During a Presidents Day whirlwind tour of New York City and suburbs of Philadelphia and Chicago, Republican Ron DeSantis denounced their incompetent Democratic politicians for soaring crime rates and tepid support for embattled police departments.
However, Gov. DeSantis missed a golden opportunity, during Black History Month, to celebrate Florida’s Black students, who rank second in reading and math on the 2022 “Nation’s Report Card,” among America’s 10 mega-states with at least 10 million residents.
Black 4th and 8th graders in Florida totaled 934 points, or 17 fewer than 951 points in pre-COVID 2019. The Sunshine State also had a spectacular 601,000 Black students in pre-K through 12 public schools in 2020-21.
Ranking first are Black students in Texas with 937 points, or only four fewer than the 941 points in 2019. Competently led by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, the Lone Star State had a humongous 682,000 Black public-school students, more than any other state.
Ranking third are Georgia’s Black students, with 927 points, or 13 fewer than the 940 points in 2019. The Peach State, adeptly led by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, had a very impressive enrollment of 631,000 Black public schoolers two years ago.
All American Black 4th and 8th graders in public schools averaged 913 points on the 2022 Nation’s Report Card,” or 19 fewer than the 932 points in 2019. Since 12 points equal one year of academic progress, the Red Big Three’s average, 937, are a consequential 24 points, or two years, ahead of the national average.
The average for all Americans students is 987 points, which are also 19 fewer than the 1,006 points in 2019.
Conversely, in the three super-states with Democratic governors visited last week by Gov. DeSantis, Black students performed very poorly.
New York State’s Black 4th and 8th graders totaled 903 points last year, or 24 points, or two years, behind the 927 in 2019. The no-longer Empire State had 430,000 Black students in public schools two years ago.
Equally deplorable are the results of Black elementary and middle schoolers in Illinois, who totaled 903 points in 2022, or 22 fewer than the 925 points in 2019. The Prairie State had 310,000 Black students.
In Pennsylvania, Black students scored an even more disastrous 889 points, or 28 fewer than 917 points in 2019. The Keystone State’s public schools enrolled only 250,000 Black students in 2020-21.
The other three super-states with Democratic governors, and their Black students’ scores and enrollments, are California, with an anomalous 310,000 enrollment. Scores are a terrible 902 points in 2022, and 909 points in 2019.
North Carolina, under Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, had a hefty 379,000 Black students two years ago. But their scores plunged by an atrocious 29 points, from a respectable 943 in 2019, to an unacceptable 914 points in 2022.
A much more cataclysmic loss has been suffered by the 254,000 Black public-school students in Michigan, under autocratic, inept Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Fourth and eighth graders declined 32 points, from 908 in 2019 to 876 points last year.
The average score in 2022 for Black students, in the three Southern super-states with Republican governors is, to repeat, 933 points. Their combined - and booming - enrollment is a very robust 1,914,000, or 26%, of America’s 7,388,000 Black students.
The average score for Black students, in the six mega-states with Democratic governors, is a scandalous 898 points. Their combined - and declining - population is 1,933,000, or also 26%, of the national total.
The Republican states’ advantage is a very significant 35 points, or 2.9 years.
Last fall, just before the release of the historically catastrophic scores on the “Nation’s Report Card,” Prof. William Frey published an essay about the “New Great Migration” of several million Black Americans since the late 1970’s, from Northeastern and Midwestern states, to Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Florida and other Southern states.
The original “Great Migration” was the righteous exodus of 5 million oppressed Black Americans from the South, between 1910 and 1970, to the Northeast and Midwest.
But Frey, a demographer at the nationally-renowned University of Michigan, inexcusably omits one crucial reason for this “Reverse Great Migration”: the destruction by Leftist Radicals (Black, White and Hispanic), beginning in the late 1960’s, of the two regions’ once-great, integrated urban schools, including those in NYC, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
Indeed, the 123,000 Black students in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago, scored 894 points on the 2022 exams, or a calamitous 36 fewer than the 930 points in 2019.
The 192,000 Black students in New York City scored a horrendous 890 points on last year’s “Nation’s Report Card,” which are 26 points fewer than the 916 in 2019.
The 60,000 Black students in Philadelphia totaled an abominable 862 points in 2022, or 22 points fewer than the 884 in 2019.
By contrast, the 64,000 Black students in Florida’s top-ranked Miami-Dade County totaled 950 points last year, or just six points fewer than the 956 in 2019. They lead counterparts, in the dysfunctional Democratic-run districts, by between 56 and 88 points, or 4.7 to 7.3 years of academic achievement.
Mark Schulte is a retired New York City schoolteacher and mathematician who has written extensively about science and the history of science. Read Mark Schulte's Reports — More Here.
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