Amir Mokari should be ashamed of himself; after reading his laughable, party-line rhetoric in the Feb. 14 edition of The Chronicle, I noticed that he forgot to include the phrase "no blood for oil" in there somewhere. What kind of a liberal is he?
Mokari has apparently decided his academic experience with six black students this semester constitutes a "low number of minorities" for the entire Duke community. Aside from the fact that he forgets that blacks students aren't the only minority group on campus, the number of minorities here, percentage-wise, is above the national average. What does he want, a quota system?
It is unfortunate that Mokari then targets George W. Bush for our failing public school system. FYI: Public school education was not doing so well under Bill Clinton either. Numerous studies have shown that the U.S. per capita spending on education is the highest in the world by far, yet our scores are merely average. Mokari offers no solutions; he criticizes the voucher system, which has been shown to be extremely effective and efficient.
While it is quite possible that Bush's connections helped him into Yale University, that doesn't mean that shady admissions processes shouldn't be changed. His depiction and understanding of the University of Michigan incident currently in the news is unflattering. In undergraduate admissions at Michigan, four points are awarded for being the child of an alumnus, three points for a good essay, and a hefty 12 points for a perfect SAT score. Being born black is worth 20 points. Being Asian like me is worth zero. Isn't this something Michigan should justify?
I have one last question for Mokari. If 10 percent of the population pays over 90 percent of the taxes, as is the case in this country, who should be getting the bulk of a tax cut?
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