WHEN THE COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS LOSES THE WASHINGTON POST …: Even the Washington Post seems to understand that the report the Commission released yesterday on school discipline is not on the up and up. It writes: “[T]here was little, if any, evidence in the report to back up the conclusion that there are no racial disparities in behavior.” (Thank you, WaPo.  I would have said “zero evidence anywhere,” but I understand you have to be careful in dealing with issues you haven’t been studying for a long while.)

Here is my dissent. Please take a look if you have the time and the inclination. The report is not just on race. It is also on disability (or rather the intersection between race and disability) . One of the weirdest parts of the Commission report is its finding that disabled students are disciplined more often than non-disabled students. Well duh. These are students whose disability is defined in terms of misbehavior. We’re not talking about students in wheelchairs (who are disciplined less often than usual). The Commission’s finding is the equivalent of a finding that says “Students who misbehave a lot misbehave a lot.” Students who have meltdowns in class prevent other students form learning. From time to time, they must be removed.  Yet the Commission fails entirely to point this out. Readers are left to imagine that teachers have it out for the deaf and the blind.