I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.

The challenges are wide and varied.
To name some:
If you can't ready, you can't read to your kid.
If you have a small vocabulary, your kid will have a small vocabulary.
If you have to work long hours to pay for food/diapers/a roof over your kids head, you don't have time to help with their education.
If you don't have strong english skills, you'll struggle to help your kid's education.
If you can't afford to address your kid's medical issues, their education might suffer.
If your kid is an African American male, he's going to be treated differently by the educational system than if he's not.

There's a ton of factors related to successful education. Growing up in poverty unfortunately puts you behind the 8 ball in all of them.

 

There's a wonderful educational program in Trenton called B.O.Y.D. that is such a great model for what could be. But it takes commitment. And life and circumstances in the hood makes it difficult to commit.

 

This is ... something.

http://heavy.com/social/2014/08/young-boy-angry-upset-at-mom-for-pregnancy-amaya-youtube-video/

 

And, see, your last paragraph gives you - and your entire side - away.

You guys are afraid that saying that the solution is anything but "personal responsibility!!!111" is akin to giving liberals free reign to spend on entitlement programs.

"Policy failure" is not code for "give money to the blacks." It's a neutral term. The proper policy may be to completely eliminate the safety net in America. I doubt it. But it's on the continuum.

But before we can even begin to get somewhere, both sides have to come to an agreement that the reason that blacks are downtrodden is not "shiftless niggers with lesser DNA," but that this nation has failed them, policy-wise.

 

We incentivize things the wrong way.

Because folks lose subsidies if they make a certain amount of money, people are careful not to make too much money.

And, if you don't have much of an education, there isn't much point reaching the second rung of the ladder of success, and losing your benefits, if it's likely the highest rung you will reach.

People are afraid to lose their benefits.

I have no problem with benefits for the disabled, sick, and/or mentally ill. I have no problem with a safety net.

I have no problem with financial incentives that reward education and other positive steps.

I don't think there should be no money. I think it should be spent better, and differently.

It should be results driven.

We've spent trillions with little to show for it. Isn't it obvious that we're not spending the money well?

 

Those programs were doing very well, cutting the poverty rate by leaps and bounds and resulting in across-the-board increases in quality of life, until Reagan took office.

 

There is nothing "obvious" about the ramifications of policy implementation. Nothing. And never.

 

Also worth nothing that after nine pages of passionately telling us that the plight of blacks in America is not a policy failure because Chinamen, you know explain that their plight is, unquestionably ... a policy failure.

 

POLICY FAILURE!

Great. Now what.

 

I'm not going to quote the rest of that post, because it's disgusting. But your implication that one of the two sides* operates along a "shiftless!/lesser DNA" paradigm is utter bullshit. Anyone who really believes that -- and I don't believe you do -- is a simpleton of the first rank with respect to this topic.


*The idea that there are only two clearly demarcated sides here is laughable.

 

I don't think that. I think that what they really mean by "personal responsibility" is, "Take away entitlements." And I just want them to say it.

 

Beats me.