Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
Tom Shuford tomshuford@aol.com is a retired public school teacher living in Lenoir, North Carolina. He graduated from Duke University (BS, mechanical engineering) and from Emory University (MA, experimental psychology). He taught at the elementary level for 28 years.
http://ednews.org/articlerss/author/117 Articles by this Author
A Tale of Two Gaps: Achievement and Home Ownership, or How Political Correctness is Unraveling America
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 10/21/2008
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Columnist EducationNews.org
“A lot of the politicians are doing the three-monkey thing—hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil—because they’re so afraid of political correctness. (Jim Pendergraph, former Sheriff, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina)
A lot of politicians and, now we know, a lot of Wall Street CEOs are “doing the three-monkey thing.” It was their hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, and, above all, speak-no-evil attitude towards lowered lending standards — to close the white-minority “home ownership gap” — that caused the immense destruction of wealth of recent months.
For the Presidential Candidates: Questions on Immigration
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 12/26/2007
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Columnist EdNews.org
Suppose moderators of presidential debates and the reporters who cover the campaigns knew how to put hard questions to the candidates on immigration. Today’s journalists lack that ability. Even if they knew what to ask, few would press the candidates on this radioactive issue.
In Pursuit of Diversity, Demographics Matter
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 08/1/2007
- Commentaries and Reports
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"The challenge," write Gary Orfield and Erica Frankenberg, following the U.S. Supreme Court's June decisions barring race-conscious school assignments in Seattle and Jefferson County, Ky., is "ensuring that this reversal isn't the last word, ...
Jefferson on Public Education: Defying Conventional Wisdom
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 06/27/2007
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by Tom Shuford
Columnist EdNews.org
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
The Fourth of July is fireworks, festivities and images of a gathering of remarkable men determined "to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them."
Additional Commentaries and Reports
Immigration Milestones: 2002: Cheap Banking for Illegal Aliens
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 04/17/2007
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by Tom Shuford
Columnist EdNews.org
"I began (reporting) in 1956 and never have I seen a more badly covered subject, and there is no question it is a political correctness issue. I find that offensive as a reporter." (two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Donald L. Barlett of Time Magazine on the reporting on illegal immigration)
“Social Capital” and Schools: Why Reformers Miss the Forest
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 02/20/2007
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by Tom Shuford Columnist EdNews.org
News of the latest plan to save American public education, "Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce," recalled an email I received recently from a veteran teacher coping with the current plan, No Child Left Behind:
Immigration Milestones: 1965: Family Reunification Replaces National Quotas, Part 1
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 10/30/2006
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by Tom Shuford
Columnist EdNews.org
There are many "immigration milestones" of great importance in understanding today's immigration dilemma: There is the 5-4 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision of 1982 which ruled that Texas must educate children in that state illegally. There was the nullification of California's Proposition 187 in 1999 by then governor Gray Davis, who dropped a winnable appeal of a federal judge's ruling against the measure. (Prop 187 would have denied many services to illegal aliens and set the stage for a rehearing of the Plyler decision.
Immigration Milestones: The 1986 Amnesty
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 09/4/2006
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"Automatic Birthright Citizenship": An Emerging Crisis
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 07/25/2006
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“Anchor babies” are the American-born children of illegal aliens or of visiting foreign nationals: These babies, under current interpretation of U.S. law, automatically become U.S. citizens and most qualify immediately for a variety of benefits . . . Over time, they can open the door to citizenship to other family members.
Proposition 187: "Last Gasp of White America in California"
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 07/11/2006
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Power is not given to you. You have to take it. Remember, 187 is the last gasp of white America in California. Understand that. (Art Torres, soon-to-be and current Chairman of the California Democratic Party speaking to a Chicano audience in1995: One-minute Real-Audio clip: 5th item)
Plyler v. Doe (1982) Transforms American Public Schools
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 06/27/2006
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Plyler v. Doe is a little-known Supreme Court decision that is transforming schools and communities across the nation. The Court held, in a 5-to-4 vote, that children illegally in the United States have the same right to a free public education as American citizens.
Mexican Immigration, Part 4: Illegality
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 06/12/2006
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The illegality of Mexican immigration troubles many Americans. It does not much trouble President Bush. U. S. borders, immigration laws and the will of the American people notwithstanding, President Bush believes Mexican citizens who entered the U. S. illegally should be put on a path to American citizenship. He does make one concession to political reality: Citizenship need not be "automatic." The President will tolerate the imposition of minimal conditions: Illegal aliens must attend English classes, pay some back taxes, and pay a small fine.
Mexican Immigration, Part 3: Huntington Examined
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 05/29/2006
- Commentaries and Reports
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"We are a nation of immigrants." "We are a welcoming nation." "Family values don't stop at the Rio Grande." "Immigrants do jobs Americans won't do." With such platitudes President Bush and open borders advocates dismiss fears about rapid change due to uncontrolled immigation. The slogans are meant to smooth acceptance of an unrelenting inflow of humanity determined not by American citizens via legislation enacted by their representatives, but by the lawless choices of businessmen, human smugglers, visa overstayers, and anyone else who can get over the border.
Mexican Immigration, Part 2: The Huntington Thesis
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 05/8/2006
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In the late twentieth century, developments occurred that, if continued, could change America into a culturally bifurcated Anglo-Hispanic society with two national languages . . . The driving force behind the trend toward cultural bifurcation . . . has been immigration from Latin America and especially from Mexico.
Mexican Immigration: Special Challenge
- By Tom Shuford Columnist EducationNews.org
- Published 04/17/2006
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Mexican immigration is a test unique in our history. That's because of the scale of the immigration, because of our common border with Mexico, and because the U. S. Southwest was once part of the Spanish empire and, for fourteen years, part of an independent Mexico.