Not all kids are A+ students, Bragg vs. rule of law and other comments

From left: Not all children are A+ students

“Optimism-bias” says “every student is capable of academic success,” and failure reveals “error or injustice,” says Substack’s Freddie deBoer indignantly. But “overwhelming empirical evidence shows that students sort” by academic ability “early in life with remarkable consistency.” Why? Because “there is such a thing as individual academic potential.” This bias “makes enthusiasm for certain interventions immune to evidence,” like Pre-K (which “doesn’t work” to fill “racial and socioeconomic performance gaps”) and school funding — “we’ve scooped money on the racial achievement gap for 40 years, with no success.” To be clear, “I believe we can change big group differences in education (like the racial achievement gap) by tackling big socioeconomic inequalities” , but “even after we eliminate racial or gender differences, there will be great differences between individual students, regardless of pedagogy or politics.”

Gadfly: Biden’s empty ‘red line’ on China

Team Biden a month ago “warned China that sending ‘deadly support’ or weapons to Russia would constitute crossing a ‘red line’,” but in recent weeks “evidence has mounted that China is sending Russia rifles, Drone parts and maybe ammunition,” notes National Review’s Jim Geraghty. Oops: “If the Biden administration acknowledges crossing a red line, they must enforce consequences, and those consequences could mean the escalation of a proxy war in which Russian fighters are already shooting down US surveillance drones.” So, “expect no consequences.” Red lines are much easier to draw than enforce.”

Elex Watch: Minority GOP Voters Support Trump

Ex-President Donald Trump’s “average double-digit advantage over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis” may be “due to his clear advantage among potential Republican primary voters of color,” notes CNN’s Harry Enten. It’s 2-1 among those voters, but among GOP whites. Yet those voters are “becoming a bigger part of the party” — an increase of almost 5% since 2016. Trump’s win over them occurs “even as his lead among white voters has narrowed,” but also while “the Republican Party as a whole has gone back”. Improvement among color voters.” If minority voters continue their move to the GOP and Trump, “they could give both a big boost.”

Libertarian: Bragg vs. Rule of Law

Manhattan Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “dubious” case against ex-President Donald Trump “undermines the rule of law in the name of upholding it,” argues Reason’s Jacob Sullum. The key: Was the $130,000 hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels through Trump attorney Michael Cohen a campaign donation? “Cohen accepted this characterization in 2018 when he pleaded guilty to violating “federal limits on campaign donations.” But “in the five years since . . . the Justice Department has conspicuously declined to impeach Trump.” And the Federal Elections Commission in 2021 “declined to impeach Trump, his business, or his campaign.” Additionally, “prosecutors working for Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.,” also declined. “Why prosecute a case based on questionable facts and unverified legal theory that looks like a politically motivated attempt to ‘get’ Trump?”

Economists: Bank failure by Dodd-Frank

The Dodd-Frank Act aimed to make the banking system less risky after the 2008-2009 financial crisis, but had “the opposite effect,” argue the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Faulkender & Tyler Goodspeed. Why? The law’s stress tests “led banks to diversify in the same way, which increased systemic risk even as individual banks became less risky.” Well, “if something causes one big bank to fail, others are more likely to fail and lead to a major collapse of the financial system”. Meanwhile, the collapse of the Silicon Valley bank shows that “regulators cannot foresee all the risks,” such as rapidly rising interest rates that are crashing banks’ bond holdings, and “the government’s inevitable mistakes will impact the entire financial system.” Solution: Don’t do Dodd-Frank’s “micromanage banks and just ask for more capital.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board