated by the issue, but believing that chain saws are not the devil incarnate.

City council members who are so inclined listen to the 60 who show up, and imagine they are a burgeoning grass roots movement. "They make some good points. Everyone should be able to go outside and not listen to chain saws or suck in their exhaust."

____________________________

You know, other people do lots of things that I wouldn't do. And they do lots of things that I don't like. And they do lots of things that aren't good for them. And they do things that keep me from going places and doing things that I might otherwise be inclined to do.

Yet, I don't seek to rein in people from exercising their freedoms, even if I don't like what it is they do. I don't do it because, as we are all so fond of saying, IT IS A FREE COUNTRY. Government in this country doesn't regulate behavior unless it has a compelling interest in doing so.

I haven't heard the compelling interest yet. Just a bunch of whining about the 'rights of non-smokers.' Yah, just what we need; another special interest group (full of victims).

Oh, by the way, I am neither a shill for Big Tobacco nor a smoker. I just hate to have to listen to the whiny vocal minority in their quest for attention. And, according to the American Lung Association, about 21% of adults in the U.S. are smokers.

SROs in, Troublemakers Out?

2006-04-20T20:37:00.000-05:00

At its meeting on Monday, April 17, 2006, the Champaign Unit 4 school district approved the use of polices officers (dubbed "School Resource Officers" or "SROs") in middle schools and high schools in the district. News-Gazette April 18.

Today's big news is that some parents in the district are threatening to take their children out of the school district "in protest of the decision to put armed police officers in the schools." News-Gazette April 20.
_______________________________

[Parent Natalie] Freeman "is concerned about unequal treatment for black children because the Champaign school district is under a consent decree in which the educational achievement and discipline of black children is being monitored, and because a study released last year showed minorities are more likely to be pulled over for traffic stops by Champaign police."

"We already know the children who are going to be targeted (by the officers) are African-American," she said.
_______________________________

The News-Gazette article goes on to quote the parents' views that (a) the kids aren't learning anything anyway, so why not pull them out of school, (b) you can't expect police officers with only 40 hours of training to be "social workers and educate our kids", and (c) pulling kids out will cost Unit 4 federal school lunch aid money and state aid based on attendance.

Wow, where to start.

First, ladies, know that you are not hurting anyone by trying to home school your kids, other than them. You don't appear to have college degrees, guess what, the teachers of Unit 4 DO! They are trained experts in educating kids!

Second, I don't think the cops at school are going to be "targeting" anyone, anymore than they "target" offenders out on the mean streets. Unless by 'target' you mean 'go after kids who are causing trouble.' Yes, they will be going after them, but I'm sure that won't include your little angels.

Third, if you yank your kids, you won't have anyone to blame when things don't turn out well.

Finally, the consent decree should not be the basis for taking your kids out of the Unit 4 schools, rather it should be the reason you want them there, i.e., lots of things have happened and continue to happen to make Unit 4 schools better for your children.

In a perfect world, there would be no cops in schools. In this world, it seems to have become a necessity. Were that it wasn't so.

Two Questions From Andy T

2006-04-20T18:24:00.000-05:00

From my boy AndyT:

1. I love reading your stuff and often agree. May I submit to you a political question? It seems to me that the current system is a total failure no matter which party is in charge. They both have their good and bad points. My priority is liberty and neither party is delivering. How come the libertarians can't field viable candidates? It seems like their party supports all the ideals we stand for but everyone who runs on their ticket is a nut job. What's up with that?

I think the problem is that Libertarians in general are a cranky, curmudgeonly group with a terrifically diverse membership which shouts"fringe" to anyone who is serious about running for national office. By merely tempering their rhetoric and easing their positions toward themiddle, would-be Libertarian candidates can shoehorn themselves into one of the major parties. The candidatesI have seen here in Ilinois are people who burn wood to heat their homes, have beards, and think they don't have to pay income taxes. Fun and everything, but not going anywhere with regard to getting elected.

2. Related question: In my experience the dems offer appeasement, high taxes and a better economy for poor folks (me). The GOP offers war, lower taxes and a better econmoy for rich folks. Your thoughts? I base this on direct personal experience (i.e. ability to get and keep a 'good' job).Is that your experience? Explain. This is an honest question not an invitation to a flame war. :-)

You can split it out a million different ways, of course, but I think the Democrat party appeals to people who (a) need or want help in their lives, (b) want to help others, (c) believe that all people are (or should be) more or less equal and interchangeable, and (d) think we can settle all of our differences if we just sit down and talk about it. Basically, the Dems appeal to people who think government helps people in their lives.

Meanwhile, the GOP works for (a) people who think they don't need any help, (b) want to help people, if at all, without government involvement, (c) believe that people have innate differences which mean that not everyone is a "winner" in the game of life, and (d) think that there are relatively bright lines of "right" and "wrong" in many cases.

Neither of the major parties are going to help you or anyone else get or keep a "good" job. No government will help you do that. I believe that, other than creating government positions, Democrat principles will not get you a job (something about more taxes and more government being antithetical to business). Repubs believe that, when government is business friendly (low regulation, low taxes), private businesses create jobs.

The truth is, those who are young, poor, and "other-directed" swing toward the Dems; those who are older, established, wealthier, and self-interested swing toward the Repubs. Dems believe government can make a big difference in the lives of people; Repubs think government should get out of their way, and let everyone make their own life.

I personally believe that the differences between the parties are more imagined than real 95% of the time. Most people are attracted to a party based on a very short list of issues: taxes, gay rights, abortion, environmental issues.

Based on what I've seen from you, AndyT, you are going to do fine in this life without regard to any political party or government policy. There's no way that I could sell you on any party, because that would be like exaggerating the differences between a Toyota and a Honda. While there are some differences, in the big picture you just pick the one that fits your arse. (A little Brit humor there).

My whole thing is, I want people to put away their hankies, get off their ass, take care of themselves, help others every chance they get, and quit their damn WHINING!

Morgan Spurlock is a Moron

2006-04-16T09:41:00.000-05:00

Let's see, I think I'll make a movie about what happens if I live in my car for a month eating double quarter pounders. Gosh, I wonder if I'll gain weight? Wonder if that's healthy?

Next, I'll go to give speeches at schools and talk about the 'retards' with helmets who work at McDonald's. Never mind that the audience will include special needs kids who happen to be wearing head protection. http://wizbangblog.com/2006/03/27/morgan-spurlock-supersized-ass.php

Anyone who likes or believes in this guy is an even bigger moron than he is.

What to Think About Barry Bonds

2006-04-14T16:02:00.000-05:00

Let's face it: Barry is not a very likable guy. He is the #1 fan of a ballplayer named Barry Bonds; he is a jerk, by all accounts; finally, it appears that he is a steroid user.

We can forgive athletes, politicians, and celebrities for faults of all sorts, IF WE LIKE THEM. Look at Mark McGwire. Won the great McGwire-Sosa home run derby in '98 (Saved Baseball! by some accounts). The Sosa-McGwire hugfest was all over TV. We know now that both Sosa and McGwire were using "The Juice." Like Bonds. Like Rafael Palmeiro. Like so many who play the game. Since McGwire played for my St. Louis Cards, wasn't a horse's ass, and doesn't play anymore, I don't feel a burning need to thrash him and spit on him.

Out of all the big-name offenders, only Bonds seems to be (a) in denial, and (b) still playing the game. And still an asshole.

I thought Barry had seen the light when he spent most of last season on the DL; ease out of the game with an injury. Apparently, however, the lure of breaking baseball's biggest record, and becoming the All-Time Home Run King, was too much for him. Boo for you, Barry.

Boo also for Bud "I Ruined the All-Star Game" Selig, who apparently didn't know Bonds was doing anything wrong until the recent book came out. By taking action now, Selig looks like the racist that Bonds and others think he is: out to stop Barry from beating out Babe Ruth.

Big E's Guide To Victimhood

2006-04-12T19:46:00.000-05:00

So you want to get in on the action and proclaim yourself a victim. Well, you're a bit late to the party, but fear not, there is lots of room and some of your friends who have come before you have already staked out lots of ground which you can camp out on.

Deciding To Become a Victim

Some times it gets tiresome blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong in your life. Other times you are just bored, and want something to do. Still other times you see someone with something you want, or just having fun.

Becoming a victim can solve these problems!

Choosing Your Status

You can be a victim in lots of ways, including the following:

- Race or ethnicity;
- Gender;
- Economic status;
- Health status.

Victim Paradigm

Remember always that your victim status is the most important thing in your life, and that it defines who you are as a person.

Setbacks and unfortunate events are NOT YOUR FAULT. They are the fault of your genetics, or, more likely, the fault of an oppressive, uncaring, and biased society.

Any decision or event involving a third party, that you don't like, was probably made primarily for one reason: because of [insert your special victim status here].

Your victim status entitles you to special rights, privileges and gifts. Sometimes The Man makes you ask for them, so don't be shy.

It's OK to whine.

Vote DEMOCRAT. (They care more).

We are all equal.

Trying to help yourself is futile, The Man will see to that.

'Personal responsibility' sounds great and all that, but hey, taking care of yourself can take a lot of work.

No matter what I have, there is probably someone else with more, and I deserve that, too.

Making the Most of Your Victim Status

Putting it all into action:

Problem: You are a woman and you believe you are underpaid. You also read in Newsweek that women are paid 76% of what men are paid.

Solution: Claim gender discrimination with regard to your employment. You may get a raise, or even a s-e-t-t-l-e-m-e-n-t !
______________________

Problem: People of your race are prosecuted for crimes disproportionately from the rest of the population.

Solution: Take as a given that all races and economic classes commit an equal number of crimes. Assume that The Man has loosed the cops on you BECAUSE OF YOUR RACE! If it works, you might get sympathy from your judge or probation officer. At a minimum, you might make some people question law enforcement, and get them off your back.

______________________

Problem: You can't get into the University of Michigan law school because of poor scores on standardized tests.

Solution: Point out to the nice admissions people that your ancestors were slaves, that your parents couldn't attend college, and that you would have done better on your LSAT but for the gun fire outside your window the night before the test. After hearing all that, the school will probably invent a system to give you BONUS points for being descended from slaves!

Q & A

Q. Who is "The Man" that you refer to?

A. Whoever is keeping you down.
______________________

Q. Can I have more than 1 victim status?

A. Yes! Multiple victim stats get you EVEN MORE.
______________________

Q. Seems kind of selfish to try and get things for myself by claiming to be a victim.

A. Take the high road here. You have to be careful to phrase all of this in terms of OTHER PEOPLE, e.g., "I'm not asking for myself, I'm asking for . . . the children." Nothing is nobler than asking for things for others. Hopefully they, too, will seek out opportunities for you.
______________________

Good luck!

Protests . . . to Obtain Citizenship?

2006-04-11T20:39:00.000-05:00

Forgive me if I am the only one who sees irony in the specter of illegal aliens participating in rallies to pressure Congress to soften U.S. immigration laws. Let's see, I'm not a citizen of this country, but I'm going to grab my Mexican flag and run out to the public square to bully the country (that I am in illegally) to let me stay here.

Repub Conundrum on Immigration

2006-04-09T19:23:00.000-05:00

The current immigration "debate" is clearly dividing the Republican party. On the one hand, you have Pres. Bush, who supports amnesty for illegal aliens from Mexico and other Latin American countries. On the other you have the law-and-order, defend-the-borders-and-enforce-the-laws types, like me.

Friends from Texas are some of the most strident defenders of better border enforcement and cracking down on "the illegals." I don't get it.

Listen, you bums in Congress, and hear me well: enforce the laws we have, and don't reward law-breakers by letting them stick around. If that means we all pay more for carrots and lettuce, so be it.

Free Speech . . . Please!

2006-04-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

If I had 1/100th of a penny for every word written in this country in the last month on this topic, I wouldn't have to work anymore. So I will keep it brief.

For the last time: ideas and commentary should NEVER be banned, even when 99% of us disagree with the substance of what is being said.

Yes, that includes position papers by people who (a) want to have sex with animals or children, (b) worship the devil, (c) believe the Holocaust never occurred, (d) support Osama Bin Laden, or (e) advocate euthanasia for everyone over 65.

There are some fine points (why child pornography isn't protected speech, rights of private property owners to ban offensive speech), but those are for finely tuned Supreme Court decisions, not for broad debates in small spaces.

In my view, if your political, religious, moral or sexual beliefs cannot stand up to critical comment, they are not worthy of serving as your core beliefs. And if you come from a culture that squelches open debate and discussion, that is your choice, but don't try to bring that west of the Atlantic.

Thank you to South Park (this week's Family Guy episode) and Acton Gorton (Daily Illini) for standing up against the forces of censorship and fear. Like Cartman said: standing up for free speech might mean taking risks, which we haven't had to do for awhile in this country. See also the whimsical 'Muhammad and Me" blog at: http://muhammadandme.blogspot.com/

More Advice to Unit 4

2006-04-03T19:13:00.000-05:00

Kudos to Greg Novak for his commentary in today's (Sunday April 2) News-Gazette on the failed Unit 4 bond referendum.

Excerpts (my comments in italics):

"The real answer is that Champaign Unit 4 lacks, and has lacked, a long-term plan of where it is going and how it is to fit within our community. Sections and bits and pieces are addressed from time to time, but never the district and the community as a whole."

[History would indicate that it has been one fire drill after another for this body, rather than pursuit of a cohesive long term plan.]

"The solution that I see is not to dash forward and something for the sake of doing something, but rather one of stepping back and taking a moment to reflect. . . .

"A back door referendum or other attempt to circumvent the will of the people or the public can, in my opinion, only backfire and cause the general public to further lose faith in Champaign schools . . .

"The school system needs to reverse the tide, and to do that it must present a clear course for the future. That course will not be pain-free, nor acceptable to all stakeholders in all matters, but until that course is plotted and the public has a belief that it will be followed, Unit 4 will not retain the public trust."

*****

Cheers also to Dan McCollum: "A wish list is not a plan. I want to support the schools, but I want to see a reasoned, cost-efficient plan before I will vote for a bond issue."

*****

I respectfully disagree with Thom Moore, who urged gathering information from the great unwashed as to what would compel them to vote "yes" on the next bond issue.

Sure, I want to be listened to, but I wonder if the package which was just defeated went down in large measure due to the apparent attempt to buy votes from various cohorts of the electorate . . . similar to the US Congress and its frequent pork barrel legislation.

*****

Jeers to Julia Johnson O'Connor, whose piece suggested that the bond referendum failed because the committees behind it were not "multiracial, multineighborhood, and multi-income" enough. Toss in some other gem phrases, such as "systematic oppression" and her suggestion that the "focal point" of facilities planning should be "northside children," and you are left with the impression that racism was part of the demise of the bond referendum. Not true, not helpful. The last 10 years have been all about helping that very cohort, more than anyone else.

NSA Surveillance Program

2006-04-01T21:10:00.000-06:00

Caught yesterday's (Friday March 31) CSPAN replay of the Senate judiciary committee hearings on the NSA foreign-domestic surveillance program.

On the left, we had dumb-ass liberal Russ "Trying to beat Hillary" Feingold making a big show about his resolution to "censure" Pres. Bush for the communication intercepts of communications between suspected foreign terrorists and people in the U.S.

On the right, we had Arlen Specter and Lindsey Graham, not-so-gently pointing out that the issues involved here don't involve anything like intentional wrongdoing (cf. Clinton lying under oath), but rather uncertainty about the scope of a President's war-time powers.

She-Clinton, Feingold and Blago: Dem Stars of 2008? (Wow!)

Champaign Unit 4 - Next Steps

2006-04-01T11:26:00.000-06:00

I truly believe that the good citizens of Champaign County want to support the public schools in every way, but, like citizen taxpayers everywhere, they expect clear thinking and honesty from their school board and administrators. They also expect judicious use of taxpayer dollars.

When you build a house, you might start with a "wish" list of features you want, which includes a lot of pie-in-the-sky amenities that you don't need at all, but which sound like a lot of fun to have.

When faced with the realities of your budget, however, you quickly get past the idea of having a large wine cellar in the basement.

It seems to me that Unit 4's priorities should look like this:

1. Add additional strands and seats north of University Avenue, as required by the consent decree.

Hint 1: Put those seats east of Mattis Avenue, not out in Whiteyville.

Hint 2: Might have to pay a premium if you want to build a new school in the heart of North Champaign. Suck it up and do it. If Unit 4 had done that 20 years ago, we wouldn't have continuing court oversight of our schools. Let's don't make the same damn mistake and build yet another school on the edge of town. While it might make sense to you and me to build schools where the city is growing, apparently that is racist, wrong and unfair to the inner city poor. Let's face it, if you buy a house way outside of town, you are probably planning on your kiddies having a little commute to school.

2. Save the spin doctoring for internal meetings that I don't have to listen to or read about. Have clear and legitimate reasons for the proposal that you put forth. If you are adding seats to counter past racism and to comply with the consent decree, just say that. Don't toss out a bunch of nonsense about community growth. News flash: Unit 4 has shrunk in size, and won't be getting back the kids who have moved to Mahomet or switched to private school. And, most of the people moving in to new houses west of Staley Road aren't new to the community - they are moving across town.

3. If air conditioning the schools is all of a sudden a priority, then get serious about it and do it across the board. Don't use it as a gimmick to try to attract votes; voters are not that stupid.

4. Don't even talk about building a Savoy school until you have met your consent decree obligations for north of University Avenue.

5. Budget the numerous needed capital improvements to the schools over 10 or 15 years. It is unfair and unpopular to try to correct decades of deferred maintenance on the backs of the people who happen to be property owners in 2006-2016. Spend $20 million this time, plan on coming back in 3 -5 years for $20 million more. News flash to Mr. Culver: we all work for a living, damn it, and while your schools have needs, so does everyone else. Don't forget that taxpayers already spend $70+ million a year on Unit 4 public education, and we are still paying for Stratton and Barkstalll. If you want to be a hero and rebuild all of the infrastructure now, get out your own checkbook and do it.

6. Think about actually putting some information on your website. http://www.champaignschools.org/ For example, one of the issues in the recent bond referendum was how many open seats there are currently at Stratton. Some sources said none, others said 200. Hey, here's a thought: put the data on the Internet so we can all see it. While you're at it, put all of the enrollment data, including the racial and socioeconomic make-up of all of the schools. Transparency builds confidence in the electorate.

7. Don't try to rush out a $66 million bond referendum until all of your ducks are in a row: what are you going to build, and where are you going to build it.

My Favorite Bathroom Graffiti of All Time

2006-04-01T11:19:00.000-06:00

When I die, I want to go peacefully, in my sleep, like my grandpa

Not kicking and screaming, like the 4 other people in his car that night.

- Men's Restroom, The Blind Pig, Champaign, IL (July 1996)

Termination of Rockford Consent Decree

2006-03-15T21:48:00.000-06:00

Excerpts from Rockford School Desegregation Case, wherein 7th Circuit Court of Appeals dismisses consent decreee case:

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit
No. 00-3200

____________________________
People Who Care, et al.,

Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
Rockford Board of Education, School District No. 205,
Defendant-Appellant.

____________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Western Division.

No. 89 C 20168
P. Michael Mahoney, Magistrate Judge.

Argued March 27, 2001--Decided April 18, 2001

961 F.2d 1335, 1338, reh'g en banc denied (7th Cir.1992).

Before Bauer, Posner, and Kanne, Circuit Judges.

Posner, Circuit Judge.

. . . In 1994, the district judge found, by inference from disparities in educational achievement between white and minority students and from the school board's failure to take effective measures to prevent individual public schools from becoming all white or all minority, that the board had indeed engaged in intentional racial discrimination . . .

A formidably complex and ambitious remedial decree was entered in 1996, provoking appeals that led us the following year to vacate many of its provisions, such as racial quotas for cheerleaders, superseniority for minority teachers, unrealistic goals for closing the white-minority gap in test scores, and limits on the number of minority students who could enroll in remedial classes. 111 F.3d 528 (7th Cir. 1997). We pointedly warned against "ambitious schemes of social engineering" and stated that children "should not be made subjects of utopian projects." Id. at 534 . . .

Through the end of 1999 the taxpayers of Rockford had incurred total costs of $238 million to comply with the 1996 decree and its predecessors going back only to 1989, of which more than half had been incurred since 1996. By now the total must be substantially greater. Attorneys' fees alone are approaching $20 million. Twenty percent of the school district property taxes paid by homeowners in Rockford go to fund the decree.

As a result of the improvements enabled by this large expenditure, and a policy of allowing parents to choose which Rockford public school to send their kids to, the school district had by the end of 1999, when the school board filed its motion to dissolve the decree, succeeded in desegregating its schools.

Desegregation had been defined by the magistrate judge as the condition in which the minority composition of each school would not deviate by more than 15 percentage points from the minority composition of the population of the school district. Because this is a tighter range than imposed in most school desegregation cases, the Rockford public schools are now less segregated than those in any previous case in which a school system was declared "unitary" (that is, declared sufficiently desegregated to require the dissolution of the decree and the return of control of the public schools to the school board). The plaintiffs fear backsliding, and so want a wait-and-see period of at least 15 years after desegregation, during which the decree would remain in force . . .

Unlike decrees that bind private parties, decrees that hand over the control of important state functions, such as education, to federal courts "are not intended to operate in perpetuity." Board of Education v. Dowell, supra, 498 U.S. at 248. "[T]he Supreme Court disfavors permanent injunctions in school cases. The administration of public schools is a state executive function rather than a federal judicial function, and so ought not to be subjected to the perpetual tutelage of the federal courts." United States v. Board of School Commissioners, supra, 128 F.3d at 510.

The purpose of a school desegration decree is to eliminate the consequences of segregation. When they have been eliminated the decree has done its job and should be lifted. This simple principle, which we don't understand the plaintiffs to be quarreling with, dictates our decision. The Rockford public schools have been desegregated. No longer are there any schools that are "white only" or "minority only," or even approximations to such schools. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into the construction and renovation of schools and into programs designed to extirpate the traces of unlawful segregation. Although minority educational achievement lags behind that of whites, there is no evidence that the lag is any greater in Rockford than in otherwise similar districts that have no history of racial discrimination.

Four years ago almost to the day we noted the absence of "evidence that the gap in scholastic achievement between white and minority students in Rockford is any greater than the gap between white and minority students in school districts that have not been found to have discriminated against their black and Hispanic students." 111 F.3d at 537. One might have expected the plaintiffs to take the hint and look for such evidence. If they have looked, they have found nothing. Although peppered with references to programs designed to achieve "vestige elimination," the plaintiffs' brief cites no evidence that there are vestiges of unlawful discrimination still to eliminate. "At some point," moreover, "the continuing and ineliminable traces of an earlier violation are too slight to justify continued federal judicial control of public education." United States v. Board of School Commissioners, supra, 128 F.3d at 511.

The reality is that until minority students achieve parity of educational achievement with the white students in the Rockford public schools, the plaintiffs will contend that the minority students are victims of the unlawful discrimination of an earlier period in Rockford's history. Yet it is obvious that other factors besides discrimination contribute to unequal educational attainment, such as poverty, parents' education and employment, family size, parental attitudes and behavior, prenatal, neonatal, and child health care, peer-group pressures, and ethnic culture. Some of these factors may themselves be due to or exacerbated by discrimination, but not to discrimination by the Rockford school board.

The board has no legal duty to remove those vestiges of societal discrimination for which it is not responsible. Insofar as the factors that we have mentioned, rather than unlawful conduct by the Rockford school board in years past, are responsible for lags in educational achievement by minority students, the board has no duty that a federal court can enforce to help those students catch up. It may have a moral duty; it has no federal constitutional duty.

No effort has been made by the plaintiffs, despite our warnings, to partition, however crudely, the lag in achievement that is due to the school board's past illegalities and the lag that is due to other factors, factors for which the school board bears no federal legal responsibility. The partition could be made by comparing minority academic performance in Rockford with the performance of minority students in other school districts after adjusting for the various factors that are not the school board's legal responsibility yet might be thought to influence the academic performance of Rockford's minority students, such as poverty, family stability, health, class size, and quality of teachers. There are statistical methods for holding these factors constant in order to isolate the influence, if any, of the board's illegal conduct on the academic performance of Rockford's minority students. No such scientific comparison has been attempted- -nor even anything cruder.

The plaintiffs' failure to recognize the importance of trying to unpack the causes of disparate educational performance is illustrated by their contention that although the Rockford schools may now be desegregated, the classrooms within those schools remain segregated and until they are desegregrated the decree must remain in force. What they mean by the classrooms still being segregated is that minority students are underrepresented in advanced courses. Yet enrollment in those courses is open. No one is being kept out. (If enrollment were not open but instead were rationed by test scores, a much smaller percentage of minority students would be enrolled in the advanced classes, the magistrate judge found--6 percent rather than 23 percent.)

To suppose that minority students are enrolling in these classes at a lower rate than white students because of school segregation in the past is illogical, or at least unsubstantiated. The schools are desegregated, the advanced courses are open to any student, and if fewer minority students are enrolling than their proportion in the school or school district as a whole, the natural inference is not that the proportion is being held down by the fact that years ago the schools were segregated. That is conceivable, but so improbable that evidence is required to use the fact as a basis for continuing a federal judicial officer in control of the public school system. The plaintiffs' case is an extreme version of post hoc ergo propter hoc. It is provincial and naive to suppose that because Rockford once engaged in de facto segregation of its public schools, the choices of its minority students regarding voluntary enrollment in advanced classes open to all are a legacy of that segregation.

The plaintiffs' principal argument for the indefinite continuation of the decree is that the school board has not been complying with it in good faith. The difference between technical compliance and compliance in good faith is that the latter form of compliance does not exploit loopholes and ambiguities. Philips Medical Systems Int'l B.V. v. Bruetman, 8 F.3d 600, 604 (7th Cir. 1993); United States v. Board of Education, 799 F.2d 281, 289-90, 295 (7th Cir. 1986); Manning v. School Board, No. 99-2049, 2001 WL 264977, at *16 (11th Cir. March 16, 2001). It is not, as the plaintiffs would have it, that the school board must "actively" support the decree, must express "commitment" to it, and, above all, must not criticize it. The undemocratic implications of this position leave us almost speechless. Are elected officials, the members of the school board, elected long after and not complicit in the illegalities that gave rise to the litigation, forbidden, under threat of never resuming control of the public school system that they were elected to govern, to criticize a decree that in pursuit of an ambitious and possibly quixotic scheme of social engineering has imposed a formidable tax burden on the people who elected these officials?

The judgment is reversed with instructions to grant the relief requested by the school board. It should go without saying that if the board takes advantage of its new freedom from federal judicial control to discriminate against minority students in violation of federal law, it will expose itself to a new and draconian round of litigation. We trust that $238 million later, it has learned its lesson.

Reversed and Remanded, with Instructions.

Andy T - On Political Correctness

2006-03-15T21:12:00.000-06:00

Whilst I was on a rant about the oft-discussed C-U smoking ban, among other things, a co-worker referred me to Andy T, who recently went on a rant of his own (which I applaud and endorse wholeheartedly).

All the Answers, by AndyT13:

"Gun control: You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Reparations for slavery: . . . It's not possible to administrate such a thing fairly even if it were a good idea, which it ain't. Quit it.

Politically correct race names: . . . African-American, Irish American... Horse Hockey! If you were born in this country you're an American. Period.

Religious Zealotry: . . . is dangerous to society at large and needs to be exterminated. If your God tells you that you must kill or enslave those who believe something different than you that makes you a menace to society . . .

Gender norming: Men and women are different. It's a fact. Get over it. Neither sex is "better" or "worse" than the other . . . Making everything in the world gender non-specific is not only annoying and unnecessary but downright counter-productive.

Excessive Regulation: how come every bar can be made to be non-smoking? . . . What happened to personal freedom? You want [that in your establishment]? Great! I'm sure you'll have a clientelle [sic], but you shouldn't be forced to do these things by governmental regulation. It's intrusive, authoritarian and un-American. Quit it."

Thank you, Andy T.

Complete Text of Unit 4 Consent Decree Case

2006-03-07T21:20:00.000-06:00

United States District Court,C.D. Illinois.

_____________________________

Sa'Da and Tyjuan JOHNSON, minors, by their parent and next friend Felicia JOHNSON, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CHAMPAIGN UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT # 4, Defendant.

_____________________________

188 F.Supp.2d 944

No. 00-1349.
Jan. 29, 2002.

Parties to suit, claiming that school district was segregated, submitted proposed consent decree. The District Court, McDade, Chief Judge, held that: (1) plan allowing for student choice of elementary school, subject to racial fairness guidelines would be approved, despite claim that it imposed busing obligation on African-American students, and (2) plan providing for educational equity would be approved.

Decree entered.

Kathleen Mangold-Spoto,Robert C. Howard, Joan Matlak, Carol R. Ashley, Venita Hervey, Futterman & Howard Chtd., Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs.

Erika Dillon, Patricia J. Whitten, Franczek Sullivan PC, Chicago, IL, for Defendant.

ORDER

McDADE, Chief Judge.

Before the Court is the parties' Joint Motion for Approval of the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree [Doc. # 41]. Having conducted a fairness hearing in accordance with Rule 23(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on November 13, 2001, and in consideration of the evidence adduced at that hearing comprising several hundred pages of documents and affidavits, the written and oral objections of several third parties, and having reviewed the pleadings in this case, the Court finds that the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree is fair, reasonable, and adequate to the class.

The Court further finds that the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree meets all applicable legal standards for the entry of consent decrees in general and desegregation consent remedies in particular.

The Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law and approves the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree for the reasons discussed infra.

FINDINGS OF FACT

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This action arises pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the deprivation of Plaintiffs' rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 codified as 42 U.S.C. § 2000(d), the regulations promulgated under the authority of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 34 C.F.R. § 100.3 et seq., 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution of the State of Illinois. This Court has jurisdiction to hear the claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3), and 28 U.S.C. § § 2201, 2202.

The individual Plaintiffs in this case are African-American public school students of Unit 4 Champaign Illinois School District.

Defendant, Board of Education Champaign Community Unit School District # 4 ("Unit 4" or "District"), is a body politic and school district of the State of Illinois organized and operating in Champaign County. The Board of Education is charged with and responsible for the operation of the public schools within the District.

In May and July 1996, several African-American families initiated complaints with the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights ("OCR"), alleging race discrimination by Unit 4 schools. In October 1996, the law firm of Futterman & Howard, Chtd., on behalf of African-American students, amended the OCR complaints to include additional allegations of discrimination. CCM 2-3, Bates No. 1.

The initial complaints addressed student assignment and educational services provided to approximately 550 mandatorily bused African-American students. CCM 2, Bates No. 1.

The amended OCR complaints added four other issues: system wide discrimination in student assignment, within-school segregation practices and tracking, discipline, and staff hiring and assignment. EEM n. 2, Bates No. 12.

In September 1996, OCR initiated a proactive compliance review of Unit 4 to investigate the over-representation of minorities in special education and the under-representation of minorities in upper level courses. OCR also included the areas identified in the parents' complaints as part of their investigation. CCM 3, Bates No. 1; OCR 1, Bates No. 25.

Following a period of study and community input, the Board of Education of Unit 4 in November 1996 established a redistricting plan ("Redistricting Plan"). CCM 5, Bates No. 2.

Plaintiffs asserted that the Redistricting Plan did not reduce the disparate impact of educational practices, nor fully resolve their complaints, and that the Unit 4 student assignment system required additional modification to ensure diversity and educational equity. CCM 6, Bates No. 2.

Accordingly, in or around May 1997, Plaintiffs notified Unit 4 that they were contemplating the commencement of class action litigation against the District challenging, among other things, the student assignment methods used in 1968-97 and the Redistricting Plan. CCM 6, Bates No. 2.

On September 16, 1997, Unit 4 and Plaintiffs entered into an agreement, memorialized as the Champaign Controlled Choice Plan Memorandum of Understanding (the "Controlled Choice Memorandum"), which established a comprehensive plan and program for addressing Plaintiffs' complaints as to the assignment of African-American students among Unit 4 schools. CCM, Bates Nos. 1-11.

In June 1998, the District completed a comprehensive educational equity audit ("Education Equity Audit") with the assistance of Dr. Robert Peterkin and James Lucey to evaluate the performance of Unit 4 schools. EEA, Bates Nos. 63-162.

On June 15, 1998, the District entered into a Resolution Agreement with OCR resolving both the OCR proactive investigation and the Complaints filed by the African-American families. OCR, Bates. Nos. 25-62.

On July 6, 1998, Unit 4 and Plaintiffs entered into an agreement, memorialized as the Memorandum of Understanding of Civil Rights Issues Relating to Education Equity (the "Education Equity Memorandum"), which established a comprehensive plan and program for addressing certain additional complaints of Plaintiffs regarding alleged inequitable treatment of African-American students in Unit 4 schools. EEM, Bates Nos. 12-24.

In June 2000, Unit 4 adopted an Education Equity Implementation Plan ("Implementation Plan"), which included timetables and goals to fulfil the Controlled Choice, Equity, and OCR Resolution Agreements. IP, Bates Nos. 163-83.

At the time the OCR complaints were filed, the African-American parents and later Futterman & Howard, were aided in their efforts by the association "Of the People" (OTP), a predecessor of the association "Racial Justice Now" (RJN).

"[A] dispute arose," however, between OTP and Plaintiffs' counsel regarding implementation of the Controlled Choice Plan. 8/16/01 Ct. Order at 2. Thereafter, OTP became RJN. On July 28, 2000, RJN filed a school desegregation case against the School District. Plaintiffs then filed the instant action on October 4, 2000, and simultaneously with the filing of the complaint, submitted the Plaintiffs' and Defendant's Joint Motion for Approval of Consent Decree. Basically, the proposed Consent Decree adopts and incorporates the Controlled Choice Memorandum, the Resolution Agreement with OCR, and the Education Equity Memorandum and Implementation Plan.

RJN sought to intervene in the present case, alleging collusion between Plaintiffs and Defendant School District. The Court on August 16, 2001, denied the motion, finding that RJN had failed to allege sufficient facts to support its charge of collusion. 8/16/01 Ct. Order at 11.

On August 22, 2001, this Court certified the named Plaintiffs in the Johnson case as class representatives and approved Futterman & Howard as class counsel. 8/22/01 Ct. Order.

After proper public notice of the fairness hearing on the parties' joint motion for approval of the consent decree, written objections to the consent decree were received by the Court. See Public Notice, Tab 2 of the Proposed Consent Decree filed 10/15/01.

On November 13, 2001, the Court held a fairness hearing. The parties presented documentary evidence and affidavits in support of or in opposition to the proposed consent decree, and each supplemented the joint presentation with their own additional comments and evidence. In addition, oral objections were heard by the Court by all interested persons wishing to make such objections.

AGREEMENTS UNDERLYING THE CONSENT DECREE

A. The Controlled Choice Plan

On September 16, 1997, the parties agreed to implement the Controlled Choice Plan which:

1. Guarantees racial diversity, provides individual choice regarding school enrollment within racial fairness guidelines, and promotes school reform CCM 9a, Bates No. 3.

2. Ensures equitable access and burdens by allocating the District's total basic school capacity to each part of the city in proportion to the number of students that reside there. CCM 9f, Bates No. 3.

3. Provides educational opportunities for individual students by permitting each student to choose, from a number of schools in the system, two or more schools that the student desires to attend, and to rank the schools by personal preference. CCM 9g, Bates No. 3.

4. Contains a flexibility range of a maximum of plus or minus 15% of those system-wide racial compositions to accommodate schools which are over-chosen by one group and under-chosen by another. The over-choosing group may exceed its fair share proportion within this range. System-wide racial composition and the applicable flexibility range shall be determined independently for elementary, middle, and high schools. CCM 9j, Bates No. 4.

5. May contain a sibling preference which provides a first preference, within racial fairness guidelines, to all students who have a brother or sister already attending the student's school of choice. CCM 9m, Bates No. 4.

6. Contains a neighborhood preference which provides a preference within racial fairness guidelines to students who can walk to their chosen school. CCM 9n, Bates No. 4.

7. Creates one or more Parent Information Centers ("PIC") with sufficient resources to perform the day-to-day operations of the Plan and provide outreach, information, and advocacy to parents. The PIC(s) shall be located and conducted in a manner which maximizes minority parent participation in the Controlled Choice Process. CCM 9o, Bates No. 4-5.

8. Requires all eligible students to fill out an application indicating a minimum of two schools of choice. Every effort will be made to insure that minority students are aware of and participate in the application process. CCM 9p, Bates No. 5.

9. Addresses over-chosen schools by conducting a lottery after all students with preferences who meet the racial fairness guidelines have been assigned. CCM 9q, Bates No. 5.

10. Identifies, publicly lists, and provides technical assistance, and if necessary, changes in personnel in under-chosen schools. The purpose of these actions is to upgrade and improve the quality of education received in under-chosen schools. CCM 9aa, Bates No. 6.

11. Established a community-based Controlled Choice Community Task Force to assist in developing and implementing the Controlled Choice Plan. The Task Force represents the District's racial, economic, civic, governmental, business, and other major constituencies. CCM 12, Bates No. 7.

The parties formed a Planning and Implementation Committee ("PIC") comprised of an equal number of representatives of each party, including counsel. Throughout the Plan's duration, PIC will continue to monitor, evaluate, refine, and improve the Controlled Choice Plan. CCM 15, Bates Nos. 7-8.

In the 1998-99 school year, Controlled Choice was implemented at the Kindergarten level in all 11 elementary schools, and is phased in by grade each year thereafter:

_____________________________

School Year / Grades Affected

1998-99 / Kindergarten
1999-2000 / K, first grade
2000-01 / K, 1, 2
2001-02 / K, 1-3
2002-03 / K, 1-4
2003-04 / K, 1-5
_____________________________

B. OCR Resolution Agreement

To resolve the Complaints filed by African-American parents in May and July 1996 and the proactive review initiated by OCR in September 1996, OCR and the District reached an agreement as to the appropriate actions to be taken by the District to further its commitments to ensure that minority students are provided equal access to high standards and a high quality education in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq., and its implementing regulation at 34 C.F.R. Part 100. OCR 1, Bates No. 25.

To demonstrate its compliance with the OCR requirements, the District agreed to submit annual status reports regarding its implementation of the resolution to OCR. The last annual report is to be submitted to OCR by the District in August 2002. OCR, however, may require reports after August 2002 to the extent that any portion of the resolution is not fully implemented. OCR 37, Bates No. 61.

The OCR resolution includes the following principles and goals:

1. Students, regardless of race or national origin, must be provided access to high quality curriculum which enables students to achieve high standards;

2. A school climate which promotes learning and success and encourages students to support each other; and

3. Development of a diverse staff that will assist in a positive and supportive learning environment for all students.

The OCR resolution also includes specific goals and implementation timetables for gifted and upper level courses, discipline, special education, alternative programs, staff hiring, and within-school segregation. These specific elements of the OCR Resolution were incorporated into the Implementation Plan for the Equity Agreement. IP, Bates Nos. 163-183.

C. Education Equity Agreements

On July 6, 1998, the District voluntarily entered into a Memorandum of Understanding ("Education Equity Memorandum") to address educational equity issues. In doing so, the District acknowledged data reflecting disparity between white and African-American students in the District, and sought to improve access and equity in areas cited by Plaintiffs. EEM 1, Bates No. 12.

The Education Equity Memorandum was intended to address elimination of unwarranted disparities with respect to both the availability of educational services to African-American students, and also the participation and performance of African-American students in such services. EEM 2B, Bates No. 14.

The Education Equity Memorandum includes the following standards:

1. A standard for participation of African-American students in each of the regular programs, courses, classes and extracurricular activities. EEM 5A, Bates No. 17.

2. Standards for reasonably and practicably comparable educational outcomes for African-American and non-African-American students with respect to attendance, grades, standardized achievement scores, alternative assessment scores, discipline rates, and dropout/graduation rates. EEM 5B, Bates No. 17.

3. Standards for comprehensive, supplemental educational and social support to African-American students as needed to achieve and maintain the performance standards identified in the Equity Memorandum. EEM 5C, Bates No. 17.

4. Standards to eliminate to the greatest extent practicable any over-representation of minority students in subjective special education categories. The District bears the burden of demonstrating that any such overrepresentation is clearly justified by the application and outcome of valid, nondiscriminatory special education assessment and placement practices. EEM 5D, Bates No. 17.

5. Noting the special relationship between discipline and school climate, standards in each area, including systemwide comprehensive multi-cultural initiatives and staff development programs regarding equitable discipline. EEM 5E, Bates No. 17.

6. Standards to achieve a substantial level of racial diversity among the District's certified and noncertified staff members systemwide and within individual schools, focusing on recruitment, hiring, assignment and transfer standards. EEM 5F, Bates No. 18.

The PIC was designated to monitor, evaluate, refine and improve the Education Equity Memorandum. EEM 3, Bates No. 15.

In June 2000, the District adopted an Education Equity Implementation Plan ("Implementation Plan") to cohesively implement the Controlled Choice, Education Equity and OCR Resolution Agreements. IP i, Bates No. 165.

The purpose of the Plan was to set forth a comprehensive framework for improving the District's educational programs and opportunities in order to "close the achievement gap" between minority and non-minority students. IP i, Bates No. 165.

The Plan identified objectives, established flexible goals and enumerated actions to be performed by the District in the following areas: (1) climate and discipline; (2) special education; (3) gifted education; (4) student performance; (5) Columbia Center and alternative programs; and (6) hiring and staff placement and retention. IP, Bates Nos. 164-183.

The PIC developed the Implementation Plan and the Board of Education adopted it in June 2000. EEA Update 3, Bates No. 350.

INVOLVEMENT OF EXPERTS IN THIS CASE

Since Plaintiffs began negotiations with the District in 1997, several experts have been involved in analyzing data and developing remedies: Dr. Robert Peterkin, Dr. Michael Alves, and James Lucey. These experts are experienced in school equity issues and have testified or participated in numerous school desegregation cases or have worked extensively with school districts addressing issues of race and equity.

A. Dr. Robert Peterkin

Dr. Peterkin currently serves as the Keppel Senior Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Chair of Programs in Administration, Planning and Social Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Director of the Urban Superintendents Program at Harvard University; and as President of the Peterkin Consulting Group. Peterkin 1st Aff 1, Bates No. A9.

Dr. Peterkin has received numerous awards, participates in numerous professional and community organizations, has published numerous book chapters, articles, papers and reports on educational equity issues, and has been a featured speaker at more than 55 presentations during the last decade to address leadership and educational equity. Peterkin 1st Aff 2-3, Bates Nos. A9-A10.

Dr. Peterkin has focused his entire career on urban education, with an emphasis on school restructuring, development of school programs for children isolated by poverty, gender or race, and advocacy for equitable school choice. Peterkin 1st Aff 4, Bates No. A10.

Dr. Peterkin has served as a consultant and expert witness on federal school desegregation cases across the country. Peterkin 1st Aff 5, Bates No. A10.

In 1997, Unit 4 retained Dr. Peterkin, with assistance from James Lucey, to conduct a comprehensive examination of the District, evaluate the ability of all students to share equitably in the educational opportunities offered, and to make recommendations to the Board to improve and ensure equity. Peterkin 1st Aff 6, Bates No. A10.

Between July 1997 and June 1998, Dr. Peterkin engaged in extensive data collection and analysis, evaluating all components of the District's educational community, detailed in the Educational Equity Audit. Peterkin 1st Aff 7, Bates No. A10.

From 1998 to June 2000, Dr. Peterkin continued to conduct various reports and assist the District in developing plans to ensure educational equity. Peterkin 1st Aff 8, Bates No. A11.

Dr. Peterkin has reviewed the Proposed Consent Decree and has no specific objections to its provisions. Dr. Peterkin generally supports and recommends the provisions contained within the Decree. Peterkin 2nd Aff 2-4, Bates No. A12.

Dr. Peterkin believes that, as set forth in the Decree and the underlying agreements between the parties, the parties have developed a comprehensive program and process to further educational equity for African-American students in Champaign public schools that includes, but is not limited to, involving the community, enhancing student assignment desegregation, furthering educational equity, utilizing the PIC, continuing the collaborative working relationship among counsel for Plaintiffs and the District, and designing provisions to monitor the District's progress toward its goals. Peterkin 2nd Aff 5, Bates No. A13.

It is Dr. Peterkin's opinion, based on his extensive experience with school desegregation, that the program and process set forth in the Decree increases the probability of success in meeting the Decree's goals. Peterkin 2nd Aff 6, Bates No. A13.

Dr. Peterkin believes that when, as in this case, both parties voluntarily commit to racial equity initiatives, the likelihood of success in meeting the goals of the Decree increases. Peterkin 2nd Aff 7, Bates No. A13.

B. Dr. Michael Alves

Dr. Michael Alves is the Senior Educational Planner and Equity Specialist for the Education Alliance and Equity Assistance Center at Brown University. He is also President of the Alves Educational Consultants Group, Ltd. Alves Aff 1, Bates No. A1.

Dr. Alves has served as a high school teacher, Project Director for State Desegregation Assistance Programs, and Director of the Federal Title IV Civil Rights Act Unit for the Bureau of Equal Educational Opportunity, Office of the Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Education. Alves Aff 2, Bates No. A1.

Dr. Alves has extensive experience as an educational consultant and desegregation planner specializing in the design, implementation, and monitoring of "controlled choice" student assignment and school improvement plans. Alves Aff 3, Bates No. A1.

Dr. Alves has worked on controlled choice plans in more than 27 school districts across the country, including cases where he was retained as an expert witness and controlled choice planner in federal desegregation lawsuits. Alves Aff 4, Bates No. A2.

Dr. Alves has served as a desegregation planner and consultant to various federal education agencies and national and local civil rights organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and others. Alves Aff 5, Bates No. A2.

Dr. Alves has also served as a policy analyst and advisor on school choice, school desegregation and urban education issues to the National Governor's Association, National School Boards Association, National Education Association, and State Departments of Education (including Illinois); served as a member of the President's National Commission on Children, Implementation Committee on Increasing Educational Achievement; and published more than 47 books, articles, papers and reports on controlled choice and desegregation. Alves Aff 6-7, Bates No. A2.

In 1998, Unit 4 retained Dr. Alves as a controlled choice and student assignment planning expert to develop and implement, with Dr. Robert Peterkin, a Controlled Choice Plan for the District's elementary schools (grades K-5). Alves Aff 8, Bates No. A2.

Since the 1997-1998 school year, Dr. Alves has advised the District on its implementation of the Controlled Choice Plan in its elementary schools. Alves Aff 9, Bates No. A3.

C. James Lucey

James Lucey is the Principal Consultant at Lucey Consulting, where he serves as an independent consultant, primarily involved in public school district federal desegregation cases. Lucey Aff 1, Bates No. A7.

Mr. Lucey has 15 years of previous teaching and administrative experience in local school systems and in state youth service agencies, as well as more than 11 years of previous experience in various Information Technology and Financial Management positions in the private sector. Lucey Aff 2-3, Bates No. A7.

Mr. Lucey has focused his career on data analysis. His area of emphasis is school desegregation cases in which he conducts extensive data analyses, prepares the results, and presents his findings to educational decision-makers, senior organizational staff, politicians, and the courts. Lucey Aff 4, Bates No. A7.

Mr. Lucey has served as a consultant on federal school desegregation to a number of school districts across the country. Lucey Aff 5, Bates No. A7.

Unit 4 retained Mr. Lucey in 1997 to conduct a comprehensive examination of the District, evaluate the ability of all students to share equitably in the educational opportunities offered, make recommendations to the Board of Education to improve and ensure equity, and to otherwise assist consultant Dr. Robert Peterkin. Lucey Aff 6, Bates No. A7.

Between July 1997 and June 1998 Mr. Lucey engaged in extensive data collection and analysis, evaluating all components of the District's educational community, detailed in the Educational Equity Audit. Lucey Aff 7, Bates No. A7.

Since 1997, Mr. Lucey has continued to conduct various reports and assist the District in developing plans to ensure educational equity. Lucey Aff 8, Bates No. A7.

CONDITIONS IN THE DISTRICT

A. Student Assignment

1. Seat Capacity as of the 1996-97 School Year

In the 1996-97 school year there were 10 elementary schools in the District. Four were located in the north side of the District and six were located in the south, with University Avenue defining the distinction between north and south Champaign:
_____________________________
North Side / South Side

Columbia / Bottenfield
Booker T. Washington / Carrie Busey
Garden Hills / Kenwood
Dr. Howard / Robeson
----- / South Side
---- / Westview
_____________________________

Dr. Michael Alves, whom the District retained to conduct the initial audit of the Champaign School District, determined the following with respect to seat capacity in Champaign:
_____________________________
Geography / Strands / Capacity / K-5 Population / UtilizationRate

North / 11 / 1,585 / 1,812 / 114.3%
South / 18 / 2,590 / 2,421 / 93.5%

Alves 2nd Report 6, Bates No. 344.
_____________________________

Overall the District's total resident utilization rate for elementary schools was 101.4%. Alves 2nd Report 6, Bates No. 344. Students living in the north were being structurally displaced and assigned to south side schools in the 1996-97 school year. For example, if all the students who resided in the north wanted to attend schools in the north, 227 would not have been able to. All south side students would have been able to attend their area schools. Alves 2nd Report 6, Bates No. 344. See chart below.
_____________________________
1996-97 STRUCTURAL DISPLACEMENT

Geography / Population / Capacity / Strands / Utlization Shortfall, Excess

South Side / 2,421 / 2,590 / 18 / 93.5% / + 169
North Side / 1,812 / 1,585 / 11 / 114.3% / - 227
_____________________________

This information indicates that the District needed to increase elementary capacity in both areas of the District. See Alves 2nd Report 6, Bates No. 344 and Alves 2nd Report 9, Bates No. 347.

77.1% of African-Americans resided in the north side and 22.9% resided in the south side. Therefore, according to Dr. Alves, the data strongly suggests that the structural displacement [FN1] of north side students may have been a major contributing factor to the disproportionate transportation of some 546 African-American students in the 1996-97 school year. Alves 2nd Report 6, 8, Bates Nos. 344, 346.

[FN1]. Dr. Alves relied on information from a Report prepared by Arlene A. Blank, Champaign School District Assistant Superintendent for Support Services, dated May 15, 1997. SD Memo 1, Bates No. 257.

2. Seat Capacity as of the 2001-02 School Year

As of the 2001-02 school year, the District has 11 elementary schools, one more than it had in the 1996-97 school year:
_____________________________
North Side / South Side

Stratton [FN2] / Barkstall
Booker T. Washington / Bottenfield
Garden Hills / Carrie Busey
Dr. Howard / Kenwood
---- / Robeson
---- / South Side
---- / Westview
_____________________________

[FN2.] The District constructed Stratton Elementary to replace Columbia Elementary and serve the community in the same geographical area.
Alves 2nd Report 7, Bates No. 345.

Dr. Alves determined the following with respect to seat capacity:

_____________________________
Geography / Strands [FN3] / Capacity / K-5 Population / Utilization Rate

North / 12 / 1,656 [FN4] / 1,745 / 105.4%
South / 21 / 2,898 / 2,448 / 84.5%

_____________________________

[FN3]. A strand refers to the number of classes in a building. For the purposes of Champaign's elementary schools, one strand encompasses one class per grade level from K (Alves 2nd Report 7, Bates No. 345.)

[FN4]]. This maximum capacity figure is based on utilizing Stratton as a four-strand school.

Thus, according to Dr. Alves, there continues to be a shortage of seats on the north side. See chart below.

______________________________
2001-02 STRUCTURAL DISPLACEMENT

Geography / K-5 Pop. / Capacity / Stands / Utilization % / Excess, Shortfall

South Side / 2,448 / 2,898 / 21 / 84.5% / +450
North Side / 1,745 / 1,656 / 12 / 105.4% / - 89

Alves 2nd Report 7, Bates No. 345.
_____________________________

The level of structural displacement in the District varies depending on what utilization rate is adopted.

_____________________________
Utilization Rate / Seats Needed

100% / 89
92.1% (Current District Rate) / 227
84.5% (South Side Rate) / 346
(Alves 2nd Report 7, Bates No.345)
_____________________________

According to Dr. Alves, the north side still has the capacity shortage equivalent to at least two enrollment strands or approximately 276 seats. Alves 2nd Report 7, Bates No. 345.

After review of these issues, Dr. Alves strongly recommended that the District consider the feasibility of adding at least two enrollment strands in the north side by expanding Booker T. Washington School facility. Currently, Booker T. Washington is only a two-strand school with a maximum capacity of only 276. Moreover, it is the only two-strand school in the North Side and it is located within one of the most densely populated areas of the District. Alves 2nd Report 8, Bates No. 346.

3. Seat Capacity Based on April 2001 Kindergarten Controlled Choice Lottery

Preliminarily, based on information from the April 12, 2001 Kindergarten ("K") Controlled Choice Lottery, the following chart shows: (1) the number of kindergarten seats; (2) the number of students who applied for early K assignments and who resided within the 1.5 mile "proximity A" [FN5] area of each school; and (3) each school's resident kindergarten utilization rate and average kindergarten class size if all proximity A applicants had been assigned to that school.

[FN5]. The proximity A area is the area that encompasses a radius of 1.5 miles around the elementary school.

_____________________________
School / Proximity A Seats / Proximity A Applicants / Applicant Rate

Stratton / 69 / 124 / 180%
Washington / 46 / 66 / 143%
Garden Hills / 69 / 63 / 91%
Barkstall / 69 / 31 / 45%
Alves 1st Report 2-3, Bates Nos. 334-35.
_____________________________

The racial composition of the proximity A students in each school was:

_____________________________
School / African-Americans / Non-African-Americans

Stratton / 59.7% / 40.3%
Washington / 72.7% / 27.3%
Garden Hills / 54 % / 46 %
Barkstall / 6.5% / 93.5%
Alves 1st Report 2-4, Bates Nos. 334-336.
_____________________________

Only 21% of the proximity A students selected Stratton as their first-choice school. All were assigned to Stratton, including 21 African-Americans. Only 2 (or 6%) of the 34 white students in Stratton's proximity A selected Stratton as their first choice. Alves 1st Report 2, Bates No. 334.

Only 17% of the proximity A students selected Washington as their first-choice school. All were assigned to that school. None of the white students who resided in walking distance selected Washington as their first-choice school. This data suggests that Washington is not an especially attractive school for students who reside within walking distance of it. Alves 1st Report 2-3, Bates Nos. 334-35.

Only 35% of the proximity A students selected Garden Hills as their first-choice school. All were assigned to that school, including 13 African-Americans and 10 non-African-Americans. Alves 1st Report 3, Bates No. 335.

97% of the proximity A students selected Barkstall as their first choice school. All were assigned to that school. Alves 1st Report 3, Bates No. 335.

Dr. Alves' conclusions from School Level Structural Displacement Analysis:

(1) Data suggests that Stratton and Washington do not have sufficient enrollment capacities to accommodate all elementary students who reside within their 1.5 mile proximity A areas, located within the predominately African-American section of the city. Alves 1st Report 4, Bates No. 336.

(2) Data also shows that neither Stratton nor Washington is attracting most of the students who reside within walking distance, and Garden Hills is having difficulty attracting resident students. Alves 1st Report 4, Bates No. 336.

(3) These schools, in the African-American community, north of University Avenue, are in sharp contrast to Barkstall, which has more than enough seats for its proximity A students and which is extremely attractive to parents who reside within walking distance. Alves 1st Report 4, Bates No. 336.

(4) Data clearly shows that African-American students have not been denied access to their proximity A school because of racial fairness guidelines. As a result of Controlled Choice and racial fairness guidelines, it appears that African-American and students from all other racial groups are attending schools of choice that they could otherwise not attend. Alves 1st Report 4, Bates No. 336.

(5) These findings strongly suggest that any facility use recommendations that may be necessary to alleviate the physical or structural displacement of students in the District's more densely populated areas must also include recommendations for making schools like Stratton, Washington, and Garden Hills more attractive to the parents and students from diverse backgrounds who reside near these schools. Alves 1st Report 4, Bates No. 336.

B. Controlled Choice Kindergarten Enrollment in 2001-02

Early Kindergarten application for the 2001-02 school year took place during the month of March, 2001, and kindergarten assignments were made on April 12, 2001. Alves 1st Report, Memo intro, Bates No. 337.

A total of 514 students applied for early Kindergarten assignment for the 2001-02 school year. The ethnic breakdown of these 514 students includes 142 African-American (27.6%), 287 white (55.8%), 19 Hispanic (3.7%), 39 Asian (7.6%), 1 Native American (0.2%) and 26 other ethnic groups (5.1%). Alves 1st Report, Memo 1, Bates No. 337.

Application data was processed at the Family Information Center, using Controlled Choice Lottery software, and staff conducted multiple data accuracy and integrity tests on each student's application. To the best of Dr. Alves' knowledge, all assignments were processed in accordance with the District's Controlled Choice policies and procedures and enrollment fairness guidelines. Alves 1st Report, Memo 2, 3, 9, Bates Nos. 337-38.

The Controlled Choice Lottery for the 514 Kindergarten applicants was conducted at the Family Information Center on April 12, 2001. 460 applicants (89.5%) were assigned to their firstchoice school; 33 (6.4%) were assigned to their second-choice school; 17 (3.3%) were assigned to their [third] choice school; and 4 (0.8%) did not receive an assignment to a school of choice. Overall, 99.2% of the Kindergarten applicants were assigned to a school of choice. Alves 1st Report, Memo 4, Bates No. 337.

The 54 students who did not receive their first-choice school, including the 4 unassigned students, were placed on a wait list for their first choice school. Alves 1st Report, Memo 5, Bates No. 338.

All 142 African-American applicants (100%) were assigned to their first choice school, and 318 non-African-American applicants (85.5%) were assigned to their first choice school. Alves 1st Report, Memo 6, Bates No. 338.

All 197 applicants (100%) that had a sibling priority were assigned to their first choice school. Alves 1st Report, Memo 7, Bates No. 338.

266 of the 267 proximity A students (99.6%) who reside within 1.5 miles of their first choice school were assigned to their first choice school. 20 of the proximity B [FN6] (60.6%) who do not reside within 1.5 miles of any Champaign elementary school were assigned to their first-choice school. Alves 1st Report, Memo 8, Bates No. 338.

[FN6]. The proximity B area encompasses the area outside the proximity A radius.

All late kindergarten applicants for the 2001-02 school year will be assigned by the Controlled Choice Walk-In software at the Family Information Center. Alves 1st Report, Memo 10, Bates No. 338.

C. Trends Comparing 1996-97 to 2001-02 Student Assignment Data

The racial composition of students residing in the north and south side has changed very little since the 1996-97 school year with 74.5% of the District's African-American students still residing in the north side and 25.4% residing in the south side, a net change of 2.6%. Alves 2nd Report 8-9, Bates Nos. 346-7.

The District has made progress in reducing its elementary school utilization rate since the 1996-97 school year. Alves 2nd Report 8-9, Bates Nos. 346-7.

The construction of Barkstall Elementary School significantly affected the utilization rate in the south side by 9%. The opening of Stratton Elementary School has reduced the utilization rate in the north side by 8.9%. Overall, the construction of Barkstall and Stratton has added more elementary strands to the District and resulted in a net decrease of 9.3% in the district-wide utilization rate. Alves 2nd Report 8, Bates No. 346.

D. 1999 Controlled Choice Survey Indicates Positive Effects of Controlled Choice

In the summer of 1999, the District retained the Metro Chicago Information Center to conduct a survey of how parents choose schools for their children, their satisfaction with the first year of the Controlled Choice Plan, desired program enhancements, and other aspects of the plan. The survey included interviews with 387 parents, including 221 white parents and 131 African-American parents. CCS 2, Bates Nos. 589-590.

The Metro Chicago Information Center is an independent, nonprofit research organization founded in 1990 with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the McCormick Tribune Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust, and the United Way/Crusade of Mercy of Chicago. CCS 3, Bates No. 591.

According to the survey, the most important reasons parents chose the schools that they did include: friendliness, openness, responsiveness of school staff; safety; school program (year round, magnet theme, arts/drama, language); quality of teachers; discipline, uniforms; quality of principal as educational leader or as disciplinarian; older sibling needs; experience of other family members, friends; and closeness to home, location. CCS 4, Bates No. 592.

Among white parents whose children attended schools other than Stratton, only 6% said they considered choosing Stratton. Increasing the diversity of enrollment at Stratton will require a full-scale strategy of program enhancement, transportation, the perception of increased discipline, and the perception of increased security. CCS 19, Bates No. 607.

By an extraordinarily high margin, parents were satisfied with their child's kindergarten experience during the first year of Controlled Choice. CCS 21, Bates No. 609.

Parents had a high level of satisfaction with the schools choices that were available. 38% of African-Americans surveyed ranked their school choices as "excellent." CCS 23, Bates No. 611. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of all parents believed the Controlled Choice Plan was administered fairly. CCS 29, Bates No. 617.

Although there were small areas of significant concern and racial tension, parents gave predominantly positive ratings to the climate of race relations in the schools. CCS 33, Bates No. 621.

EDUCATIONAL EQUITY

A. Climate and Discipline

1. Pre-Agreement Data

In 1996-97, discipline rates were higher for African-Americans than whites and other student groups. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

District discipline policy called for pre-intervention processes prior to student disciplinary actions. While these processes appeared to be documented in individual student folders, no centralized effort was apparent to record, document, and analyze these pre-intervention steps. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

In 1996-97, 303 students were given an out-of-school suspension. Of that number, African-Americans were overrepresented to a statistically significant degree at all levels. OCR 18, Bates No. 42.

At the elementary school level for the 1996-97 school year, African-American students represented almost 81% of the students given an out-of-school suspension. OCR 19, Bates No. 43.

At the middle school level for the 1996-97 school year, African-Americans represented almost 68 % of the students who were given an out-of-school suspension. OCR 19, Bates No. 43.

More than 12% of middle school African-Americans were given an out-of-school suspension. Less than 3% of white middle school students were given out-of-school suspension. OCR 19, Bates No. 43.

At the high-school level for the 1996-97 school year, African-Americans represented approximately 64% of the students who were given out-of-school suspensions. OCR 19, Bates No. 43.

More than 13% of high school African-Americans were given out-of-school suspensions. Less than 3% of white high-school students are given out-of-school suspensions. OCR 19, Bates No. 43.

During the 1997-98 school year, 63% of all suspensions were given to African-Americans, who comprised 32% of the student population. EEA 49, Bates No. 116.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

a. The 2000 Climate Survey

In 2000, the District retained Dr. Mark Aber at the University of Illinois at Champaign to conduct a Climate Study in accordance with the OCR Resolution Agreement. OCR 4-5, Bates Nos.28-29; Climate Study, Bates Nos. 379-545.

The results of the study revealed a curious pattern of findings related to how Unit 4 staff and parents think about race and culture. Climate Study 29, Bates No. 407.

Despite wide support for the notion of color-blind policies and practices, study results indicated that the majority of Unit 4 teachers believe that they and their colleagues demonstrate cultural understanding when teaching children of different backgrounds. These results exposed a limited perspective on cultural understanding and sensitivity on the part of some staff. Climate Study 29, Bates No. 407.

Because they did not see racial disparities and discipline in academic programs as unfair, most staff and parents did not see a significant need for the District to change its policies to better address issues of race. Climate Study 28, Bates No. 406.

Many whites believed that parents, economics, and/or society are to blame for the educational disparities between African-Americans and whites. Climate Study 32-34, Bates Nos. 410-12.

Consistent with their view of fairness, need for change and explanations for racial disparities, results indicated most white staff and parents did not view as very important the hiring of teachers and administrators to reflect the number of African-American students in Unit 4 schools. Climate Study 34-35, Bates Nos. 412-13.

The Survey indicated that many in the District are even afraid to talk about race issues. Climate Study 27, Bates No. 405.

There almost seemed to be a belief that the best way to deal with issues of race is to ignore the fact that people are of different races. Climate Study 27, Bates No. 405.

To the extent that this "color-blind" perspective led people to acknowledge African-American experiences and perceptions, many people, particularly African-American, saw this perspective as inherently demeaning and unfair. Climate Study 28, Bates No. 406.

The Survey reviewed the educational research on the effect of climate on student learning, including that:

(1) Perceived school climate is important to the health and well-being of school children. Climate Study 6, Bates No. 384.

(2) Negative school climate perceptions are associated with poor achievement, emotional problems, behavior difficulties, dropping out, absenteeism and school dissatisfaction. Climate Study 6, Bates No. 384.

(3) Ignoring racial differences and perceptions of climate will further marginalize those with the most negative experiences and perceptions. Thus, corrective steps must be taken to address this. Climate Study 35, Bates No. 413.

(4) Minority students' capacity to learn in school is greatly enhanced when teachers have a deep appreciation of their students' racial, cultural, religious, and family backgrounds and experiences. Learning is inhibited when teachers do not have such understanding. Thus, an unintentional consequence of this "color blind" perspective is the interference with this understanding and damage to the students' ability to learn. Climate Study 29, Bates No. 407.

(5) When an African-American student in Unit 4 observed a gross over-representation of African-American students in detention and special education, and a gross underrepresentation of African-American students in gifted and talented programs, he or she is very likely to interpret those numbers as having negative implications for himself or herself. Climate Study 35-36, Bates Nos. 413-14.

Dr. Aber recommended several actions. Climate Study 5, 36-37, Bates Nos. 383, 414-415.

(1) Increase cultural competence of teaching staff.

(2) Create school forums to discuss the climate study results and make
recommendations to address issues raised by them.

(3) Hire more African-American regular classroom teachers.

(4) When hiring non-African-American teachers, develop selection criteria that value cultural competence.

(5) Develop incentives to reward teachers who teach students of diverse backgrounds well.

(6) Develop incentives for teachers to learn from colleagues who demonstrate success teaching students of diverse backgrounds well. These incentives should encourage inter-racial collaboration which will enable people to get to know one another by working closely together.

(7) Reduce and eventually eliminate all "ability based" tracking.

(8) Establish goals and strategies to reduce the overall number of disciplinary and special education referrals.

(9) Implement in-school educational programs for students focused on issues of races, culture and ethnicity.

Ultimately, to successfully address negative climate perceptions will require reduction or elimination of existing racial disparities. Climate Study 35, Bates No. 413.

In March 2001, in response to the Climate Study, the District proposed the following actions be taken:

(1) Hold community forums to continue discussing race-related issues;

(2) Conduct discussions with the district-wide Diversity Committee to address staff perceptions;

(3) Examine the curriculum to assure a strong multi-cultural component in all subjects;

(4) Continue training all staff on diversity issues and on how to achieve success with all students in a multi-cultural community; and

(5) Continue to emphasize Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity policies. CS Follow-Up 1, Bates No. 546.

In summer 2000, the District updated the Education Equity Audit and concluded that:

(1) In 1999-2000, African-Americans comprised 65% of all discipline referrals. EEAR Disc. 8, Bates No. 218.

(2) In 1999-2000, African-Americans comprised the following percentages of disciplinary suspensions and expulsions in elementary schools: 90.2% for insubordination; 84.6% for verbal abuse and threats; 82.4% for physical acts and disruption; 66.7% for substances; and 73.7% for other. EEAR Disc. 15, Bates No. 225.

(3) In 1999-2000, African-Americans comprised the following percentages of disciplinary suspensions and expulsions in middle schools: 96.7% for insubordination; 85.5% for verbal abuse and threats; 80.5% for physical acts and disruption; 90.0% for substances; and 85.0% for other. EEAR Disc. 15, Bates No. 225.

(4) In 1999-2000, African-Americans comprised the following percentages of disciplinary suspensions and expulsions in high schools: 74.6% for insubordination; 59.1% for verbal abuse and threats; 72.2% for physical acts and disruption; 61.2% for substances; and 76.5% for other. EEAR Disc. 15, Bates No. 225.

(5) The District has eliminated subjective categories for suspension in the Student Code of Conduct. EEAR Disc. 4, Bates No. 214.

(6) The Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies (PBIS) process has been implemented in all schools and focuses on positive and progressive alternatives, prior to using negative or punishment strategies. [FN7] EEAR Disc. 4-5, Bates Nos. 214-15.

[FN7]. Plaintiffs have noted that PBIS is not a discipline initiative that addresses equity issues.

(7) The District expanded peer mediation programs in all elementary and high schools. EEAR Disc. 4, Bates No. 214.

(8) The District has implemented the "2nd Step Violence Prevention Program" in all elementary schools. EEAR Disc. 5, Bates No. 215.

(9) The District has implemented mentor programs in all buildings. EEAR Disc.2001-5, Bates No. 676. [FN8: Neither Plaintiffs nor PIC has had the opportunity to review for accuracy the 2001 District Reports on Discipline, Special Education and Achievement. ] Based on that review, the information may change slightly.

(10) At the elementary and middle school levels, the District has adopted an In-school Alternative to Suspension program. [FN9] EEAR Disc.2001-6, Bates No. 677.

[FN9.] Plaintiffs have noted several concerns regarding this program and its impact on African-American students.

B. Special Education

1. Pre-Agreement Data

a. Special Education, generally

African-Americans were over-represented in special education programs. This serves to preclude access to regular education and advanced opportunities. Of particular note are a disproportionate number of African-American students in programs where human judgment may play a greater role than in programs with "hard" diagnostic criteria. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

Between 1993-96, African-American students comprised 32% of the student population and 44 % of the special education population. EEA 40, Bates No. 107.

Between 1993 and 1996, 26% of African-Americans had special education needs as compared to 17% of white students and 8% of other racial group students. EEA 40, Bates No. 107.

b. Speech and Language

During the 1995-96 school year, the District had 880 students placed in special speech and language services excluding those students receiving speech and language services. African-American students represented 419, or 47.7%, of these students. OCR determined that African-American students were over-represented in the special education per room to a statistically significant degree. OCR 26, Bates No. 50.

c. Learning Disability

African-Americans were over-represented to a statistically significant degree in the category of Specific Learning Disability ("SLD") -218 out of 518 or 42.1% during the 1995-96 school year. OCR 26, Bates No. 50.

Between 1993-96, African-Americans comprised 40% of SLD students and 32 % of the entire student population. EEA 42, Bates No. 109.

Between 1993 and 1996, 6% of all students were designated as having an SLD; 8% of African-Americans were designated as SLD. EEA 42, Bates No. 109.

d. Behavior Disorder

In the 1995-96 school year, African-Americans were overrepresented to a statistically significant degree in the category of Behavior Disorder ("BD")-91 of 133, or 68.5%. OCR 27, Bates No. 51.

During the 1995-96 school year, African-Americans constituted 68.5% of students with a primary disability of BD. OCR 28, Bates No. 52.

Between 1993 and 1996, African-Americans comprised 61% of BD students; during this time they comprised 32% of the student population. EEA 44, Bates No. 111.

Between 1993 and 1996, 2% of all students district-wide were designated as BD; a total of 4% of the entire African-American student population was so designated. EEA 44, Bates No. 111.

e. Mental Impairment

In the 1995-96 school year, African-Americans were overrepresented to a statistically significant degree in the category of Mental Impairment ("MI")-87 of 152, or 57.3%. OCR 27, Bates No. 51.

Between 1993 and 1996, African-Americans comprised 52 % of MI students; during the same period African-Americans comprised 32 % of the student population. EEA 43, Bates No. 110.

Between 1993 and 1996, 1% of all students were designated as MI; 3% of African-Americans were designated as MI. EEA 43, Bates No. 110.

f. Referral Process

In the 1995-96 school year, African-Americans were overrepresented to a statistically significant degree in the group of students referred for initial case study evaluations for special education. OCR 27, Bates No. 51.

At each elementary school in the District, the rate of referral of African-American students for case study evaluations for special education exceeded the rate of referral for white students. OCR 27, Bates No. 51.

Disparities in the effectiveness of individual Building Support Teams ("BSTs") were evidenced by the records maintained by the teams when documenting actions taken regarding specific students at rates of referral by race. OCR 27, Bates No. 51.

During the 1995-96 school year, African-Americans were overrepresented to a statistically significant degree in the group of students referred by BSTs for discussion and for initial case study evaluation. OCR 27, Bates No. 51.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

In 1999-2000, African-American students comprised 48.6% of special education students in elementary schools, 56% in middle schools, and 43% in high schools. EEAR SpEd 2, Bates No. 197.

Screening occurs for all students in accordance with Illinois law. EEAR SpEd 3, Bates No. 198.

Elementary teachers identify students with underachievement, poor behavior and excessive absenteeism. These students are monitored and provided early interventions. EEAR SpEd 3, Bates No. 198.

The District has reviewed and continues to monitor the racial, ethnic, and gender balance of BSTs. EEAR SpEd 3, Bates No. 198.

On August 15, 1997, the District discontinued "informal" psychological evaluation of students prior to conducting case study evaluations. EEAR SpEd 3, Bates No. 198.

The District provided training for staff who serve on BSTs, including identification procedures, intervention strategies, and evaluation procedures. EEAR SpEd 3, Bates No. 198.

In 1999-2000, training was conducted on "Instructional Strategies for Hard to Reach Students." EEAR SpEd 3, Bates No. 198.

In 1998-99, the District retained a special education consultant who visited all BSTs. A "self assessment" survey was completed and a training matrix was developed. EEAR SpEd 3, Bates No. 198.

On March 14-15, 2001, the District retained Dr. James Patton to review data to support eligibility and placement decisions, and other patterns that could serve as recommendations to staff to better serve this population of students. Patton 1, Bates No. 548.

Patton's report indicated that, while psychological portions of student files provided more than adequate documentation and evidence of disability in some areas, cultural and social data were lacking, and the total environment of the child may not have been considered. Patton 1, Bates No. 548.

Patton recommended collecting more substantive data in the SDS category regarding culture and cultural traditions and influences on the child, home and school. Patton 1, Bates No. 548.

In 1999-2000, African-American students comprised 50.2% of the Speech and Language enrollment in the elementary schools. EEAR SpEd 2, Bates No. 197.

In 1999-2000, African-Americans comprised 42.8% of the elementary SLD enrollment. EEAR SpEd 2, Bates No. 197.

In 1999-2000, African-Americans comprised 59.1% of the BD enrollment district wide. EEAR SpEd 2, Bates No. 197.

In 1999-2000, African-Americans comprised 61.7% of MI enrollment district wide. EEAR SpEd 2, Bates No. 197.

To ensure equitable identification, BD criteria was tightened in 1998 and LD criteria was tightened in 1999-2000. EEAR SpEd 3, Bates No. 198.

C. Enrollment and Attendance

1. Pre-Agreement Data

While African-American enrollment levels appeared to show increasing or flat enrollment at elementary and middle school levels, African-American enrollment declined dramatically, from 29% in 1992-1993 to 23% in 1997-98, at the high school level. EEA 22, Bates No. 89.

African-American student attendance rates lag behind that of their white counterparts. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

For the 1996-97 school year, at the elementary level, the mean number of days attended for African-Americans was 171 days compared to 174 for other racial and ethnic groups. Notably, 10% of African-Americans missed 36 days or more of school. EEA 24, Bates No. 91.

For the 1996-97 school year, at the middle school level, the mean number of days attended for African-Americans was 168, compared to 172-73 days for other racial and ethnic groups. EEA 25, Bates No. 92.

For the 1996-97 school year, at the high school level, the mean number of days attended for African-Americans was 159, compared to 165-67 days for other racial and ethnic groups. EEA 26, Bates No. 93.

For the 1996-97 school year, days attended appears to drop off dramatically at the lowest 25th percentile. EEA 26, Bates No. 93.

The disparity between African-American and white and other students in attendance rates, dropout rates, and discipline rates contribute to lower graduation rates for African-American students compared to their percentage of the school population. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

While Dr. Peterkin and Mr. Lucey have made several recommendations to address this issue, there is nothing in the record to indicate what steps the District has taken in this regard.

D. Mobility/Drop Out Rates

1. Pre-Agreement Data

African-American dropout rates were higher than those of white and other student groups. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

In 1997, 59% of high school dropouts were African-American. This compares to an overall African-American high school enrollment of 26%. This disproportionate percentage stayed roughly consistent between 1993 and 1997. EEA 70, Bates No. 137.

African-American student high school graduation rates decreased from 94% in 1993 to 70% in 1997. High school graduation rates for white students was 90% in 1997. EEA 71, Bates No. 138.

The disparities between African-American and white and other students in attendance rates, dropout rates, and discipline rates contribute to lower graduation rates for African-American students as compared to their percentage of the school population. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

The District has increased the number of African-Americans graduating from high school during the period from 1998-2000. EEAR Achvt. 2, Bates No. 232.

The District has decreased significantly the number of African-Americans dropping out of high school from school year 1997. EEAR Achvt. 2, Bates No. 232.

E. Gifted Education

1. Pre-Agreement Data

Prior to the 1997-98 school year, at the elementary level, only pre-selected students were given gifted and talented program screening tests. If the student did not have a strong teacher or parent advocate, the student was not given access to the prerequisite screening test and, therefore, did not have access to the program. EEA 15, Bates No. 82.

In the spring and summer of 1996, only 6.3% of African-Americans took the Cognitive Abilities Test, a voluntary test used to place students in gifted programs. The overall enrollment of African-Americans in grades one through four was approximately 34%. OCR 6-7, Bates Nos. 30-31.

In the 1996-97 school year, overall African-American enrollment in grades two through five was approximately 33%; African-American enrollment in the gifted and talented program in elementary school was 2.7%. OCR 7, Bates No. 31.

In 1997-98, the African-American population in Champaign was 38%; African-American enrollment in the elementary school gifted and talented program was 3%. EEA 31, Bates No. 98.

For students of a higher socio-economic status during the 1997-1998 school year, 16.85% of students were screened for gifted and talented programs. Whites were screened at 16.79%; Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans were screened at 31.29%; African-Americans were screened at 5.88%. EEA 32, Bates No. 99.

For students of a lower socio-economic status during the 1997-98 school year, 4.14% of students were screened for gifted and talented programs. Whites were screened at 6.81% Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans were screened at 13.25% and African-Americans were screened at 2.19%. EEA 32, Bates No. 99.

African-American students are also under-represented in the gifted and talented Programs at the middle school level:

At the middle school level, during the 1996-1997 school year, a total of 376 District students enrolled in a least one segment of the gifted program. Of this total, 23 or 6.2% of the students are African-American. When this ratio was compared to the African-American middle school students enrollment rate of approximately 32%, the difference is statistically significant. OCR 7, Bates No. 31.

African-Americans were under-represented to a statistically significant degree among sixth grade students recommended for placement during the 1997-98 school year in upper level mathematics courses and among eighth grade students recommended for placement during the 1997-98 school year in upper level high school mathematics, science, and English courses. OCR 11, Bates No. 35.

African-Americans were enrolled in the middle school gifted and talented program as follows:

_____________________________
Subject / 1995-96 / 1996-97 / 1997-98

Math &science / 3% / 1% / 4%
Language arts & social studies / 2% / 2% / 3%
Performing arts /12% / 16% / 15%
_____________________________

During these years, African-Americans comprised 31-32% of the middle school population. EEA 34, Bates No. 101.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

The District has changed the screening process so all first graders are screened with a non-verbal assessment validated as a tool for increasing the participation of minority students in the gifted and talented programs. EEAR Gifted 3, Bates No. 186.

The District has engaged in extensive community and parental outreach, including: (1) sending flyers home to all families; (2) visiting the homes of families who decided not to have their child participate in the gifted program; (3) telephoning families regarding placement and screening; and (4) having the Gifted Director appear on an African-American radio program to explain, answer questions and encourage parents to have their children participate in the gifted program. EEAR Gifted 2, Bates No. 185.

At the elementary school level, the District has expanded enrichment programs (non-self-contained) to Carrie Busey, Kenwood and Robeson Elementary Schools. EEAR Gifted 2, Bates No. 185.

At these schools in 1999-2000, 24% (88 out of 367) of the total number of participating students were African-American. EEAR Gifted 2, Bates No. 185.

At the middle school level, the District has increased the number of African-American students participating in the academic segments. EEAR Gifted 2, Bates No. 185.

At these schools in 1999-2000, the African-American participation in the academic segments was: (1) 12% in Language Arts/Social Studies; (2) 9% in Math/Science; and (3) 15% in Performing Arts. EEAR Gifted 2, Bates No. 185.

F. High School Upper Level Classes

1. Pre-Agreement Data

At the high school level during the 1996-97 school year, African-Americans were under-represented to a statistically significant degree in upper level (Level III) courses in every subject area in which such courses were offered. OCR 11, Bates No. 35; EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

In the 1997 school year, 9% of students enrolled in Level III courses were African-American as compared to the 26% African-American overall school enrollment. In comparison, 84% of white students had at least one Level III class during that year. The percentage of African-American students taking a least one Level III course declined slightly between 1993 and 1997. EEA 64, Bates No. 131.

In the 1997 school year, African-American students represented 5% of the total Advanced Placement ("AP") course enrollment in high school. This compares to overall African-American student enrollment of 26%. EEA 67, Bates No. 134.

African-American students took fewer AP tests and scored lower on AP examinations. EEA 17, Bates No. 84.

From 1995-97, African-Americans wrote only 1% of all AP examinations. The 1997 ratio for African-Americans taking AP courses to those taking AP exams was 0.4 to 1; the similar ratio for whites was 0.73 to 1 and for Hispanic, Asian, and other students was 0.8 to 1. EEA 69, Bates No. 136.

In the 1997 school year, African-Americans represented 5% of the AP enrollment in high school. This compares to overall African-American student enrollment of 26%. EEA 67. Bates No. 134.

Between 1993 and 1997, African-American AP course grades were not as good as their white, Asian, Hispanic, or other classmates. About 50 % of the grades given to African-American students were "A's" or "B's;" this compares to 70% of white students' grades and 72 % of Asian, Hispanic, and other student grades. EEA 68. Bates No. 135.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

African-American student participation in Level III courses has increased slightly from 1997-98 to 1999-2000. EEAR Achvt. 2, Bates No. 232.

In 1997-98, African-American enrollment in AP courses dropped to 3%. EEAR Achvt. 2, Bates No. 232.

G. High School Lower Level Courses

1. Pre-Agreement Data

African-American students were over-represented in less rigorous Level I and Level II high school courses. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

During the 1996-97 school year, African-American students were over-represented to a statistically significant degree in the District's lower grouped high school mathematics, science, and English courses. OCR 11,

Bates No. 35.

In the 1997-98 school year, 47% of students enrolled in Level I and II courses were African-American. During the same time the overall African-American enrollment was 26%. EEA 63, Bates No. 130.

African-Americans were over-represented to a statistically significant degree among eighth grade students recommended for placement during the 1997-98 school year in lower group high school mathematics, science, and English courses. OCR 11-12, Bates Nos. 35-36.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

All Level I high school courses will be eliminated by the Fall of 2002. EEAR Achvt.2001 5, Bates No. 704.

H. Student Achievement

1. Pre-Agreement Data

Some schools did not have sufficient remedial reading programs in place to meet the needs of students reading below grade level. OCR 27, Bates No. 51.

Departments and schools have operated largely independently of one another, without sufficient management information, thus, very likely diluting the overall impact of any attempted intervention or program resources. EEA 17, Bates No. 84.

African-Americans scored lower than their white and other student counterparts on standardized achievement tests and, on average, performed below national norms. EEA 17, 54, Bates No. 84, 121.

In the 1996-1997 school year, on the Stanford 9 Basic/Partial Battery standardized test administered to grades 3-7, African-American students had generally lower percentile scores than white and other racial groups. EEA 55, Bates No. 122.

In the 1996-1997 school year, on the Stanford 9 Basic/Partial Battery standardized test administered to grades 3-7, African-American students of lower socio-economic status did significantly worse than whites and other racial groups of lower socio-economic status. EEA 59, Bates No. 126.

In the 1996-1997 school year, on the Explore standardized test administered to grade 8, African-American students generally had lower percentile scores than whites and other racial groups, even when factoring for socio-economic status. EEA 61, Bates No. 128.

In the 1996-1997 school year, on the Plan Composite standardized tests administered to grade 10, African-American students generally had lower percentile scores than whites and other racial groups, even factoring in socio-economic status. EEA 62, Bates No. 129.

In the 1996-1997 school year, African-Americans earned 4% of the "A"s in Level III courses compared to 90% for white students and 7% for other racial group students. EEA 65, Bates No. 132.

In the 1996-1997 school year, African-Americans earned 5% of the "B"s in Level III courses compared to 88% for white students and 7% for other racial group students. EEA 66. Bates No. 133.

2. District's Action Post-Agreement

In August 2000, a balanced literacy curriculum was adopted based on national literacy standards; it offers a consistent framework for reading instruction. EEAR Achvt.2001 5, Bates No. 704.

Academic enrichment specialists are working at 9 of 11 elementary buildings. EEAR Achvt.2001 5, Bates No. 704.

Extended day programs are offered at all elementary and middle schools. EEAR Achvt.2001 5, Bates No. 704.

Over 412 America Reads/America Counts tutors are assigned to pre-K through 8th grade. EEAR Achvt.2001 5, Bates No. 704.

Both high schools are developing extended learning programs. EEAR
Achvt.2001 5, Bates No. 704.

Many professional activities have been conducted in the areas of student achievement, school climate, diversity, and Best Practice training. EEAR Achvt.2001 6, Bates No. 705.

High schools have student support activities for students who may have difficulty meeting standards, including Together Everyone Achieves More, Peer Tutoring, Jump Start Summer Program, Spanish Tutoring, Before/During/After School Tutoring, Upward Bound, and CHANCE. EEAR Achvt. 3, Bates No. 233.

I. CARE Alternative School Program

1. Pre-Agreement Data

Students were referred to CARE middle or high school by administrators at their home schools because of attendance, behavior, or academic problems, or because of expulsion. OCR 16, Bates No. 40.

Students could refer themselves to CARE. OCR 16, Bates No. 40.

During the 1996-97 school year, almost 70% of the students assigned to the CARE middle school were African-American. OCR 16, Bates No. 40.
Almost 60% of the students assigned to the CARE high school were African-American according to data maintained by the District for the 1996-97 school year. OCR 16, Bates No. 40.

Students do not typically return to their home schools once admitted to the CARE program. OCR 16, Bates No. 40.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

While Dr. Peterkin and Mr. Lucey have made several recommendations addressing this issue, there is nothing in the record to show what steps the District has taken in this regard.

J. Columbia (Stratton) Elementary School

The Columbia Elementary School was 92 years old when it was replaced in 1998 with the newly constructed Stratton Elementary School. [FN10 : Columbia now houses the middle and high school CARE programs. ] Columbia, and now Stratton, have a history of being racially identifiable in that its student composition is largely African-American.

Between 1993 and 1998, African-Americans represented on average 36% of the total Champaign elementary school population. During the period between 1993 and 1998, African-Americans represented on average 78 % of the Columbia Elementary School population. Columbia Report 30, Bates No. 580.

Between 1993 and 1998, the African-American student enrollment percentage at Columbia Elementary School was between 12% and 21% higher than the stipulated maximum African-American student enrollment. Columbia Report 2, Bates No. 552.

Columbia was identified, but not placed on, the Illinois Board of Education Watch List for low academic achievement in 1997.

Given its large enrollment of African-Americans, the disparities that exist in the District are magnified at Columbia/Stratton.

From 1993-97 African-Americans comprised 44% of the District special education placements. For the same period at Columbia, African-Americans comprised 72% of the special education placements. Columbia Report 30, Bates No. 580.

African-American students attending Columbia Elementary School are disproportionately represented among the lowest 10% in elementary school student attendance rates for the 1997 school year. Columbia Report 7, Bates No. 557.

In the 1995, 1996, and 1997 school years, respectively, only 0%, 1%, and 3% of African-American students at Columbia were screened for gifted classes. Yet, the African-American population at Columbia for this period was between 58% to 78% African-American. Columbia Report 2, 13, Bates Nos. 552, 563.

In the 1996, 1997, and 1998 school years, respectively, African-Americans represented 1%, 3%, and 3% of the Columbia gifted population. Yet, African-Americans represented 70-78% of the Columbia student population for the same period. Columbia Report 2, 15, Bates No. 552, 565.

In the 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1997 school years, an average of 89% of African-Americans at Columbia Elementary School participated in the free lunch program. Columbia Report 4, Bates No. 554.

K. Staffing, Recruitment, & Hiring

1. Pre-Agreement Data

At the time of the Dr. Peterkin & Mr. Lucey Audit, Unit 4's hiring processes appeared to operate without sufficient minority representation in the hiring pools or screening teams and the school-based hiring process did not systematically report or record reasons for rejecting minority candidates recruited by the District. EEA 16, Bates No. 83.

At the time of the Dr. Peterkin & Mr. Lucey Audit, African-Americans comprised approximately 10% of the teaching force but the African-American student population exceeded 30%. EEA 79, Bates No. 146.

At the time of the Peterkin & Lucey Audit, African-American males, white males, and Hispanic females were under-represented compared to the National Teacher Labor Force. EEA 79, Bates No. 146.

2. District's Actions Post-Agreement

In June 2000, the District adopted the Implementation Plan to achieve, among other things, a substantial level of racial diversity of certified and classified staff district-wide and at each school level to facilitate educational equity (e.g., changing school climate and closing the achievement gap). IP 15, Bates No. 182; EEM 5F, Bates No. 18.

In the Implementation Plan, the District agreed to the following flexible goals:

(a) A diversity goal for classified staff that included a minority representation at least equal to the proportion of African-Americans qualified for jobs not requiring certification in the availability pool. IP 15, Bates No. 182.

(b) To hire African-American certified and classified staff in accordance with their availability in the Champaign labor market. IP 15, Bates No. 182.

(c) To establish at least four at-large teaching positions for assignment to vacancies in schools for diversity purposes in consultation with building principals. IP 15, Bates No. 182.

(d) To monitor all hires, transfers and terminations of staff and maintain, through aggressive action, diverse personnel in all schools. IP 15, Bates No. 182.

The District has implemented a mandatory training program, occurring each April-May, covering recruiting, screening, and hiring for all administrators who have any significant authority over hiring staff. The training focuses on the importance of creating and maintaining a diverse population and training should be provided on an annual basis. The Diversity Committee is included in this training. IP 15, Bates No. 182; EEA 79-80, item 1; Bates No. 146-47; OCR 36, Bates No. 60

The District has established a balance between school-based staff selection and the District-wide goal of hiring underrepresented groups. Each spring, after the Affirmative Action/ Equal Employment Opportunity Audit is presented to the Board of Education, the District monitors the hiring patterns and retention rates of individual schools and intervenes with individual schools and departments that demonstrate an inability to recruit and hire teachers, administrators, and staff, who are African-American. Monitoring includes exit interviews or questionnaires (conducted 3 months after departure by a neutral party) to provide feedback. IP 15, Bates No. 182; EEA 80, item 2, Bates No. 147; OCR 35-36, items 51 and 52, Bates No. 59-60.

The District has authorized recruiting teams to give on-the-spot contracts to attractive candidates, with a commitment to placement and all District vacancies, not just hard to fill positions. IP 16, Bates No. 183; EEA 80, item 2, Bates No. 147; OCR 35-36, items 51 and 52, Bates No.59-60.

Each year, the District reassesses the effectiveness of the affirmative action/equal employment opportunity recommendations adopted in March 1996 and the site-based hiring process. In particular, the focus is on incomplete items such as, apartment rebates, grow your own efforts, and financial assistance for noncertified staff to obtain teaching credentials. In addition, the Future Teacher Sponsors at the secondary schools are building a program to train and send students to college to major in education. IP 16, Bates No. 183; EEA 80, item 3, Bates No. 147; OCR 36, item 53, Bates No. 60.

The District is in the process of establishing grow-your-own programs and making connections with local fund providers, e.g., encouraging Martin Luther King scholarship winners to return to Unit 4. IP 16, Bates No. 183.

Each year, the District revisits, strengthens, and expands its mentor-teacher program to retain newly recruited teachers. The District also created a mentor program for new administrators. IP 16, Bates No. 183; EEA 81, item 3, Bates No. 147; OCR 35, Bates No. 60.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

LEGAL STANDARD

[1] "[E]ntry and continued enforcement of a consent decree regulating the operation of a government body depend upon the existence of a substantial federal claim under federal law." Evans v. City of Chicago, 10 F.3d 474, 480 (7th Cir.1993). In addition, court approval of a consent decree must be predicated upon the court's finding, even if based upon a "bobtailed factual inquiry," of "probable success on the merits." People Who Care v. Rockford Bd. of Educ., 961 F.2d 1335, 1338, reh'g en banc denied (7th Cir.1992). In sum, the approval of a consent decree must be predicated upon the Court's conclusion, grounded in the evidence submitted by the parties, that the Plaintiff's enjoy a likelihood of success on the merits of their "substantial federal claim."

The Equal Protection Clause provides that "no state ... shall deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of law." While courts ordinarily defer to governmental classifications unless they lack a rational justification, classifications that burden "discrete and insular minorities" are "inherently suspect" under the Equal Protection Clause and are subject to "strict" judicial scrutiny. See United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 152 n. 4, 58 S.Ct. 778, 82 L.Ed. 1234 (1938). Race is the paradigm "suspect" classification triggering strict scrutiny. See Palmore v. Sidoti, 466 U.S. 429, 433-34, 104 S.Ct. 1879, 80 L.Ed.2d 421 (1984). Though state action that, on its face, involves a racial classification is presumptively invalid (See Personnel Administrator v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256, 272, 99 S.Ct. 2282, 60 L.Ed.2d 870 (1979)), facially neutral state actions also violate the Equal Protection Clause when the action is intended to have a racial effect and does so. See Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 240-41, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976).

In order to establish a prima facie case of school segregation and educational discrimination, a plaintiff must show: (1) segregation or other racially disparate effects; and (2) discriminatory "intent." See Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, Denver, Colorado, et. al., 413 U.S. 189, 198, 93 S.Ct. 2686, 37 L.Ed.2d 548 (1973).

[2] The existence of segregation need not be numerically absolute so long as the public schools are substantially segregated and "racially identifiable." United States v. Yonkers Bd. of Educ., 624 F.Supp. 1276, 1378 (S.D.N.Y.1985), aff'd, 837 F.2d 1181 (2nd Cir.1987). In addition to the racial and ethnic composition of the particular *971 schools, a court must examine "every facet of school operations-faculty, staff, transportation, extra-curricular activities and facilities." Green v. County School Bd. of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430, 435, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968). Further, a court should consider the quality of education afforded to both white and minority students. See Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 112 S.Ct. 1430, 1446, 118 L.Ed.2d 108 (1992). Thus, a plaintiff may prove a school to be racially identifiable by factors that may, but need not, include student assignment. See Brown v. Board of Education, 892 F.2d 851, 861 (10th Cir.1989), vacated on other grounds, 503 U.S. 978, 112 S.Ct. 1657, 118 L.Ed.2d 381 (1992).

[3] The Equal Protection Clause proscribes any other conduct of a state actor that intentionally discriminates against minority students in addition to the segregation of minority students. Accordingly, courts have held that conduct which denies minority students the educational opportunities afforded to white students constitutes unlawful intentional conduct that unfairly burdens minority students. See e.g. People Who Care, 961 F.2d at 1335; U.S. v. Yonkers Bd. of Educ., 624 F.Supp. 1276 (S.D.N.Y.1985), aff'd 837 F.2d 1181 (2nd Cir.1987); Morgan v. Kerrigan, 509 F.2d 580 (1st Cir.1974), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 963, 95 S.Ct. 1950, 44 L.Ed.2d 449 (1977). Even government conduct that lessens racial imbalance between individual schools in a district may nonetheless violate the Equal Protection Clause. For example, if a school board requires only minority students to bear the burden of busing to achieve integration, the board's actions, while it reduces segregation, may still violate Equal Protection. See NAACP v. Lansing Bd. of Educ., 429 F.Supp. 583, 621 (W.D.Mich.1976), aff'd, 559 F.2d 1042 (6th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 438 U.S. 907, 98 S.Ct. 3126, 57 L.Ed.2d 1150 (1978).

In addition to proving that the defendant's conduct created or maintained racial imbalance in the schools, a plaintiff must show that the conduct was motivated by discriminatory intent. See Keyes, 413 U.S. at 208, 93 S.Ct. 2686. Ordinarily, only circumstantial evidence is available to establish such intent. See Diaz v. San Jose Unified Sch. Dist., 733 F.2d 660, 662 (9th Cir.1984).

Evidence of the discriminatory impact of acts, omissions or policies is one sort of circumstantial evidence supporting an inference of discriminatory intent. See Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 266, 97 S.Ct. 555, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977). Other circumstantial evidence relevant to the proof of discriminatory intent includes (a) the historical background and sequence of events leading up to the conduct maintaining or exacerbating racial imbalance in the schools, (b) departures from typical procedures or substantive criteria normally considered important by the decision maker, and (c) contemporaneous evidence concerning the decision making process. See id. at 267-68, 97 S.Ct. 555.

If a plaintiff succeeds in establishing this prima facie case of intentional segregation, the burden shifts to the defendant to establish that the same segregative conduct would have occurred "even had the impermissible purpose not been considered." Id. at 271, n. 21, 97 S.Ct. 555. A finding of intentionally segregative school board conduct in a meaningful portion of a school system creates a presumption that other segregated schooling within the system, likewise, is not the result of some other external causes. See Keyes, 413 U.S. at 208, 93 S.Ct. 2686.

DISCUSSION

There are times when parties choose not to litigate a dispute, but instead choose to negotiate a settlement. By settling, they waive their right to litigate the issues involved in a case, and thus, save themselves the time, expense, and inevitable risks that accompany litigation. This is the path chosen by the parties to this lawsuit. The Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree proffered by the parties is the embodiment of their sustained, good faith efforts to provide for the desegregation of the District and for the equitable treatment of present and future African-American students in the educational process.

The agreement reached embodies a compromise; in exchange for the savings of cost and the elimination of risk, the parties each give up something they might have won or lost had they proceeded with the litigation. The risks of litigation are enormous. For example, the current school desegregation litigation in Rockford, Illinois has been on-going for at least 30 years at a total cost of more than $238 million to the taxpayers of that city-and it is not over yet. See People Who Care v. Rockford Bd. of Educ., Sch. Dist. No. 205, 246 F.3d 1073, 1075 (7th Cir.2001).

A better way must exist to achieve desegregation and educational equity for African-American children without this enormous financial cost and community discord. And the Court believes that the community of Champaign has found this better way. The Board of Education has harnessed the underlying good will, respect for law, and a sense of fairness existing in the community, to formulate and implement a plan to achieve desegregation and education equity that will be of enduring benefit to all students, African-American and white. While the District has not admitted to any violation of law, either state or federal, it has agreed in an important part of the settlement documents comprising the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree that:

1. "The past and current (1968-1997) student assignment system disparately affects African-American students and that remedial action is necessary. Furthermore, the parties agree with respect to the current student assignment system that there are alternative student assignment practices which are of at least comparable soundness and which would not have the disparate impact caused by the present practices." [Champaign Controlled Choice Plan Memorandum of Understanding dated September 16, l997.]

2. "Data and the results of Dr. Peterkin's audit provide sufficient factual basis to conclude that the District's practices are a substantial cause of conditions which have a significant disparate impact on minority students in Attachment 1, Paragraphs 6 through 13, and that remedial action is necessary.

Furthermore, the parties concur that some District practices are not educationally justified or that there are alternative practices available which are of at least comparable educational soundness and which would not have the disparate impact caused by the present practices." [Memorandum of Understanding of Civil Rights Issues Relating to Education Equity, dated July 6, 1998.]

The above jointly agreed findings of disparate impact comprise the factual basis for the remedial actions contemplated by the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree; however, they do not have the force of litigated findings of fact amounting to violations of law. [FN11]

Although the fact remains that past policies and practices of the District have had a significant disparate impact on African-American students, this, in and of itself, is not the sine qua non of unconstitutional de jure (by law) racial discrimination. "The differentiating factor between de jure segregation and so-called de facto segregation is purpose or intent to segregate." Keyes, 413 U.S. at 208, 93 S.Ct. 2686(emphasis added).

Different levels of participation in school programs and achievement levels between the races are not necessarily the result of the District's actions. These differences can also be attributed to a host of non-race related factors such as "poverty, parents' education and employment, family size, parental attitudes and behavior, prenatal, neonatal, and child health care, peer-group pressures, and ethnic culture." People Who Care 246 F.3d at 1077. Likewise, disparate student assignments can result from the vagaries of racially identifiable housing patterns within the District. "The board has no legal duty to remove those vestiges of societal discrimination for which it is not responsible." Id. "It may have a moral duty; it has no federal constitutional duty." Id.

[FN11.] A strong argument can be made that these admissions by the Board of Education may support a violation of federal regulations promulgated pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. See 34 C.F.R. § 100.3, et. seq. These regulations proscribe any use of federal funds for programs or activities that have the effect of subjecting persons to racial discrimination regardless of the absence of discriminatory intent. See Gomez v. Illinois State Bd. of Educ., 811 F.2d 1030, 1044-45 (7th Cir.1987). The regulations prohibit practices which produce a disparate adverse impact on victims of discrimination where such practices are not required by educational necessity. Lucille v. Riles, 793 F.2d 969, 982 (9th Cir.1984).

[4] There is one crucial ramification of the difference between litigated findings and agreed findings that must be understood in any assessment of the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree. Without a finding of racial discrimination, the Court is limited in its ability to order corrective or remedial measures by the District. Even in cases where there is an adjudicated violation, the Court is still constrained by certain equitable principles in ordering relief. Violations of equitable decrees such as this one are punishable as a contempt of court. See People Who Care v. Rockford Bd. of Educ., Sch. Dist. No. 205, 111 F.3d 528, 533 (7th Cir.1997) (citations omitted). Therefore, the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree should not command the Board of Education to do something that is entirely beyond its control. See id. In addition, the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree must fully consider the interests of innocent third parties, especially when the interests are of constitutional dignity. See id. (citations omitted). When a decree is addressed to a branch of government, it must be formulated with sensitivity to the separation of powers and the dignity of States as quasi-sovereigns. See id. (citations omitted).

Where a decree attempts to reform public institutions, the Court must be sensitive to the practical limitations of the federal judiciary as a super school board administrative body. See id. (citations omitted). "[D]ecrees which prohibit specified conduct are preferable to those that impose affirmative duties." Id. "[E]quitable remediation must be guided by norms of proportionality." Id. (citations omitted). "That is, the remedy must be tailored to the violation, rather than the violation being a pretext for the remedy. Violations of law must be dealt with firmly, but not used to launch the federal courts on ambitious schemes of social engineering." Id. Likewise, the parties cannot agree to corrective or remedial measures that depend for their efficacy upon a finding of racial discrimination. Finally, the Court cannot approve a class action settlement "which either initiates or authorizes the continuation of clearly illegal conduct." Isby v. Bayh, 75 F.3d 1191, 1197 (7th Cir.1996) (citations omitted).

The parties have presented the Court with an equitable and constitutionally acceptable settlement that allows for the expeditious vindication of the rights of African-American children who have been denied, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the equal protection of the law and equal educational opportunity. It is a near certainty that neither side is completely satisfied with the settlement due to the concessions and compromises made by both parties during the course of the negotiations. These painful, drawn-out negotiations have made each party consider the other side's views and positions. This does not imply that either party has shed their respective legitimate responsibilities. Instead, the time spent in the proverbial "shoes" of the other side has enabled the parties to reach a genuine, respectful dialogue to achieve the ultimate goal of reaching a settlement that is fair, educationally sound, and addresses the disparate conditions existing in Unit 4.

The Court, in approving a settlement, need not inquire into the precise legal rights of the parties, nor reach and resolve the merits of the claims or controversy, nor can it impose upon the parties the Court's preference for any specific desegregation plan. See Evans v. Jeff D., 475 U.S. 717, 726-27, 106 S.Ct. 1531, 89 L.Ed.2d 747 (1986). It need only determine that the settlement is fair, adequate, reasonable, and appropriate under the particular facts presented and that there has been valid consent by the concerned parties. See Metro. Housing Development v. Village of Arlington Heights, 616 F.2d 1006, 1014 (7th Cir.1980).

Objectors to the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree have been given reasonable notice and an opportunity to have their objections heard and considered by the Court as part of the November 13, 2001 Rule 23(e) fairness hearing. The only objectors are Herb Stevens and John Lee Johnson [FN12], two principals in Racial Justice Now ("RJN"), a community-based organization that has its own school desegregation lawsuit pending against the District.

For the reasons stated in its Order of August 16, 2001, the Court denied RJN the right to intervene in this case. However, the Court recognizes their history of involvement in fighting for the educational rights of African-American children in the Champaign community and the catalyst role they have played over the years in events leading up to this litigation and proposed settlement. Their observations and concerns about the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree were welcomed and have received the respectful consideration of the Court. It is fair to say their objections to the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree reflect their passionate belief that the settlement does not address all of the measures that should be employed to fully desegregate the District and achieve complete educational equity for African-American students. However, the Court cannot prescribe everything the objectors desire since it is cognizant of the constraints on its remedial power under federal constitutional law. In addition, the Court believes that there is virtue in allowing the responsible school authorities to lead the way if they are headed in the right direction and the timetable is reasonable.

[FN12. One additional party, Paulette Coleman, filed a written objection with the Court on January 3, 2002, long after the November 9, 2001 deadline for filing objections to the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree. Although untimely, Ms. Coleman's objections are identical to those raised by Johnson and Stevens on the issues of structural displacement and extended commute times. Her objections do not raise any new issues and therefore do not require the Court to address them separately. ]

It is fair to say that the objectors would like to have the Court oversee the performance of the Board of Education under the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree,to ensure the fulfilment of the intended desegregation and educational equity objectives. However, in the nature of things, it should be, and is, the responsibility of the democratically elected Board of Education to operate the District in a non-discriminatory manner and in accordance with state and federal laws.

The Court may have cause to occasionally intervene to keep the train on the track, metaphorically speaking, but not to operate the train itself. In the final analysis, the desire and commitment of the constituent community of Champaign must command and ensure that the Board of Education adheres to the spirit and the letter of the agreement. After all, the continuation of this commitment beyond the expiration of the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree in the 2008-2009 school year will depend upon the good will and resoluteness of the Champaign community and its elected Board of Education to continue their desegregation efforts and to achieve racial educational equity. Even during the period of Court oversight, an uncommitted Board of Education could sidetrack or derail the metaphoric desegregation train.

The objections of Stevens and Johnson are critical of the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree in two major respects: (1) dissatisfaction with the manner that it addresses the issue of student assignment, specifically, the structural displacement of African-American students from attending schools within walking distance of their homes; and (2) dissatisfaction with the manner that various educational equity issues are addressed. The Court will address each issue in turn.

STUDENT ASSIGNMENT

[5] As background for any discussion of this issue, one must understand the prerequisites for operating an equitable school system. In this regard, Dr. Michael J. Alves, the Board of Education's nationally recognized school consultant who recommended the adoption of the Controlled Choice Plan to desegregate the Champaign School District, states:

Since the Champaign Community School District is required to educate all the students who are legally enrolled in the School District, it must do so in a way that is fair to all students.

One of the fundamental structural requirements of an equitable school system is that its school buildings have sufficient capacity to accommodate the education needs of all students at each grade and that the capacity is equitably distributed in all areas of the School District. This prerequisite for operating an equitable school system is especially critical in a school district that has a diverse student population and its residential housing patterns are racially and socioeconomically identifiable.

Another fundamental requirement of an equitable school system is that it has a pupil assignment plan that provides all students with equal access to the District's public schools of enrollment.

An equitable school system also ensures that its pupil assignment plan is organized and managed in a way so that all students are provided access to high quality and instructionally effective public schools. If these prerequisites are met, no students will be denied an equal opportunity to learn because of their race, ethnicity, family income, or where they happen to reside within the School District.

These prerequisites for operating an equitable public school system apply to all school districts at all educational levels including elementary, middle, and high schools. However, they are particularly important at the elementary level when young children may be required to travel long distances to attend a school.

When a school or a group of elementary schools in a particular geographic area are structured in a way so that they cannot accommodate all the students who reside within walking distance of these facilities, the students who cannot attend these schools must attend other schools that have available space. The students who have been displaced from schools within walking distance from their homes must also be transported to schools that have available space. Moreover, when students have been structurally displaced from schools within walking distance from their homes and the school district also has racially and socioeconomically identifiable housing patterns, the burden of having to be assigned and transported to schools that parents may or may not want their children to attend will disproportionately affect students with similar demographic characteristics.

The problem of structural displacement most often occurs when a school district has not provided sufficient capacity in the schools that are located in the most densely populated areas of the community. This situation, which can be readily addressed, is particularly inequitable when a student's home address is or may be a determining factor in the District's student assignment policy and when students who reside in more affluent and less densely populated areas have sufficient capacities in schools near their homes. (emphasis added) [Report on the Status of Structural Displacement in the Champaign Community School District by Michael J. Alves, October 2001.]

Prior to 1997, Champaign had a significant problem with racially identifiable schools, particularly in the heavily African-American north side. To rectify this imbalance prior to the adoption of the Controlled Choice Plan in 1997, the District adopted a desegregation plan that forced the mandatory busing of African-American students in the north side to schools in the south side.

The District's plan was motivated in part by the shortage of capacity in the north. In this light, Stevens and Johnson do not view the current Controlled Choice Plan as an equitable solution due to the persistent shortage of elementary seats in the north. Therefore, they argue that there be a short timetable for the provision of sufficient seating capacity in the schools located in north Champaign and particularly, in the areas encompassing the African-American community to allow those African-American students living there to attend elementary schools within walking distance of their homes. They also request that north side schools be designated as "special learning centers" with increased budgets and extended class hours and that African-American students attending south side schools have access to programs and resources to meet their perceived special learning needs.

Stevens and Johnson contend that the Controlled Choice Plan, as implemented, has not eliminated or significantly reduced the one-way busing of African-American students to schools in distant parts of south Champaign, thereby depriving them of the privilege afforded white students residing in south Champaign to attend schools within walking distance of their homes. They attribute this failure to the lack of adequate seating capacity in north Champaign and further argue that segregation throughout the District has actually increased under the Controlled Choice Plan. According to Stevens, three of the four north side elementary schools, Stratton, Washington, and Garden Hills, have become racially identifiable since the implementation of the Controlled Choice Plan in 1998. Stevens also contends that the fourth school, Dr. Howard, is tending toward this result. These observations, if accurate for all grades in the District, do not accurately reflect the results of implementation of the Controlled Choice Plan, *977 which has only been implemented in grades K-3 as of this date.

While the Court appreciates Johnson and Stevens' concerns regarding the structural displacement of African-American students in Champaign, the Court believes that their observations are misleading as to the effects of the Controlled Choice Plan. Under the provisions of the Plan, enrollment is open at all schools so long as the racial composition of the school does not violate the racial fairness guidelines. Accordingly, schools must compete against one another to attract students to attend. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that a number of African-American students may have chosen to take buses to the south side in order to take advantage of what are widely perceived to be superior schools. In this regard, Dr. Alves concluded, after reviewing the relevant data, that no African-American student had been denied access to his/her proximity A school because of the racial fairness guidelines. His conclusion is further buttressed by the fact that less than 21 percent of the students living within Stratton's proximity A area selected it as their first choice school. Of all the African-American students that did so, all were assigned to Stratton. Only 17% of the students in Washington's proximity A area selected it as their first choice school and all who did so were assigned. Similarly, only 35% of the students living in Garden Hills' proximity A area chose it as their first choice and all were assigned. By contrast, 97% of the students residing in Barkstall's proximity A area chose it as their first choice. Such figures strongly suggest that the schools in the north side are not as attractive as those in the south side. This, in turn, compels the Court to conclude that African-American students are voluntarily choosing to bus to attend the more attractive south side schools, as opposed to being forced to bus due to the lack of capacity at their proximity A schools. Indeed, it appears that the status of north side schools involve issues beyond insufficient capacity and implicate the educational equity issues addressed infra.

The Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree recognizes the continued problem of structural displacement and provides for its elimination in the following manner:

1. the fourth strand of classes at Stratton Elementary School will be open for enrollment by the start of the 2003-2004 school year;

2. by the start of the 2005-2006 school year, additional net seating capacity of not less than two elementary strands in north Champaign will be provided as part of a comprehensive facilities plan for the entire district; and,

3. in making all decisions regarding the establishment or closing of schools, the Board of Education will consider the impact on African-American students and to further desegregation and to avoid inequitable transportation burdens on African-American students, consider all reasonable alternatives to enhance desegregation efforts that do not result in a segregated system or segregated schools.

The Court interprets these clauses to mean that the District will increase seating capacity in north Champaign by at least 260 net seats within the next five years. The Court anticipates, however, that the Board of Education will go beyond the requirements of the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree in its efforts to increase seating capacity during this period. For example, although not required, the Court would expect the Board of Education to seriously consider utilizing the classrooms vacated at Marquette School, when the preschool program is transferred to the old Sunbeam Bakery, to add additional seating capacity.

During negotiations, the parties recognized the legitimate concern of the Board of Education for flexibility in deciding how it can achieve the most desegregation "bang for the buck." The Court trusts their good faith in doing so.

In connection with the construction of any new schools, the continued need to equalize seating capacity throughout the entire District, with particular consideration of the seating needs of the schools where a majority of African-American students live, will be a major factor in school location. This commitment is buttressed by the requirements of state law that requires the Board of Education to construct and locate school buildings to facilitate the further desegregation of the School District. Under the Illinois School Code, the Board of Education is under a continuing duty to periodically "change or revise existing [attendance] units or create new units in a manner which will take into consideration the prevention of segregation and the elimination of separation of children in public schools because of color, race or nationality." 105 ILCS 5/10-21.3.

In addition, increasing the seating capacity of the north side will partially aid in alleviating the commuting times suffered by African-American students. The District has also retained the services of Craig Mitchell, an expert on transportation issues, to shorten the time spent by African-American students who choose to bus to the south side. The Court notes that the District has made a substantial investment in routing software as well.

The Court understands the objectors' impatience with a delay of several years to completely solve the structural displacement problem. On the other hand, progress is being made voluntarily, and the Court has faith in the sincerity and expressed commitment of the Board of Education to correct the seating shortage in north Champaign before any new schools are constructed in south Champaign. In settlement talks before the Court, each side pleaded with the other for trust and belief in the sanctity of their respective commitments under the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree. Each side sought to persuade the Court of their righteousness. The Court accepted their words and expects the parties to live up to the letter and spirit of the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree.

EDUCATIONAL EQUITY ISSUES

[6] Mr. Stevens seeks a requirement that there be an annual budget for making "Equity Agreement" reforms, that the decree's permanent monitor be required to look closely at hiring practices to recruit more African-American teachers, and that the District be required to improve its remedial offerings. Johnson voices concerns that the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree would void the June 5, 1998 Resolution Agreement between the Board of Education and OCR.

Addressing these concerns, the District has taken several steps: creating a budget for making the proposed educational equity reforms, substantial improving its hiring practices, and pledging to rigorously examine and evaluate its remedial offerings. In addition, the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree expressly adopts and incorporates the June 5, 1998 Resolution Agreement between the Board of Education and OCR. Accordingly, it appears to the Court that Stevens and Johnson do not have any objections to the manner in which the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree addresses the educational equity issues of the Champaign School District. Instead, what their objections voice is a deep-seated distrust of the intentions and good faith of the Board of Education. Their skepticism in this regard is based upon their assessment that during the three years the Controlled Choice Plan has been in operation, structural displacement has increased in certain north side schools, and many of the schools-north and south-are out of compliance with racial fairness guidelines. They blame this failure squarely on the Board of Education's reluctance to mandatorily bus white students residing in the south side to north side schools. Accordingly, they point to the "oneway" busing of only African-American students as proof that the Controlled Choice Plan has been corrupted by the Board of Education. The only exceptions are those white children bused to schools in north Champaign providing enhanced education in gifted classes, which are self-contained and isolated from the regular classrooms. However, Stevens points out that African-American students constitute only 41 out of the 258 students enrolled in these gifted program. As mentioned earlier, the Court questions the accuracy of attributing these district-wide conditions to the Controlled Choice Plan, which has only been operating in the first three grades as of this date.

Upon closer examination, Stevens' and Johnson's objections display a fundamental misunderstanding of the principles of the Controlled Choice Plan. As the Court stated earlier, controlled choice is predicated upon open competition between schools for students. Schools with better academic programs will naturally draw more students than those with inferior academic programs. This, in turn, offers an incentive for underperforming schools to upgrade their curricula, staff, and facilities to compete with their brethren. To assist under-chosen schools, the District has committed to provide resources to facilitate school improvement. The net result is a continuous cycle of competition and improvement in the overall quality of education as students are granted access to high quality schools outside their immediate neighborhood area. Given a choice, it is completely understandable that parents would decline to send their child to an inferior academic institution when better alternatives are readily available. This is borne out by the fact that only a low percentage of African-American students residing in the north side choose their proximity A school as their first choice. Stevens' figures rely solely on head counts without taking into account any underlying circumstances for the lack of popularity of north side schools among both African-American and
white students.

Moreover, the existence of special gifted programs in the north side schools offers an example of how certain programs can voluntarily draw non-African-American students to north side schools. By strengthening the academic programs offered, north side schools can offer compelling reasons for students, both African-American and white, to choose their facilities. In regard to the racial composition of the north side gifted programs, it is true that only 41 of the 258 students enrolled are African-American, which works out to roughly 16%. Stevens objects to this as being too few. While the numbers are still low in relation to the overall percentage of African-American students district-wide, the Court notes that the District has made substantial strides in improving minority enrollment in gifted programs. Indeed, the percentage of elementary level African-American students enrolled in the gifted programs during the 1996-1997 school year stood at a mere 2.7%.

In light of the substantial strides the District has made since 1997 in addressing its school assignment and educational equity issues, the Court accepts the professed good faith of the District's commitment to implement the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree.

CONCLUSION

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED THAT the parties Joint Motion for Approval*980 of the Proposed Second Revised Consent Decree [Doc. # 41] is ALLOWED.

SECOND REVISED CONSENT DECREE

1. In May and July 1996, the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights ("OCR"), accepted complaints by several families ("OCR complainants") that addressed mandatory one-way busing of African-American students and the educational services provided to those students by Champaign Community Unit School District No.4 ("Unit 4").

2. In September 1996, OCR initiated a proactive compliance review of Unit 4 in the areas of over-representation of minorities in special education and under-representation of minorities in upper level courses.

3. In October 1996, the OCR complainants, by their counsel Futterman & Howard, Chtd., amended their complaints to include additional allegations of system-wide discrimination in student assignment, within-school segregation practices and tracking, discipline, and staffing.

4. Shortly thereafter, OCR incorporated the allegations of the OCR complainants into the proactive review.

5. Following a period of study and community input, the Board of Education of Unit District No.4 ("Board") in November of 1996 established a redistricting plan ("Redistricting Plan").

6. The OCR complainants asserted that the Redistricting Plan did not fully resolve their complaints, and that the Unit 4 student assignment system required additional modifications to ensure diversity and educational equity, and to reduce the disparate impact of educational practices.

7. Accordingly, in or around May 1997, Plaintiffs, both the original OCR complainants and additional class representatives of African-American students, represented by counsel from Futterman & Howard, notified Unit 4 that they were contemplating the commencement of class action litigation against the District challenging, among other things, the student assignment methods used from 1968 to 1997 and those provided in the Redistricting Plan.

8. On September 16, 1997, Unit 4 and Plaintiffs entered into an agreement memorialized in the Champaign Controlled Choice Plan Memorandum of Understanding ("Controlled Choice Memorandum"), which established a comprehensive plan that enables parents, within certain parameters, to choose the schools their children will attend. The Controlled Choice Memorandum is hereby incorporated as part of this Consent Decree and is attached hereto as Exhibit A.

9. In June 1998, OCR and Unit 4 entered into a Resolution Agreement ("OCR Resolution Agreement") as to the actions appropriate for resolving issues covered in the agency's review. The OCR Resolution Agreement is hereby incorporated as part of this Consent Decree and is attached hereto as Exhibit B. The OCR Resolution Agreement includes findings of fact by OCR that established statistical disparities between majority and minority students in the areas of gifted, upper level courses, within-school integration, discipline, and special education. The Board neither admits nor denies OCR's factual findings.

10. In conjunction with the OCR Resolution, the parties agreed that more detailed comprehensive analysis was needed to establish the necessary factual predicates required to remedy equity disparities. Accordingly, the District retained an educational equity consultant, Dr. Robert Peterkin, to perform a comprehensive equity audit ("Audit"). The Audit is hereto attached as Exhibit C.

11. On July 6, 1998, Unit 4 and Plaintiffs entered into further agreement, memorialized in the Memorandum of Understanding of Civil Rights Issues Relating to Education Equity ("Education Equity Memorandum"), which established a comprehensive plan and program for addressing certain additional complaints of Plaintiffs regarding the alleged inequitable treatment of African-American students in Unit 4 schools and programs. The Education Equity Memorandum is hereby incorporated as part of this Consent Decree and is hereto attached as Exhibit D.

12. The Education Equity Memorandum specifically required the parties to develop a clear process and a detailed and effective plan ("Implementation Plan") to achieve educational equity for African-American students. See Education Equity Memorandum (Exhibit D), Paragraphs 2B and 5A-H. The Implementation Plan was approved by the Board on June 12, 2000. It will be continually monitored and may be modified in the future as appropriate. The Implementation Plan is hereto attached as Exhibit E.

13. The parties chose to address Plaintiffs' allegations regarding educational inequities cooperatively because there were substantial advantages to both Unit 4 and the Plaintiff class in terms of the speed and potential effectiveness of the remedies and because there was a significant and valuable possibility that there would be greater community support for the equity efforts, which in turn would contribute to the effectiveness of the remedial efforts.

14. As a part of the Controlled Choice and Education Equity Memoranda, the parties agreed that in the event that objections or challenges were raised by a third party regarding the lawfulness or appropriateness of the Memoranda or the implementation of the Memoranda, the District and the Plaintiff class, as represented by Futterman & Howard, would jointly defend the lawfulness and appropriateness of the matter challenged.

15. On July 28, 2000, such a third party challenge was made. See RJN v. Board of Education of Champaign, Case No. 00-2022, filed in the Central District, Urbana Division and reassigned to the Peoria Division with a new Case No., 00-1284.

16. Accordingly on October 4, 2000, Plaintiffs, as representatives of the class of present and future African-American students in Unit 4, filed their Complaint against the Board of Education of Unit 4. The Complaint alleges that Unit 4's educational practices violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 34 C.F.R. § 100.3 et seq., 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Illinois Constitution. Plaintiffs believe that if their Complaint was litigated, there is a substantial likelihood that they would succeed in the merits of their claims.

17. On December 18, 2000, this Court consolidated this case with RJN v. Board of Education.

18. On December 28, 2000, Racial Justice Now ("RJN") filed a motion to intervene into this case. This Court denied the motion to intervene on August 16, 2001.

19. On February 8, 2001, Unit 4 filed its Answer to the Complaint in this case.

20. On August 22, 2001, this Court granted class certification to the Johnson plaintiffs, appointed Futterman & Howard class counsel, and vacated its December 18 order consolidating the RJN and Johnson cases.

21. The parties agree that there are alternative student assignment and educational practices, reflected in the Controlled Choice Memorandum, Education Equity Memorandum and Implementation Plan, which are of at least comparable soundness and which would not have the disparate impact caused by the practices used by Unit 4 from 1968 to 1997. The parties agree that adoption of these alternatives will benefit all students.

22. The Board believes that litigation of these issues would require a substantial expenditure of public funds and a substantial commitment of Board and staff resources at a time when financial and personnel resources are already greatly limited, and that such resources can more appropriately be used to achieve the educational goals of the school system. The parties further believe that litigation in this matter would be protracted and that settlement of the action is in the public interest.

23. In light of these considerations, the parties, as indicated by the signatures of their counsel on the Joint Motion for Preliminary Approval of the Revised Proposed Consent Decree, have determined to settle this action and resolve Plaintiffs' request for injunctive and declaratory relief by entry of this Consent Decree. The parties submit to the jurisdiction of this Court and acknowledge that subject matter jurisdiction exists over this action under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d. The parties further acknowledge this Court's pendant jurisdiction over Plaintiffs' claims under the Equal Protection Clause of the Illinois Constitution, Ill. Const. Art. I, Sec. 2. In light of the claims in this case and the scope of remedies which this Court would be authorized by law to enter if there were a finding of a liability on those claims, the parties concur that all of the provisions of this Order are within the scope of such remedies and, therefore, are consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.

24. The parties agree that this Consent Decree is final and binding as to the issues resolved herein. The Court shall retain jurisdiction over this action for the purpose of enforcing the dispute resolution procedure set forth in Section IV of the Consent Decree entitled "Resolution of Disagreements." If any provisions are found by a court to be outside the scope of constitutional or statutory remedies, it is the express intention of the parties that such provisions are severable from all other provisions. Finally, considering the judicial resources that might be conserved by resolving in this fashion the issues addressed herein, the parties believe that this Order represents an appropriate commitment of the Court's resources.

25. In the event that any other objections or challenges are raised by third parties (e.g., through intervention or separate collateral lawsuits) to the lawfulness or appropriateness of this Consent Decree, any provision hereof, or proceedings pursuant hereto, or that attempts are made to separately litigate these issues, the parties shall jointly defend the lawfulness and appropriateness of the matter challenged. Unit 4's counsel will take the lead role in doing so. If any such collateral lawsuit arises in state court, the parties shall seek to remove such action to the U.S. District Court.

The parties having freely given their consent to the terms of this Consent Decree and in accordance with the findings of fact and conclusions of law contained in the Order entered concurrently herewith, it is ordered:

I. CONTROLLED CHOICE PLAN

In accordance with the Controlled Choice Memorandum (see Exhibit A hereto attached), Unit 4 will continue to implement the requirements of the Controlled Choice Memorandum, unless subsequently amended by agreement of the parties. The parties agree that Controlled Choice at the middle and high school levels will not be instituted unless Plaintiffs demonstrate by March 15, 2002 [FN1], after consultation with Dr. Alves, that Controlled Choice is necessary to fulfill the objectives of the Consent Decree. The Controlled Choice Plan for the elementary school level shall continue to include all the enumerated elements set forth in the Controlled Choice Memorandum, unless otherwise agreed, including, without limitation, the following elements:

FN1. In the event that Dr. Alves' report on secondary school choice is not completed by January 15, 2002, Plaintiffs must demonstrate the need for secondary school choice within 60 days from the date of Dr. Alves' report.

A. Parent Information Centers

1. Establish, maintain and administer a Parent Information Center as further described in the Controlled Choice Memorandum.

B. Application and Assignment

1. Administer the application and assignment process for its schools in a manner consistent with the Controlled Choice Memorandum, including, without limitation, those procedures set forth in the Controlled Choice Memorandum for student selection at over-enrolled schools.

C. Magnet Schools

1. Establish and maintain a program of magnet schools, and shall provide for interest-based application to and heterogenous attendance at such schools as provided in the Controlled Choice Memorandum.

D. Seat Capacity

Unit 4 will complete the following steps to increase seat capacity and enhance student assignment desegregation:

1. Consistent with Paragraph G(4) below, open and enroll the fourth strand of classes at Stratton Elementary School by the start of the 2003-2004 school year.

2. Secure funding and complete the renovation of the old Sunbeam Bakery by the end of the 2002-2003 school year, contingent on receipt of Qualified Zone Academy Bonds from the Illinois State Board of Education, and relocate the pre-school program currently located at Marquette School to the renovated Sunbeam Bakery building.

3. By the start of the 2005-2006 school year, provide additional net seating capacity of not less than two elementary strands in north Champaign as part of a comprehensive facilities plan for the entire District. Unit 4 will make every good faith effort to find and obtain necessary funding as a condition of this commitment.

4. In making all decisions regarding the establishment or closing of schools, consider the impact on African-American students, and to further desegregation and to avoid inequitable transportation burdens on African-American students, consider all reasonable alternatives to enhance desegregation efforts that do not result in a segregated system or segregated schools.

E. Community Involvement

1. Consult with and solicit the participation of members of the community in the implementation of the Controlled Choice Plan, including the Controlled Choice Community Task Force established pursuant to the Controlled Choice Memorandum.

F. Other Activities

1. Carry out those additional activities as set forth in the Controlled *984 Choice Memorandum as shall be necessary to effectuate the Controlled Choice Plan, including without limitation the provision of appropriate transportation services, implementation of school reform activities for the support of both over-chosen and under-chosen schools, and continued provision of special services and funding for eligible students under State and Federal law.

G. Plan for Stratton Elementary School

Given the historical circumstances faced by Stratton Elementary School, which are detailed in the Findings of Fact supporting this Decree, Stratton shall be designated as a special desegregation school. A five-year plan for Stratton will be developed and will include, but is not limited to, the following elements:

1. The District will provide educational input programs, requiring additional resources and funds, that will endeavor to accelerate student learning and increase parental involvement and advocacy, including maintaining an average student/teacher ratio not to exceed 20 to 1.

2. Stratton will be closely monitored by a special Building Council of administrators, parents, staff, and community members who will provide input to the principal regarding improvement of student achievement, including recommendations regarding programs, services, and staff. The Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent, Equity and Education, will work with Plaintiffs' and Defendant's counsel as necessary to monitor these issues.

3. Unit 4 will launch a recruitment campaign for Stratton focusing on increasing racial and socioeconomic diversity of the student body.

4. Stratton, while not exempt from racial fairness guidelines, will have a five year time frame to attain racial fairness guidelines, and is expected to make incremental progress during that time.

II. EDUCATIONAL EQUITY PLAN

Unit 4 will carry out the requirements of the Educational Equity Memorandum (see Exhibit D hereto attached), unless subsequently amended by agreement of the parties. In accordance with said Memorandum, Unit 4 will carry out the Implementation Plan (see Exhibit E hereto attached) which was prepared, in part, based on the comprehensive Audit conducted in June 1998 with the assistance of external consultants to evaluate the performance of Unit 4 schools (see Exhibit C hereto attached). The Implementation Plan is to address those issues identified in the Educational Equity Memorandum in accordance with the following goals:

A. Climate and Discipline

1. Seek to provide educational tools and alternative resources that eliminate unwarranted disparities in student discipline and attendance at alternative schools.

2. Seek to use student discipline as an intervention strategy only and as a means to improve student performance and academic behavior.

B. Special and Gifted Education Programs

1. Seek to eliminate, to the greatest extent practicable, unwarranted disparities in the assignment of minority students to special education and gifted programs, and to operate such programs in an educationally sound and nondiscriminatory manner.

C. Student Performance

1. Seek to eliminate unwanted disparities in the enrollment of minority students in upper level courses.

2. Implement innovative, interactive, research-based curriculum and instructional practices that take into account students' diverse learning styles and provide training to teachers in such practices.

D. Hiring and Staff Placement and Retention

1. Seek to achieve a substantial level of racial diversity of certified and classified staff District-wide and at each school level in order to facilitate educational equity.

III. TIMETABLE

The Controlled Choice Plan and the Educational Equity Plan will be developed and implemented in accordance with the schedules set forth in the Controlled Choice Memorandum and the Educational Equity Memorandum, respectively. Currently, the initiatives are in their fourth year of an eleven-year implementation schedule, which will expire at the end of the 2008-2009 school year. The District's obligations under this Decree likewise will expire at that time.

IV. MONITORING AND ENFORCEMENT

A. Monitor

Dr. Robert Peterkin was originally retained by Unit 4 to review equity issues and co-authored the Equity Audit (attached as Exhibit C). In accordance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 53, the inherent equitable powers of this Court, and the provisions of this Order of reference, Dr. Peterkin is hereby ordered to serve as monitor in this case. The Court-appointed monitor will provide valuable information and expertise to the Court regarding implementation of the Decree.

The monitor will work cooperatively with Unit 4 and the Plaintiffs in order to assure full implementation of the components of the Decree with adherence to the timetables and goals therein. The monitor will submit annual written progress reports, including any recommendations, to the Court, the District and the Plaintiffs' counsel on approximately the first day of August of each year, beginning August 2002. To facilitate timely submission of reports to the Court, the monitor may collaborate with data specialist James Lucey and student assignment expert Dr. Michael Alves. If either James Lucey or Michael Alves becomes unavailable, the parties will agree on another individual. These reports will include data and documentation of the elements of the Controlled Choice Memorandum, Education Equity Memorandum and Implementation Plan, consistent with the requirements of the status reports to be submitted to the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights ("OCR") as part of the OCR Resolution Agreement (attached as Exhibit B) and to the Planning and Implementation Committee as part of the Controlled Choice and Education Equity Memoranda. The monitor will compile data on a semester basis, beginning with data for the Spring 2002 semester. As appropriate, the monitor may make recommendations to Unit 4 each semester. If Dr. Peterkin becomes unavailable to serve as the monitor, the parties will agree on another individual, and submit his or her name to the Court for approval.

B. Mediator

Although this Court retains jurisdiction to inquire into and compel the implementation of the Consent Decree as it deems necessary, the monitor's role will also include mediating any disputes between the parties regarding any component of the Decree. The purpose of this mediation *986 process is to promote cooperation between the parties, encourage voluntary compliance by the District, and limit unnecessary expenditures of this Court's time and resources. In order to initiate the mediation process, disagreements regarding any component of the Controlled Choice Plan and the Educational Equity Plans, must be submitted in writing by either party to this Decree to Dr. Peterkin, who will have one month to issue a decision.

C. Arbitrator

If the parties are unable to resolve the issue with the assistance of the monitor, the issue shall be resolved by binding arbitration before an arbitrator, as provided in the Controlled Choice and Educational Equity Memoranda (see Exhibits A and D hereto attached), except the parties agree that there will not be a permanent arbitrator. The arbitrator for any given issue(s) will be mutually agreed upon by Plaintiffs and Unit 4. In the event the parties are unable to agree on an arbitrator for any give issue(s), each party will choose an arbitrator and these individuals will choose a third person who will serve as the arbitrator. Any arbitration award rendered under the Decree shall be enforceable by this Court.

V. CHANGES TO THE CONSENT DECREE

If extenuating circumstances arise regarding any component of this Consent Decree, the parties, with the assistance of the monitor, may jointly propose appropriate changes in writing to the Court.

VI. FUNDING

Consistent with Paragraphs 17 and 7 of the Controlled Choice and Educational Equity Memoranda, respectively, the District has agreed to provide sufficient resources for the implementation of this Consent Decree.

C.D.Ill.,2002.

Johnson ex rel. Johnson v. Board of Educ. of Champaign Unit School Dist. No. 4 188 F.Supp.2d 944, 163 Ed. Law Rep. 181

God-Awful TV

2006-03-07T20:05:00.000-06:00

"Dog: The Bounty Hunter" (A & E) gets my vote for the least watchable show on television.

Candid Discussion About Race

2006-03-04T11:36:00.000-06:00

Listening to Champaign Council Member Gina Jackson expound on the state of race relations with respect to proposed changes in Section 8 housing rules reminded me yet again of the racial divisions in our community and our country.

Racial issues seem to creep into so many discussions. Let's go back just a little. Rodney King riots in 1992. Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. OJ Simpson trial. Unit 4 Schools (facilities, bussing, you name it). Affordable housing. Affirmative Action. Welfare.

The truth is, there remains a huge disconnect between the races in this country. The majority white population believes to a large extent that racism has been eradicated in modern society. After all, we don't have Jim Crow laws or separate schools, right? Good things happpen to good people who work hard; bad things happen to lazy people who choose welfare over work.

If you are black, however, you have likely experienced a different America than your paler counterparts. You have noticed, for example, that people with your skin color do not become President, and that poor and very poor neighborhoods are disproportionately populated by your race. You see lots of police cars in your neighborhood, not nearly so many other places. Your perceptions start to affect how you view everything. When you get stopped by the police for little or no reason, you wonder whether you are being treated differently because of your race.

One's thoughts about goverment and politics become, well, colored, by one's race. If you are the minority, government is your best friend, because the balance of society is biased against you, and you have suffered hundreds of years of discrimination. If you are the majority, you believe that ours is a meritocracy, and that, like your ancestors from Europe, hard work and perserverance will pay dividends for you and your children.

We love to hold up the ideal of a colorblind society as a legitimate goal. Let's get past that, right now. Human beings will always use differences to differentiate their environment, and that includes race. People naturally take comfort in being with people who are "like them," regardless of whether the similarity is of race, income, or geography.

Don't expect any of this to change anytime soon, it's been going on forever.

So, what is the role of race in discussions of policy? I have some guidelines to propose:

1. Race does not "entitle" anyone to anything. Whether your ancestors were landed gentry or slaves, get over it. That was then, this is now. Everybody faces challenges. Suck it up.

2. Race is a legitimate point of difference. Let's not pretend that racial divisions don't exist, because they do. Pretending that they don't is disingenuos.

3. Don't automatically assume that race is the motivation behind an event. Lots of things happen for lots of -- legitimate -- reasons. Claiming racism is just too easy, and often unfair.

4. Empathize with the opposite point of view. Realize if you are a white cop stopping a car in a black neighborhood, they might think they are being singled out. Realize that if you are a black kid walking down the street in a gang of 15, a reasonable person might wonder if you are up to something nefarious.

5. Learn from the other side, embrace diversity. If you are white, realize that there is a rich black culture that majority socieity has copied for years. If you are black, realize that there is something to be said for the white puritan ethic of hard work and sacrifice as a means of improving your future.

Thoughts?

50 Most Loathsome People of 2005

2006-03-04T11:01:00.000-06:00

Something for everybody here:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.buffalobeast.com/91/50.htm

Illinois GOP

2006-03-04T10:25:00.000-06:00

I was motivated to shoot my mouth off over at
http://www.illinipundit.com/2006/03/01/oberweis-fabrications/ with respect to the GOP candidates for Illinois governor.

I do really want to know: what do you think about Bill Brady? What are his warts, what are his great qualities?

Methamphetamine: Got Teeth?

2006-02-28T21:20:00.000-06:00

What is the big attraction to meth?

How can anyone even think about ingesting something mixed together in someone's garage, which includes drain cleaner and other similar goodies?

Meth is most widely used in rural America. Why in the world don't we hear more about it? Maybe publish some pictures of crack users' teeth?

Kudos to public TV for their Frontline episode on the problem.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/body/

Abortion

2006-02-28T17:04:00.000-06:00

South Dakota is passing legislation to make all abortion illegal, save for medically necessary procedures involving the health of the mother.

This is an amazingly polarizing issue, considering that there are only something like 1.6 million abortions annually in the U.S. (I say "only" in the context of 300 million people).

The abortion issue is wholly intractable, because of the necessary co-existence of fetus and mom for 270 days of gestation. On the one hand, it's mom's body and life; on the other, the fetus becomes viable earlier and earlier in the process, and at some point becomes a full-fledged human being with its own rights. In this context, any claimed absolutes are the province of fools.

Most rational people agree on one thing: there is very little that is good in the context of abortions. Either you are an expectant mother who has made a difficult choice to terminate a pregnancy, you are a fetus being aborted, or you are in a situation where you are being forced to bear a child that you don't want or can't take care of (or both).

Since the 60's, the widespread use of oral contraceptives and other reliable birth control methods has become common and generally accepted (outside of the Catholic Church, anyway). Most people view the use of birth control as a decision wholly within the province of the individual.

After conception, the debate changes, and suddenly, everyone thinks they have a dog in the fight. Women's rights activists see issues of self-determination and empowerment. They think that our patriarchal society wants to take over their lives. Right-wing types see, essentially, murder for convenience. They think people get abortions because responsible use of birth control is just too much of a hassle.

I take a utilitarian approach to the issue: I would rather have an unborn fetus aborted than have an unwanted child born into this world to be abused or neglected. I don't like it, I wouldn't encourage it, but I can tolerate it if, on the whole, it minimizes suffering.

Death Penalty

2006-02-26T21:28:00.000-06:00

Terri Winchell

The practice of executing perpetrators of serious crimes is one of the more controversial aspects of American society. Recently a federal judge ruled that California's method of execution -- death by lethal injectoin -- is unacceptable because the murderer in question might feel pain. The San Francisco Chronicle has been following this case:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/22/MNGSUHCJFB1.DTL

No one in their right mind could feel sorry for Michael Morales, who viciously beat, raped and murdered a 17-year old girl 25 years ago. The man is a poster child for the cause of those who think we SHOULD torture those who prey upon the weak and vulnerable.

Apparently U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel somehow has come to equate the Eighth Amendment prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment" with an execution that is "painless" to the perpetrator and risk-free vis-a-vis mishaps (e.g., insufficient anesthetic given prior to execution). Fogel arrives at this decision despite the fact that death by lethal injection is used in 36 states and has been around a long time.

Is the death penalty cruel and barbaric?

Hell yes. It's a tough punishment to fit the unbelievably awful crimes committed by the worst of the worst in our society. It has to be an awful thing to sit in prison for 25 years knowing that one day, the state will finally get around to putting out your lights. Good.

Of course, it is easy for those opposed to the ultimate penalty to forget about the incredible suffering of the victims in these cases:

According to prosecution testimony, based partly on his alleged admissions to friends, Morales sat behind Winchell in a car and tried to choke her with a belt. When the belt broke, he pounded her on the head 23 times with a claw hammer, then dragged her unconscious and dying body out to a vineyard north of
Lodi, [California] where he raped her. He then stabbed her four times. [San Francisco Chronicle article, supra].

Opponents love to trot out straw men, like the specter of innocent people being put to death. While that may be a theoretical possibility, with the number of appeals and other reforms, I am not concerned about it.

Remember the big hue and cry about Tookie Williams a few months ago? The world was going to come to an end if poor Tookie wasn't allowed to live to keep writing children's books about why not to get involved in gangs. Well, Jesse Jackson went off to Terrell Owens' party, Tookie was finally put down, and the world has kept on turning without him, somehow.

If Michael Morales feels a little twinge in his chest in the last few moments of his life, it is nothing compared to what Terri Winchell went through back in 1981. Let's remember that punishment and deterrence are the bedrock of our criminal laws.

Port Authority Non-Event

2006-02-23T12:46:00.000-06:00

Oh come on, already!

Don't be part of the hysteria surrounding the pending transfer of ownership of a private ompany that oversees operations at 6 large U.S. ports (among many, many others worldwide).

Must be a slow news week again. Last week, it was the criticaly important story about Cheney accidentally shooting his hunting partner (I think some Congressional hearings are in order here. Why should Cheney be allowed to go around shooting people when the rest of us can't?)

This week, its the SHOCKING REVELATION that those damn furriners are at it again, trying to get a toe hold into this great country of ours by taking over IMPORTANT SEA PORTS.

Just calm down, Hillary. Sure it's yet another opportunity to take a swing at our beleaguered commander in chief, but there's really no there there once you get there. Excerpts from today's Chicago Trib story by Mike Hughlett:

---------------------------------
Port experts say no risk in deal
---------------------------------

A state-owned Arab company's foray into the American maritime business has been abeled in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere as a terrorism risk and a virtual takeover of key U.S. ports.
But the deal by Dubai Ports World to operate in 28 American ports is being viewed very differently by many shipping industry participants and some security experts. They said Wednesday that a change of ownership in the company that runs docks and warehouses won't compromise national security.

It won't change who works on the docks or what they do, they point out, nor will it change security procedures, which are overseen by the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency and armed port authority police.
The ports themselves are government-owned, usually by states or cities . . . Some experts said that the biggest maritime security threat isn't at the dock but at factories and warehouses that could be located thousands of miles away. That is where the metal cargo containers being shipped to the United States are loaded and locked before crossing the oceans.
"The real issue is not so much what comes into the country, but where it starts," said Harlan Ullman, a senior adviser on national security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, D.C. . . . Security concerns
shouldn't be an issue in the Dubai deal, Ullman said, because terminal operators
like P&O and Dubai are relative bit players in port security.
For the whole article, go to:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-port-security,1,5987293.story?coll=chi-news-hed

School Demographics and New Schools

2006-02-21T21:56:00.000-06:00

I came across a recent entry by Jim Dey on the News-Gazette weblog regarding demographic changes in Unit 4 schools. The article definitely casts doubt on assertions that new buildings are necessary to accomodate enrollment growth. It also highlights the fact that Champaign schools are now only 50% white, down from 64% in 1992-93, and that the percentage of students who live in poverty has increased from 25% of the student population in 1992-93 to 37.5% in 2004-05.

http://www.news-gazette.com/ngweblog/index.cfm?post=326&blog=7

I read the 2002 court opinion and Second Revised Consent Decree, authored by Hon. Joe Billy McDade (former Bradley University basketball star), and was surprised to find out that there really aren't enough seats to accomodate all of the students who live near schools north of University Avenue. (That opinion, BTW, is Johnson, et. al. v. Board of Education of Champaign Unit School District #4 (188 F.Supp.2d 944 (Dist. Ct., C.D. IL) (Jan. 29, 2002)).

As of the 2001-2002 school year, the north end schools had total capacity of 1,656 students, compared to total Kindergarten - Fifth grade population of 1,745 students. Given that some of the schools in that part of the City (e.g.. Dr. Howard) tend to be older, anyway, it really does look like new buildings are long overdue.

There is still the issue of existing overcapacity, however. Historically, north side schools have been under-selected by north side parents taking part in the 'controlled choice' (nice oxymoron there) program. In other words, even if you live within walking distance of shiny new Stratton, you might well opt to have your kids bussed to shiny new Barkstall, on the far south end of Champaign.

So, in the interest of racial balance, Unit 4 has to actively promote Stratton and other north side schools, to try to get more south side families to choose that school. The uncomfortable fact is that lots of black parents are willing to bus their kids south to go to school, but few white parents are willing to bus their kids north.

In the long, long run, here's hoping that Unit 4 has great schools in every corner of town, so that parents who don't want to bus, don't have to, and those that do, have lots of great choices.

Just Say No to More Blago

2006-02-20T18:21:00.000-06:00

Wow, it seems so early in the year for me to be getting pissed about political ads. I can see already that the most annoying of all are going to be the Rod Blagoevich re-election campaign ads.

Top Ten list of Flashy Rod's impressive accomplishments in his first term:

1. Alienate 95% of the Illinois legislature. Check.

2. Spend the least possible amount of time as possible in Springfield. (No one told him that's the state capital and where things like legislation are pursued.) Check.

3. Build up a $14 million campaign warchest, largely by traveling and gathering money out of state. Check.

4. Buy several million dollars of flu vaccine (from a foreign source, and against FDA rules), get the vaccine 6 months too late to even use it, ship it off to a third world country, and then try to get out of paying the bill. Check.

5. Raise user fees and taxes on business all over the place, then have the temerity to tout the fact that you haven't raised income or sales tax rates. Thanks, and check.

6. Raid the state pension funds to balance the budget, so that (a) you don't have to make hard choices about cutting spending, and (b) can keep your "no new taxes" pledge when you run for President in 2012. (After all you saw what happened to Bush 41.) Check.

7. Follow the time-honored IIlinois tradition of putting your political cronies and other assorted hacks in every slot you can find for them. Check.

8. Air your ugly intra-family dealings so that all of us can listen in. Check.

9.

10.

Please, enough already, Rod. You are a do-nothing, feather your own nest, Bill Clinton-wanna be, no talent, all hair political hack.

For a much more thorough and entertaining look at Blago boy, see The Rod Report. http://rodreport.com/

Unit 4 Bond Referendum

2006-02-19T16:35:00.000-06:00

Voters in the Unit 4 School District will vote March 21 on a $66 million bond referendum.

The Cynical View:

Let's see, Unit 4 high schools are over-capacity, and elementary schools have empty seats, especially in that all-important "north of Universtity Avenue" area of Champaign.

Solution? Build 2 new elementary schools north of University Avenue, and 1 in Savoy. Throw in a little something for everybody, and you try to get the votes on March 21. (By the way, Unit 4 didn't choose to have the date of the referendum fall during the week many voters will be ot of town for spring break; that's just the date of the March 21 primary election in Illinois.)

I’m not the first to note that Unit 4 hired consultants who conducted surveys to find out what might garner some votes, e.g., air conditioning, and it troubles me that the whole thing looks like a bill in Congress: put in some pork for every district to get the bill passed.

I also wonder about estimates of growth which seem to be based, in part, on the fact that lots of new homes have been constructed on the fringes of town. (E.g., Unit 4 Board Board member Dave Tomlinson: "We're going to see rapid growth, especially in the Curtis Road interchange area, and I want to attract those new students to our schools." (News-Gazette, January 22, 2006). News flash: lots of those people are not new to the school district, they are just “moving up,” as the expression goes.

The News-Gazette noted today (February 19, 2006) that private and suburban schools have enjoyed recent growth, at the expense of Unit 4. (http://www.news-gazette.com/news/). Superintendent Culver has expressed the hope that parents who send their children to private schools “will take another look at the facilities Champaign will offer.” (News-Gazette, January 22, 2006). Forgive me if I don’t share his optimism, as I suspect most private school patrons are quite happy where they are. “Honey, look, they have AIR CONDITIONING! Now it’s OK for our little Johnny to go there!”

Finally, the whole consent decree thing is a mess that just isn’t going away. Ironically, by having Judge Joe Billy McDade and his band of merry social engineers insist that Unit 4 locate schools where there aren’t students, residents may be more reluctant to approve the bond issuance than if schools were going to be built where the kids are. Rather than have more resources to assist students, the referendum will tank and the new schools won’t happen.

If the bonds do issue, I can’t help but wonder: what will Judge McDade think when a hard-working family from north Champaign works and saves to buy a house in the Utopian suburbs of Savoy, only to learn, after they move in, that their kids will ride a bus every morning -- to a school north of Interstate 74?

The Good Citizen View:

Everyone wants modern, comfortable school buildings with good, caring teachers, books, computers, gymnasiums, and playgrounds. Quality schools are one of the hallmarks of a good community, and the costs of public education are easily outweighed by the benefits. Rehabbing and modernizing aging schools is a good use of taxpayer money, and there is that pesky consent decree and the Honorable Joe Billy McDade to keep in mind.

It will happen . . . sometime

There is no doubt: there WILL be lots of taxpayer $$ spent on school facilities in the coming years. A new high school is almost a certainty. As taxpayers, we should demand that the school district adopt a long-term, rational plan to use its existing facilities wisely, to locate schools where they make sense for the future, and to be completely candid throughout the process.

Arrested Development

2006-02-10T19:45:00.000-06:00

Sitting here watching the 2-hour season finale of "Arrested Development" on Fox, I am really going to miss this show, if it doesn't get picked up by another network.

Quirky, original, campy, off-the-wall, ya gotta love it. Why didn't it attract viewership on Fox? Too smart? (And narrated by Ron Howard!)

Illini @ Columbus

2006-02-10T19:34:00.000-06:00

The race in Big Ten men's basketball is absolutely exciting right now. Iowa remains atop the conference, but I don't think anyone outside of Johnson County expects them to remain there for long. Michigan State is moving into the home part of their schedule, while others, like the Fighting Illini, have lots of work to do on the road.

Last night the Ohio State Buckeyes took it to the Michigan Wolverines in fine fashion, walking away with the first big Ben Ten road win for 2nd year coach Thad Matta.

Without doubt, the Hawkeyes are right there, but didn't steal a possible win at Northwestern this week.

IF Illinois can take care of business in Columbus, and avoid slip-ups like last week's debacle against the Nittany Lions, anything is possible.

To even have a chance to tie for the Big Ten regular season title, the champs will have to take care of business, home and away, and have a lot of success against the top talent in the conference.

2006-02-08T21:03:00.000-06:00

He who would be master over others must first be master over himself.
- Machiavelli

2006-02-08T20:46:00.000-06:00

I try to like people for who they are, not who they try to be.
-Jeff Kuehl

2006-02-08T20:38:00.000-06:00

To live well is the best revenge.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

2006-02-08T19:31:00.000-06:00

There are no do-overs in life.
- Big E