Albany's Sleight of Hand on School Attendance
While the education department is still publishing chronic absenteeism metrics, it has removed that measure from its Every Student Succeeds Act plan, which assesses school quality. This signals to school districts across the state that they don't have to focus on reducing chronic absenteeism if their overall attendance is acceptable.
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New York Post
16-07-2025
- New York Post
State education honchos must end New York's race-based STEM admissions — once and for all
The New York State Education Department's decision to temporarily scrap its requirement for race-based admissions for advanced STEM classes — after a group of Asian parents and the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater NY filed suit — marks some progress. But it needs to go further and drop the practice altogether. Facing a federal lawsuit, SED will, for now, let schools enroll students in their STEM programs based just on economic need, rather than racial preferences. But it's still fighting to preserve those preferences in court. And schools will still be allowed to use them if they choose even in the meantime. That's an enormous disappointment. In this day and age, with much of public backing a level playing field on race (a Pew poll in December found Americans oppose affirmative action in colleges 50%-33%) — and with the unfairness of racial preferences so obvious — it's hugely disappointing that SED, Commissioner Betty Rosa and the Board of Regents seem so stuck in the past. 'It was unfair and racist for my daughter to be subjected to a low-income requirement just because she is Asian when her black and Hispanic classmates weren't,' fumes Yiatin Chu, a parent who spearheaded the lawsuit. She's right. There's no good, moral reason why, say, a wealthy black or Hispanic student should get preference over a poor, struggling Asian or white kid with similar skills. In 1985, the state legislature created the Science and Technology Entry Program to boost interest in STEM and health care among low-income and underrepresented minority high-school students. C-STEP is aimed at college students from those groups. Yet from its inception, the two programs openly discriminated against Asian and white students. The Supreme Court's historic affirmative action ruling in 2023 couldn't be clearer: College admissions must be race-neutral. Federal education law explicitly outlaws discrimination on the basis of race. And, as Chief Justice John Roberts thundered in the majority opinion, 'Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.' Hear, hear. So when will New York state officials finally treat all students equally — and scrap race-based admission to its STEM programs, once and for all?
Bloomberg
01-07-2025
- Bloomberg
Trump Dismisses Extension of July 9 Tariff Deadline, Hits Japan
President Donald Trump said he is not considering delaying his July 9 deadline for higher tariffs to resume, and renewed his threat to cut off talks and impose duty rates on several nations, including Japan. 'No, I'm not thinking about the pause,' Trump said Tuesday when asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One about whether he would extend the negotiating period with trading partners. 'I'll be writing letters to a lot of countries.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
‘Sir!' Frederick Forsyth wrote sizzling letters to the Telegraph for 30 years. Here are the best
It has been a long time since the Letters desk's fax machine saw daily action. For years, though, it continued to stand guard, awaiting the salvos of one correspondent in particular: Frederick (sometimes Freddie) Forsyth of Hertfordshire (later Buckinghamshire). In a busy life – working as a journalist, helping MI6, even penning the odd novel – Forsyth also found time to be a voluminous letter-writer to The Telegraph. A trawl through our archive indicates that, over 30 years, he made about 150 appearances. A pretty respectable hit rate. He was not, by and large, a writer who got stuck into debates on the correct way to boil an egg, say, or the waning strength of English mustard. (He did once enter a discussion about cars, in 2015: 'When I spent the year 1963-64 as Reuters' – and the West's – sole correspondent in East Berlin, I had a Wartburg. It was a disgusting pink colour but it was compulsory.') No, he was a thunderer, and he was very good at it: robust and mordant, with wafer-thin patience for (to use a favoured phrase) 'blithering incompetents'. Here, then, are a few of his greatest hits – beginning with his first letter to the paper, on the theme to which he returned most frequently over the following decades. Forsyth was an unyielding Eurosceptic. But after the referendum – which he had long demanded – he became an equally trenchant critic of our leaders' efforts to extricate Britain from the EU. It came from a place of care, but Forsyth found himself routinely exasperated by the Conservative Party – and two of its members in particular. In truth, for Forsyth, no Tory leader could measure up to the Iron Lady. (And, as far as she was concerned, no thriller-writer could hold a candle to him.) When she died, he was dismayed by the reaction. While it's possible to detect a begrudging admiration for Tony Blair's election-winning powers, Forsyth was deeply sceptical of the New Labour project, its high priests and its footsoldiers. (Siôn Simon – regularly arraigned – was MP for Edgbaston from 2001 to 2010.) During those bizarre days in 2020, Forsyth was unpersuaded by the government's injunction to 'stay at home'. Forsyth's final contribution tackled the biggest subject of all. And on the question of assisted dying, he was as forthright as ever. He was a true giant of the Letters page. We won't be able to replace him. The fax machine has been stood down. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
