MR. FURIOUS AND THE ROOSTER
(Steve Smith gets angry and finds some more false causes)
Steve Smith never seems to let logic and facts get in the way of his opinions as he writes his columns for the Daily Pilot.
In his latest outing (12/27), Smith gives us yet another example of a lack of understanding of the real world.
Now, to his credit, Smith at least cares about the schools and is keeping the issue of failing schools in Costa Mesa on the front burner.
Unfortunately, Smith reminds the CM PRESS a little of Mr. Furious in the movie Mystery Men, combined with the rooster who falsely believes that the cause of the sun rising each day is the rooster's crowing.
Mr. Furious, played by Ben Stiller, had one superpower. It was the ability to show super anger at just about anything, but often over the wrong things, and just as often his anger was aimed at the wrong targets.
Of course, showing anger was all that Mr. Furious could do. In every other way he was powerless. One scene in the movie had Mr. Furious showing all his superpower anger as he attacked an automobile.
Never fear, the automobile was safe. For all his anger, Mr. Furious couldn't even rip off the flimsily attached hood ornament and there was a hilarious scene where he was lying on the hood of the car with his eyes bulging, his mouth frothing, his veins popping and with his face beet red as he strained with all his might to rip the hood ornament off. The hood ornament didn't budge an inch.
In today's column, Smith gets really, really angry at the failing schools in Costa Mesa, posits a false cause, and then offers no solutions. It's all very voodoo, as we say in the swamps.
Mr. Furious Smith's incorrect explanation for the failing schools in Costa Mesa: They're failing because of his arch enemy, that evil Mr. Schoolboard. Yup, that evil Mr. Schoolboard is causing kids in Costa Mesa to perform poorly on tests.
But, remember, contrary to what Smith may think, it is the performance of students (not the school board, not the teachers, not the physical school facilities) that determines whether or not schools are failing or not.
Here's more, directly from Smith, stripped of surplusage where possible:
"Westside parents...do not have the clout of their Newport Beach counterparts...and the dirty little secret of this school board...: The board pays more attention to the Newport Beach schools than it does to the schools in Costa Mesa."
Smith doesn't tell us how having evil Mr. Schoolboard paying more attention (even if true, which we doubt) to the tykes from Newport Beach helps those kids score very high on tests, while kids in Costa Mesa are failing. It's probably best that Smith not try to explain it. His contention is nonsense, unless evil Mr. Schoolboard is slipping the answers to the Newporters or is in some devious way causing them to score high on standardized tests given to all kids.
Smith then whines that there is "no open communication" between evil Mr. Schoolboard and parents, and that the school board isn't publishing "dropout rates or zero-tolerance violations in this newspaper." Smith goes on, "The reason you don't see the school board being forthcoming with their challenges is because it will ruin their constant message that everything is roses and rainbows."
Okay, on this last point, Smith gets something right, but for the wrong reasons, again.
Yes, the school board does appear to be trying to paint a rosy picture of everything, but that may be to avoid saying the truth that might cause numbnuts in the community to call the school board names.
And, what is the truth of why Costa Mesa's student scores are so low--a truth that Smith apparently doesn't understand?
Here it is. Here's the real cause opposed to a false cause: It's not because the school board favors Newport Beach and it's not because of a lack of communication or for failing to try to raise the scores. The hard truth is that Costa Mesa's schools are full of the children of illegal aliens and Newport Beach's schools aren't. That, Mr. Smith, is why Costa Mesa's schools are on a par with Third World schools. Third World city equals Third World school scores.
And, just to be clear, this isn't a school board, or school, or teacher problem, it's a city problem.
A failing city makes for failing school scores.
But, maybe the CM PRESS has it wrong. We're ready to listen to other facts.
Smith writes that "Dramatic reform [in the schools] is needed, not lip service. I've made many recommendations in the past. If any board member is interested in really thinking outside the box and making progress, I'd be delighted to discuss it with them. Just leave a message at the Daily Pilot."
Well, Mr. Smith, we at the CM PRESS aren't school board members but we are interested in reading your recommendations. Really.
We have open minds and we're always willing to change our views on matters if it can be shown that our views are wrong.
So, we're sending a copy of this CM PRESS over to the Pilot via email. If you have recommendations that you think will improve the school scores in Costa Mesa, please feel free to send them over to us. If they are solid, and make sense, we may publish them and give them some exposure with our growing throng of happy readers.
Of course, you could just write another column and put your recommendations in the Pilot.
Either way, please don't just give us the same type of fluff, but with a different perspective, that we're used to seeing from the school board. Give us facts and statistics and real world examples.
But, enough of Mr. Smith for now. Below is a letter we sent to the Pilot about a column written by the NMUSD superintendent.
We wrote and sent this letter before Smith's column appeared, and it has facts and figures. Yes, dear readers, the writers at the CM PRESS, unlike some who write for other publications, actually do base their opinions on hard facts.
Because we are fact oriented, we have no trouble changing our opinions if the facts are proven wrong or if there are facts to support a different opinion.
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Editor Daily Pilot:
Re: Column by Jeffrey Hubbard, Pilot, 12/26/06
With all due respect to Jeffrey Hubbard, the Newport Mesa Unified School District (NMUSD) superintendent; his column in Tuesday's Pilot was just more happy face fluff.
This isn't difficult. There are two cities in the NMUSD: Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.
Newport Beach has high performing schools and Costa Mesa mostly has failing schools. Anyone who has been paying attention probably knows that, but my guess is that most casual readers buy the euphemism that it is the "schools" that are high performing or failing, when in fact it is the students who are high performing or failing.
I know that's a hard pill for many to swallow and that it sounds nicer to blame an inanimate object such as a school, and then by implication in our subconscious minds, a school building, but the reality is far different.
Costa Mesa and Newport Beach both have very similar school buildings and facilities and the teachers are also about the same and often transfer between the two cities.
The one difference in the equation is that Costa Mesa's schools are full of the children of illegal aliens and Newport's aren't.
Why is this the case? Because Costa Mesa is full of illegal aliens and Newport isn't. And, why is this also the case? Because, for the past two decades, Costa Mesa's so-called leaders have turned Costa Mesa into an illegal alien sanctuary city.
The results of this racist policy are all around us. We have failing schools, we have drive-by shootings, we have gangs, we have increasing violent crime, we have home values that are less than they should be, we have a fleeing middle class, and we have conditions that are dropping to inner city levels.
In the Pilot the other day there was another column about the failing schools in Costa Mesa, and one could see the bureaucratic say-something-nice talk from a committee that was studying three schools. For example, Wilson, we were told, has "high-after school participation," and Pomona has "quality parent education."
Isn't that nice? It's like being told that your blind date loves to cook.
The NMUSD can come up with all sorts of bright sounding plans and it can sidestep the truth all it wants, but the truth is still there.
We need to face that truth and we need to speak it aloud: Unless Costa Mesa stops being an illegal alien sanctuary city, the schools in our city will not even be close to performing like those in our sister city, Newport Beach, or in any other First World city.
For those capable of critical thinking, here are the statistics from the aforementioned Wilson and Pomona schools and for comparison the ones from Newport Coast. You draw your own conclusions.
Wilson is 94.2% Hispanic (581 students) and 2.8% White (17 students). This is a failing school. Only 34% of students in the 3rd grade met or exceeded state standards in math on the 2004 Star tests.* Don't worry, though, it has "high after school participation."
Pomona is 93.5% Hispanic (435 students) and 2.8% White (13 students). Only 15% of students in the 3rd grade met or exceeded state standards in math on the 2004 Star tests.* This is a failing school, but, hey, it has "quality parent education."
Newport Coast is 1.7% Hispanic (10 students) and 81.5% White (492 students). This is a high performing school. A full 81% of students met or exceeded state standards in math on the 2004 Star tests.*
Bad schools are the result of a bad city. Fix the city and you fix the schools.
/s/ CM PRESS
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
