The Ithaca Schism

I met a high school teacher yesterday from Ithaca… sanctuary city and home of Cornell University and, even farther to the left, Ithaca College, the bastion of lefty hippies, theater majors, and No Kings protests. Insanity at its finest. She had the day off as Ithaca public schools were closed in observance of Yom Kippur. Ridiculous, she said, and I’m Jewish. She went on to note that they also observe the Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Diwali in addition to the traditional Christian Holiday of Christmas, Thanksgiving (surprised at that one), MLK Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day and Labor Day. President’s Day gets incorporated into the mid-winter week-long recess, winter recess picks up Kwanza and New Year’s Day, and Spring recess is just there to keep Florida bars in business. If the school is a polling place, it's also closed on Election Day. Notably, they have eliminated the Monday after Easter Sunday as well as Good Friday. So roughly one month worth of days off, not including teacher “resource” days, superintendent days and other teacher benefits in what is already a short school year when you factor in summer vacation as well. No wonder our children are idiots. They’re never in school. And Kathy Hochul, in her infinite wisdom, eliminated New York Regents exams as a requirement to graduate. With underperforming students getting pushed through to graduate on schedule and grade inflation making grades essentially meaningless, the Regents served as the only indicator of student proficiency. Over the years, the Regents have even been dumbed down to compensate for deteriorating student performance and the phenomenon of educators simply teaching to the test to assure the appearance of proficiency in subject matter. The question remains whether the poor pass rate was a reflection on the quality of students or a condemnation of the quality of our educators… and the culpable teachers’ union. If the students aren’t being held to a standard and the educators, along with a top-heavy bureaucracy, are not held accountable, how exactly can we assess and improve what appears to be a failing education system in America?