Liam Julian

Secretary Duncan Makes Ominous Noises

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Ominousness exudes with regularity from the federal Department of Education. The latest emission comes with Secretary Arne Duncan’s announcement this week that his department’s Office of Civil Rights will “reinvigorate civil ...
Politics & Policy

Entering Casablanca

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There is a famous scene in Casablanca in which Captain Louis Renault, searching for justification for ordering the immediate closure of Rick’s Café Américain, discovers it in a memorable line: ...
Politics & Policy

No Chance

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When asked to specify his bipartisan bonafides, to which he often alludes, Sen. Barack Obama likes to talk about education. He’ll tell you, for instance, that he took a big ...
Politics & Policy

Supreme Indecision

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The judicial decisions of Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy often lack decisiveness; his writings tend to produce more questions than they answer. His opinion in last year’s cases involving school ...
Politics & Policy

Obama’s F

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The sky over Washington, D.C., was gray and gloomy this past Saturday when Barack Obama addressed thousands of members of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, who ...
Politics & Policy

Come Study La Raza

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The name of the nation’s most visible, self-defined Latino civil-rights organization, the National Council of La Raza, translates as the National Council of The Race. The official website denies it, ...
Politics & Policy

Hard to Take

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Hard Times at Douglass High, a documentary that airs tonight on HBO, is subtitled “A No Child Left Behind Report Card.” The addition is misleading. The film examines only superficially ...
Politics & Policy

Segregate This

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Those who divvy up by race strain to justify it. The newest wrinkle comes from Fairfax County, Va., where the school board is struggling to rationalize a report that it ...
Politics & Policy

Strategic Miss

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Barack Obama, who apparently believes that the only way to get beyond race is by constantly evoking it, said Tuesday that while “we do not need to recite…the history of ...