THE WORDS FLOW – AT 5:44 P.M. ET:  It's Martin Luther King Jr. day, and the words are flowing.  Tragically, they're just words.  We'll be back to the same hypocrisy, the same racial pandering and corruption, tomorrow morning.  And minority kids will be the victims>

Consider this bit of pap:

(CNSNews.com) - In a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day address, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said education is “the civil rights issue of our generation” and the “only way” for young people to pursue the American dream.

“I’m just convinced education is the civil rights issue of our generation and we have a lot of hard work ahead of us. If we want our young people to have a chance to enter the mainstream of society and pursue the American dream, they can only do that through education,” he said at National Action Network’s Martin Luther King, Jr. day prayer breakfast, hosted by the group’s founder, Rev. Al Sharpton.

Duncan continued, “We all know the stats, we all know the numbers; I don’t have to go through those. But I just want to take a moment to talk about why I’m hopeful because for all the challenges we faced, we have the solutions here and the President has drawn a line in the sand. He said by 2020 we have to again lead the world in college graduates. We are not going to get there unless many more young people of color are part of the solution unless, until we’re giving them those kinds of opportunities there’s no way to hit the President’s goal.”

COMMENT:  This is just racial boilerplate, delivered at a meeting presided over by that great conciliator and philosopher, Al Sharpton.  After last week's outrage in Arizona, you'd think someone would have pointed out the fact that Sharpton, essentially a small-time local leader with a big ego, has one of the most inflammatory records of anyone on the political stage today.  But there was only silence.

I think Arne Duncan is a decent guy.  But the idea that children of color lack opportunities is nonsense.  The opportunities are there.  What isn't there is an insidious culture that has been allowed to develop in black communities that discourages academic excellence.  Black kids can be as accomplished as anyone else, but they need a nurturing culture that treats them, not as victims or as political pawns, but as young citizens with responsibilities.

Duncan might send a message to some African-American "leaders" in a few places who are protesting school districts that are holding class on King Day to make up school time lost because of storms.  Duncan might say that Dr. King would have like that.  Instead, the grandstanding continues.

And we're not going to improve education in this country unless we recognize and deal with certain truths – that our teacher-training schools are often hopeless centers of ideological propaganda, that teacher unions are far too powerful, that many school systems are top-heavy with political patronage and overpaid administrators, and that "the college education" is too often an oversold package of glorified high-school courses rather than a rigorous course.

Don't hold your breath.

January 17, 2011