Rocky Mountain News: Dick Lamm on minority education Rocky Mountain News: Dick Lamm on minority education

In an opinion column yesterday in the Rocky Mountain News titled "Minority self-reliance must be stressed now more than ever", four term former Colorado governor Dick Lamm took aim at the low expectations that many have in minority youth and their education as a big part of their many problems. In short, the soft bigotry of low expectations articulated by President Bush. This wouldn't be surprising if Lamm had been a Republican. But he wasn't. He was probably the most liberal governor of my lifetime.

Lamm points out that in his youth, discrimination was a legitimate excuse for nonperformance. But today, it is more of a minor hurdle. He points to Japanese Americans, many of whom were locked up and had many of their possessions seized by our government a little over 60 years ago. But, today, they are the demographic group in this country with the highest earnings. He also mentions that Jewish and Asian kids do twice as much homework as Hispanic or Black kids. No wonder they do much better in school.

All in all, an excellent article, that will hopefully stay visible for awhile before the RMN starts to charge for it.