News clips:
Minorities still lag in college Racial
learning gap not closing The national crisis of black men in jail Freshman minority enrollment remains flat UF enrolls more black freshmen just two years after One Florida initiative Freshman minority enrollment remains flat Bright Future's future The spin on minority spending University
of Florida stymied in its efforts to attract blacks Black
students still a smaller percent NAACP
protests commission pick It's
UF, not One Florida Minority
contracts in question Lacking
diversity Jeb
Bush blew chance to show spine at black convention Minority students talk of feeling conspicuous at UF - She had heard the numbers before, but freshman orientation was the first time she understood what it meant to be one of the few black students at the state’s premier public university. Law
school numbers hold steady
Sharpton
says he sees racism in South Florida
Activists testify that Lauderdale government riddled with racism -MIAMI BEACH · City employees and civil rights activists took complaints against Fort Lauderdale City Hall to a wider audience on Wednesday, when they testified before an advisory arm of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Income,
race affect SAT Enron Style Accounting in One Florida System by Jeb Bush:Jeb Bush has claimed extraordinary gains in the percentage of minority business since replacing the State's affirmative action plan with his so called One Florida Plan.
As it turns out Jeb is using Enron type accounting to
arrive at such claims. The first action Jeb took was to order all
Department Heads to take extraordinary measures to claim trade with
minority business and since all these managers, thanks to Jeb's Florida
First (Worst) at will civil service plan, were subject to dismissal if
they did not comply, these First Florida Monthly Reports stared to flow
in.
The Enron accounting comes when you look at how the
dollars are counted. Here is how it works.
Say you buy $10,000 dollars worth of Dell computers.
Instead of ordering directly from Dell, you use one of Dell's "minority
vendors" The vendor gets perhaps a 1% commission ($100), but
under Jeb's accounting system a $10,000 transaction with a Florida
Minority Business is claimed. Example two involves airfare. Buy a $500
ticket through a minority travel agency and pay a $25 travel agent fee.
You guessed it. Jeb chalks up $525 dollars of minority business.
So the only thing we really know about Jeb's One
Florida numbers is they are as cooked as the books at Enron or Worldcom.
... PrivatizeJeb, 10/20/02 The covenant JEB brokeWhat is not widely enough appreciated is how Jeb Bush has broken a long-standing covenant between races here in the state of Florida. In looking at the history of our state, one should not seek to excuse or minimize the evils of past racism and segregation. Now, with FAMU finally receiving their law school back, the ghost of Virgil Hawkins can finally be laid to rest. But mending a tear does not entitled this governor to make a greater rip. At least in one aspect on race, Florida's history shines proudly above its sister Southern states. Florida did not fight desegregation. Most Floridians think that the peaceful road to reconciliation began when Gov.LeRoy Collins strode across a bridge in Selma. As symbolic and meaningful as that moment was in history, the covenant of reconciliation began much earlier than that. In the late 1950's, one of the earliest marches by Martin Luther King, before anyone in the North had even heard of him, took place in St. Augustine. There, due to an overreaction by the police, a riot transpired and two people were killed. At that time a state governmental commission was formed which set our great state government on a path of redemption. Following many other racial incidents, there were many other commissions. But, every state governmental commission, and every governor since then, and up until Jeb, has reaffirmed that commitment of state government to unite us as one people in our state government. It is most important to emphasize that this is a commitment of our state government, as an administrative entity. Some historians have argued that this was cynical self interest on the part of those in charge who wish to avoid racial violence. Those historians do this state a tremendous injustice. While it is certainly true that some did view it as in the state's interest to avoid the bloodshed and hate of racial war, which trapped and paralyze other state governments throughout the South, for those in Florida's government, at the time, ending segregation was a moral issue. This state owes its greatest thanks to still living 90 year old Judge Ervin, who as attorney general at the time, was charged with assuring desegregation without violence. His children still serve this state with great distinction. But, if you talk to Judge Ervin, who incidentally opposes the death penalty, he will tell you that it was a moral decision to end segregation, and not some political calculus. The covenant that was forged between Florida's government and black Floridians is one of good faith and fair dealings. Jeb Bush has violated that covenant by making unilateral decisions as to what is best for a race of people. It was not ending affirmative-action that violated that covenant. Our country's greatest intellectual on race, Prof. Cornel West, has said that affirmative should change. Jesse Jackson came to this state to say that reforming affirmative action is acceptable, as has the NAACP. The debate is not about whether Gov. Bush's plan is just and fair. What Jeb Bush to this day does not understand is that it was never his decision as to how that reform should take place. That is because no man has the authority to decide what is good for a race of people. Florida's Constitution is without power to give the governor that authority. It is patronizing, and condescending in the extreme for Jeb Bush to think he is the better judge of the interest of a race of people than they themselves. The covenant demands that we build a consensus for such changes, and there are alternative ways we, as a Florida people, could have agreed to bring about change. For that reason, Jeb cannot undertake sentencing structure reform. Not understanding his past wrongs, Jeb Bush will use his authority as governor to commit another moral wrong in the people's name and once again impose his will, what he thinks is just, on a race of good people. Jeb touts Won FloridaGov. Bush keeps trying to declare victory for his One Florida plan by proclamation. Touting his One Florida Accountability Commission is the latest attempt. The 15-member review panel was an afterthought, created to stem criticism after Gov. Bush's 1999 decree eliminated race as a consideration in university admissions and state contracting. In typical fashion, he appointed the committee chairman and two others, and they appointed the rest. Yet the governor calls the panel independent, supposedly because it has African-American and Hispanic civic, education and business leaders. More than 18 months after being created, however, the panel had met only three times and had issued no report. A Florida Times-Union review last June of transcripts showed that the meetings were dominated by presentations from Gov. Bush's staff. Still, Gov. Bush and Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan held upbeat news conferences after One Florida's first year, even as numbers for black freshmen had plummeted at the flagship University of Florida and were flat overall. Last week, Gov. Bush's commission again claimed success, based on hopeful signs, not real numbers. An increase in minority students taking advanced placement courses and pre-college tests might mean a future rise in the number entering the state's 11 universities. Though black freshmen comprised only 7 percent of UF's enrollment last year, the 11 percent admitted for next year might mean a return to the level of nearly 12 percent enrolled before One Florida. Not knowing the score hasn't stopped Gov. Bush from saying he has won. "I am glad the critics are wrong," the governor said of his committee's report. In fact, the only certainty is that minority student enrollment is up, as is the population. There has been no percentage gain for the entire system since One Florida went into effect. Similarly, the improved minority contracting figures the governor cites may be no more reliable than when The St. Petersburg Times in October 2000 reported such creative number-crunching as the state fully crediting minority subcontractors who were passing along as much as 99 percent of the money. The numbers-challenged governor repeatedly has had to scramble to
adjust. What he called success, others might call lowered expectations.
Judgment of One Florida will require many more chapters of evidence, not
a rush to boast, at each turn of the page, that he wrote the book. Guest
editorial: Diversity and excellence Commemoration of the Second Anniversary of the Coalition of Conscience: March on Tallahassee against One Florida.Wednesday, March 6: News Conference at the State
Capitol, Tallahassee (see also People for the American Way) Affirmative action critics silent on legacy admissionsLast fall, UGA had 24,010 undergraduates, but only 1,368 blacks - and relatively few of those admitted through affirmative action. Was that worth fighting over? Apparently so. Like other colleges and universities that attempt to increase the diversity of their student bodies, UGA has been hit by a series of lawsuits attacking its affirmative action efforts. So has the University of Michigan. So has the University of Texas. And on and on. Earlier this month, Georgia's Board of Regents announced that UGA would drop its affirmative action program rather than continue to face court challenges. Michigan, however, has decided to defend its effort before the U.S. Supreme Court. Critics of affirmative action in college admissions have argued that such efforts are patently unfair because they grant "racial preferences," admitting unqualified black or Latino students over well-qualified white students. That has never been true. Michigan and UGA may have admitted black students with slightly lower scores on the SAT, but they have never admitted students who are unqualified. But, for the sake of argument, let's pretend the critics are right. Isn't exactly the same thing true of legacy? Isn't saving spaces in the freshman class for the less-qualified sons and daughters of graduates also patently unfair? Why doesn't that upset proponents of merit (narrowly defined as scores on standardized admissions tests)? Why hasn't legacy been challenged in court? Most selective institutions, public and private, set aside slots for family members of graduates. Given centuries of legally sanctioned racism, the practice automatically discriminates against blacks. Since its first alumni finished in 1804, for example, UGA has graduated hundreds of thousands of whites. But it has graduated only about 5,300 blacks since it started admitting them in 1961. The pool of blacks eligible for legacy, therefore, is minuscule by comparison. Legacy is affirmative action for those families with a long tradition of college attendance, the vast majority of whom are white. It is baffling that conservatives who argue that college admissions should be based on a rigid standard of scholarship have never been troubled by admissions of less-qualified family members of alumni. Defenders of legacy note that students admitted because of it perform about as well as students admitted on the basis of test scores only. However, the same is true of black students admitted through college affirmative action programs. According to a landmark study by William Bowen, former president of Princeton University, and Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, black graduates of 28 elite institutions - many admitted through affirmative action - earned advanced degrees in such fields as medicine and law at slightly higher rates than their white counterparts. If critics of affirmative action are interested only in fairness, they should demand an end to legacy and insist on that change in court. Oddly, they have yet to rise to the challenge.
By Gov. Jeb Bush
A state senator and former state representative wrote an open
letter to me recently about One Florida, and I think all
Floridians deserve to know the truth about this program's success.
When we introduced One Florida, it was criticized by those with a
vested interest in past policies. Some activists and opinion
leaders predicted that minority representation in our state
universities and state contracting would plummet dramatically.
Despite these critics, we pressed forward with a new, more
inclusive system. In education, we said we would emphasize
partnerships between universities and low-performing high schools,
recruit minority candidates aggressively, allow socioeconomic data
to be used as admissions criteria and guarantee admission to the
top 20 percent of every Florida high-school graduating class. We
could do all this, we said, without hurting minority enrollment at
our state universities.
We implemented all these policies, and now the numbers are coming
in. Here are the percentages of African-American students enrolled
in state universities from 1997 to 2000, the last year being the
first year of One Florida: 17.52, 17.58, 17.56 and 17.55. The
numbers are similarly steady for Hispanic students: 13.72, 13.10,
13.98 and 13.35.
Admissions numbers for 2001 show an increase in minority students
-- among all accepted students -- from 36.85 percent in 2000 to
37.85 percent in 2001. There are currently more minorities
attending state universities than ever before. By no possible
definition are these numbers "plummeting."
Of course, now the critique has shifted: It's not that minority
numbers under One Florida are plummeting, it's that they aren't
skyrocketing.
So it's high time Florida's response to these critics shifts as
well. One Florida hasn't been targeted because it has failed; it's
been targeted because of politics. This is deplorable, but this is
the reality.
One last example: State contracts awarded to certified
minority-owned businesses by my agencies have risen by well over
100 percent under One Florida. Only a stubborn commitment to the
failed, divisive practices of the past keeps critics from
congratulating these agencies on this dramatic achievement.
Our state is benefiting from One Florida. I urge every Floridian
to reject partisan grandstanding and celebrate the real positive
difference these innovative policies are making in the lives of
Floridians of every ethnic background.
Gov. Jeb Bush, TALLAHASSEE
Letter to the Republican Party of Florida
You can see the original text by visiting www.rprof.org/press/oneflorida
... (I'm not sure of the date of this letter... Ace of Spades, 8/23/01)
State papers fall in step with JEB's PR team:9/6/01
9/5/01
Minority contracts come at threat of employee terminationRe: "Minority-owned businesses booming" (news article, Sept. 5). Oh, for Pete's sake, will you stop this? Don't you know that state employees who are involved in purchasing for the state have been told to buy heavily from minority companies or they will lose their jobs? ...PHILLIP BUNNELL 9/6 letter to the Tallahassee Democrat(Note: The costs of increasing minority contracts this way has been reported to be enormous. Don't expect it to last past the next election) At last a critical look at the numbers behind JEB's raves about One Florida's success in educationEditorial: A freshman's failure The Palm Beach Post Friday, September 7, 2001 Since he created the plan two years ago, Gov. Bush has embraced any statistics that offer possible vindication for the One Florida Initiative that ended affirmative action in higher education. Out of the state this week, he picked Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan to claim that Florida's universities are enrolling more minorities. The governor's absence spoke symbolically to the underwhelming new numbers. The preliminary count Mr. Brogan announced Wednesday showed that throughout the 11-university system there are 577 more African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American freshmen than last year. Without pausing even to thank their parents for having children, the administration cited those 577 to make the case for a marked increase in minority students -- as if more non-minorities hadn't also entered. More telling, in terms of One Florida, is that the percentage of minority freshmen hardly has budged from the systemwide 36 percent it has maintained for five years. Gov. Bush said One Florida would pump up those numbers. Worse, at the state's flagship school, the University of Florida, the percentage of African-American freshmen has fallen from 11.8 percent to 7.2 percent, and the percentage of Hispanic students from 12 percent to 11 percent, in the first full year since One Florida took effect. "We are proud of the continuing success of the One Florida Initiative," said the lieutenant governor. Success? The added 577 minority freshmen are fewer than the 850 to 1,200 increases of recent years. The administration's spin must be that if minority enrollment has held steady since Gov. Bush banned race as a consideration in university admissions, that amounts to success. Apparently, success depends on whether you want a political or an educational victory. Before the enrollment numbers came out, Gov. Bush cited a ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to claim that One Florida was the right move. The court ruled the University of Georgia's admission policy to be unconstitutional because it arbitrarily gave nonwhite applicants a statistical boost. While saying that "race is not necessarily the only, or best criterion for determining the contribution that an applicant might make to a broad mix of experiences and perspectives," however, the judges added that race can be a factor in encouraging diversity. By calling Georgia's plan "incomplete," the judges were saying it needed work. In Florida, Gov. Bush chose to replace, not repair. The new numbers
indicate that the replacement needs more work. Sun Editorial: He told us soThank goodness Jeb Bush is a politician. Otherwise, his arm might not be nearly long enough to reach around and pat himself on the back. "I don't want to say I told you so, but I told you so," Gov. Bush gushed on Wednesday, in the wake of a federal appeals court decision throwing out the University of Georgia's affirmative action plan. "Had we not implemented One Florida, we would have had utter chaos," Bush added. Not only is Bush eager to pat himself on the back, the ink on the court's decision was hardly dry before the governor's PR machine was cranking up to lead the cheers. Here at The Sun we received an e-mail from Bush's communications
director wanting to know if we were going to write an editorial to praise
Bush for "reading the legal tea leaves."....
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