Urban Conservative, Part II

I keep asking people this question: "Inner city minorities vote Democrat to the point that they are completely taken for granted. Why do they keep doing it?"

The reasons are obvious enough; Asians have an almost-stereotypical bent toward small business and for meritocracy; Hispanic Catholics are deeply socially conservative.

And there are no more ardent advocates of public school reform than the city's African-Americans.

Yesterday, the Scholars featured this piece on urban schools that succeed.

I'll add the emphases:

The best inner-city schools have greatly extended instructional time with more hours in the day, longer weeks, and longer years. They have terrific principals who have the authority and autonomy to manage their budgets, set salaries, staff the school with fabulous teachers and get rid of those
who don’t work out. These principals are constantly in classrooms, giving feedback to teachers—the best sort of professional development. The schools we describe focus relentlessly on the core academic subjects, insisting that their students learn the multiplication tables, basic historical facts, spelling, punctuation, the rules of grammar, and the meaning of often-unfamiliar words. They provide safe, orderly environments in which to teach and learn. But they also aim to transform the culture of their students, as that culture affects academic achievement.

“Are we conservative here?” Gregory Hodge, the head of the Frederick Douglass Academy in New York’s Harlem, once asked me rhetorically. “Of course we are,” he answered. “We teach middle-class values like responsibility.” The KIPP Academy’s David Levin has echoed Hodge. “We are
fighting a battle involving skills and values. We are not afraid to set social norms,” he has said. The best schools work hard to instill the “desire, discipline, and dedication” (KIPP watchwords) that will enable disadvantaged youth to climb the American ladder of opportunity.

After you read that piece, read this one by Joe Carter, "Thinking Like Republicans, Voting Like Democrats".

Then tell me why the Minnesota GOP has completely given up on the inner city.

Posted by Mitch at June 18, 2004 05:57 AM