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Show DAILY AS Thursday, July 31, 2008 HERALD EDITORIALS EDITORIAL BOARD Rona Rahlf. President ft Publisher Randy Wright. Executive Editor Jim Tynen, Editorial Page Editor 2mttj&?fcrttto 1U IN OUR VIEW . ' Failing schools ore than ever, Wasatch Front high schools are failing their students in both senses of the phrase. It's just one more sign that the education system can't just keep drifting along as it has M been. The Daily Herald gathered information from 20 high schools in the Weber, Ogden, Murray, Wasatch, Alpine, Provo and Nebo districts on the number of F's handed out 3 school year. In since the most schools, the number of failed grades has climbed steadily, sometimes appallingly. Provo schools had the second worst record, after Ogden's. At Provo High School, over the last six years the percentage of classes that students failed has more than doubled, from 9 percent to 20 percent. At Timpview, the percentage more than tripled, from 4 2002-200- percent to 13 percent. The percentage of failing grades averaged out to 8.75 percent. Utah County high schools at which more than 8 percent of the grades were F's over that time span also included American Fork, Lehi, Mountain View, Orem, Payson and Timpanogos. Think about it: At Provo High, one out of every five grades is an F. In many other local high schools, about 9 of every 100 grades is an F. That's F for failure, flunked or take your pick. Each flopped grade signifies a student whose course work has come to nothing. It is dismaying that this rising tide of failure hasn't been more widely discussed. All grades are on computers, and are endlessly analyzed. Surely it must have been obvious to the education establishment that more and more students are flunking. But little or nothing was done to alert the community. Educators have an array of explanations. None are reassuring. Some blame the spate of F's on the difficulties faced by students for whom English is a second language. This may be valid, but it's not enough to explain the trend. Some ascribed the poorer grades to tougher standards. Apparently some students can no longer hide by taking easy Some teachers suggested that trying to cover all the material means that some students, ironically, get left behind. But stricter elec-tive- s. standards only reveal flaws that have been there all along. Stern educational benchmarks are supposed to raise the level of performance, not serve as an excuse for failure. We'll never be able to compete in the world marketplace with that attitude. Other observers suggest that today's students are too busy, too distracted, or just don't care. "The number of F's is just a reflection that they're not trying, that they're not working hard may be further advanced than anyone thought. This problem raises anew the question of whether the schools in Utah, and in the United States in general, are letting their students down. What can be done? The first ' step is to jettison for good any complacency over how much students are learning in Utah schools. Some high schoolers are doing splendidly, but too many, obviously, are failing. "Business as usual" isn't getting the job done. Perhaps as important, maybe it's time to stop trying to nudge students into studying. For years, the schools have done their utmost to make textbooks and classwork alluring and exciting. Obviously, that hasn't worked. It's time to stop begging and pleading with them to learn. Maybe it's time to just make them work. Cut down on distractions in schools. Lose the cell phones. Cut off the electronic entertainment. Use textbooks that focus on academics, not glitz. Don't back down from higher standards. At home, parents have to put limits on time spent playing video games and perusing Facebook. Maybe schools and parents could (gasp!) work together, drumming into students truths that underlie all success, in school or out: Buckle down, focus, try hard, don't give up. And work, work, work. If that message can get across somehow, the A's will follow. Without it, the failures will go far beyond the next report card to the creation of a new underclass in America, and to the decline of the nation to second-rate. Border progress What rise, helping employers who are workers. looking for Few people expect all remaining 11.2 million illegal immigrants to be forcibly deported. Many have lived in the US for decades, raising children who are American citizens. Those cases will need a blend of humane treatment and punishment, and then likely be set on a long course to legal residency. This blend of justice and mercy should be the norm for federal raids on factories with illegal workers - the need to avoid rough treatment, especially of parents with children (but arrests low-wa- to do with millions of aliens in the US? who want strict law enforcement before a "total" immigration solution now have proof that stronger enforcement can bring results. Exhibit A: The illegal migrant population has dropped an estimated 11 percent through May after hitting a peak last August, based on census data used in a report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Much of that decline is due to people who by slipping back across the border. The drop began well before unemployment went up, which points to the real success story: Washington's wake-u- p call last summer to beef up enforcement, from plugging leaks in the border to cracking down on employers who hire illegal workers. In raw numbers, the decline meant 1.3 million fewer illegal immigrants in the US, down from an estimated 12.5 million. Not bad for a year of attentive law enforcement but still a long way to go. And in another sign of change: Immigrant remittances to the Bank of Mexico are down after years of rising. The study found the number of legal immigrants continues to TOURMSeBMAUT-- meommm.. ir HI mm m long-tim- e If yw llll ibu i mean, who is net Hfn&uHmw OHTHENOW " I ...... i STA66! 11": S I 1 :! jLr , MICHAEL GERSON Ending slavery meant creating new kind of politics in Parliament, members drank and gambled around the clock, with occasional breaks for public business. Most politicians were familiar with Mrs. Hazer's Establishment of Pleasure on biographies set out to show Some saints are merely men. The biographies set out to show that saints are supremely men. Surrounding last year's 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade, there was a spate of books, and a major film, focusing on the life of William Wilberforce, the fig- Pall Mall. In the midst of this fashionable decadence, a wealthy and witty young conservative politician experienced a a "sense of ure most responsible for that massive profound spiritual crisis moral achievement. Most of these efmy great sinfulness in having so long forts were inspiring but tended toward neglected the unspeakable mercies of as the worshipful. And worship my God and Saviour." Hague takes Lincoln biographies sometimes demWilberforce's religious conversion can miniaturize a complex onstrate seriously, describing his consuming doubts, restlessness and agony and political accomplishment. his resulting commitment to an evanNow, slightly late but welcome the nonetheless, William Hague gelical Christianity that provided "the moral force and unshakeable will to shadow foreign secretary of Britain's Conservative Party his produced a become one of the greatest campaigners, and liberators, in the whole course complete picture of Wilberforce and of British history." his times. Above all else, Wilberforce was a religious man. But "William Young Prime Minister William Pitt, Wilberforce: The Life of the Great a close friend, also took Wilberforce's e torments seriously, fearful that he Trade Campaigner" is a would lose a political ally to a life of political book, and gloriously so. As "useless" religious contemplation. It a major parliamentary figure, Hague is at home in the world of restive conwas Pitt who urged Wilberforce to stituencies, unstable coalitions and give his spiritual intensity a political outlet: ending the trade in human besudden elections. As an accomplished historian, Hague also has an eye for ings, on ships known as "part bedlam the social context that shapes the larg- and part brothel." Britain had been prepared for aboliest of leaders. Wilberforce was a paradox: a contion by the philosophical objections to slavery of thinkers such as Adam servative in constant revolt against the social order of his time. Hague Smith and the religious objections of explains that revolt by vividly describ- preachers such as John Wesley. But ing justice is ultimately a political achievecorruptions. At the beginning of Wilberforce's career, ment. To pass the Slave Trade Act, elections involved the massive bribWilberforce and his allies invented the modern political pressure caming of voters with ale, rum, wine and brandy. His first election cost the paign, with its petitions and boycotts. modern equivalent of 1 million pounds; In the process, they created a new no single British campaign in 2005 cost form of politics human rights activism. more than 14,000 pounds. Elections often included an undercurrent of viocareer, WilDuring his berforce was attacked by social and lence, from dueling or the mob. Once Anti-Slav- 45-ye- economic radicals for refusing to support leveling equality for the British a charge that is true. working class "Wilberforce continued to believe," Hague comments, "that the real revolution that was required was in morals and education, so that people could become fit for the greater power they sought." This remains a conservative distinctive. But Wilberforce was primarily at- tacked by conservatives who stood for tradition without moral vision. He was variously accused of imdermining the British economy, gratifying "his humanity at the expense of the interests of his country" and proposing "romantic trials of compassion abroad." All of this has a modern resonance. Some conservatives still do not understand that a significant portion of their coalition, influenced by faith, hungers for trials of compassion, from the protection of innocent life to the fight against global disease to the end of modern slavery. Wilberforce spent 20 years of disappointment, tenacity and maneuver in his campaign against the slave trade before victory suddenly dawned in 1807. One contemporary concluded: "Hundreds and thousands will be animated by Mr. Wilberforce's example . . . to attack all the forms of corruption and cruelty that scourge mankind." Hague's life of Wilberforce should be read by every student of politics, to understand why mere prosperity and mere security will never be sufficient goals of evangelical political involvement. And this book should be read by every politician, to see what feats of honor are possible even in a very political life. I Michael Gerson is a columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group. How to comment letters to dhlettersheraldextra.com 5 Fax to Mail to P.O. Box 717, 344-298- Provo, UT 84603. I Letters must include the author's full name, address and daytime phone number. I We prefer shorter letters, 100 to 200 words. Letters may be edited for length. I Writers are encouraged to include their occupation and other personal informatioa I Because of the volume of letters, we cannot acknowledge unpublished letters. I Letters become the property of the Daily Herald. illegal aliens would only MALLARD FILLMORE Garry Trudeau mSS stuabout mum, tu VEIL, Bruce Tinsley .Jo Hmmmt EX- -- , NcjMN It '''r - result in a flood of new migrants who think they can enter the US illegally and someday win legal residency. JUSTARHST-TOt- ii JzXnT- ILA The OS study estimates a 50 percent drop in the illegal population is possible in the next five years if current enforcement continues. Such a sustainable decline would send a credible signal to Americans that government is serious about enforcing immigraworld. tion law in a post-91- 1 John McCain only reluctantly came around to the "enforcement first" idea last year while Barack Obama opposes it. Perhaps this study will make them true converts. Without credible enforcement, any legalization for seNAiaumcrscou- m 1 Or . nonetheless). DOONESBURY VOUKHOU.TOBBHOth E9T, KICK, YOUK rt enough," one school official said. "We don't see the kind of stamina that we saw in the past." Has some biological mutation occurred, or has the whole system just become tolerant of laziness teachers and parents alike? If that's the problem, it can only be described as grave. The decline of the United States of America MEDIA VOICES From the Christian Science Monitor, Thursday, July 31: uEltYOODMlGiaV " A m i $7 to irw To . |