New York Post. June 12, 2024.

Editorial: New York is about to make its high school diplomas worse than useless

The State Education Department just announced that it plans to make the value of a New York high school diploma worthless.

Parents should be up in arms.

Gone will be the need for students to pass five state Regents exams to earn a diploma.

Instead, all students will have to show nebulous “knowledge and skills” in seven areas, including “critical thinking,” “cultural competence” and “global citizenship.”

High achievers who pass enough Regents tests won’t get distinctive diplomas — vs. the old, tested system of Regents Diplomas, Advanced Regents Diplomas and mere Local ones.

Instead, every district will have to confer the same diploma on every senior who meets utterly watered-down state requirements.

Whether they know Shakespeare from Che Guevara, or algebraic equations from a keffiyeh, every graduate gets the same participation trophy.

Meanwhile, the ill-defined “cultural competence,” “global citizenship,” etc. standards reek of thought control: SED might as well be demanding the “DEI loyalty statements” that have become all the rage in college faculty hiring.

A New York high school diploma, in short, will soon be worse than useless.

It won’t show any proficiency in math, science or any kind of history, but only the ability to mouth woke platitudes — proficiency in preferred pronouns and the pedagogy of “oppression.”

This is the tail-end of a drawn-out process involving a pet “blue ribbon commission” engineered to recommend this nonsense, after Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie spent years stacking SED’s ultimate master, the state Board of Regents, with ideologues committed to educational nonsense.

Meanwhile, SED has adopted of the results of pandemic-induced learning loss as the new academic normal, by setting revised performance standards for lower-grade state exams based on the disastrous math and English test scores of 2022.

The only ones who benefit are the leaders of the state’s teachers unions, who no longer need worry that any of their members is at real risk of being exposed as incompetent because the kids aren’t learning anything.

Yet it’s guaranteed to accelerate the exodus from regular public school systems, as middle-class parents turn to private schools while lower-class ones rush to whatever public charter schools the teachers unions can’t manage to kill.

Heck, it’ll be one more reason for families to flee New York entirely.

Officially, the new graduation rules aren’t final until the Regents vote them in on Nov. 1: That leaves more than four months for everyone who cares about public education in New York to flood the Board of Regents with calls and letters demanding they drop this madness.

___

Albany Times Union. June 12, 2024.

Editorial: Gun legislation misses the target

A measure requiring credit card companies to track gun and ammunition purchases would do little to protect New Yorkers.

This editorial board has a long history of supporting meaningful gun control legislation — and more such laws are needed. But we can’t support meaningless gun control legislation.

Unfortunately, a proposal that passed in the state Legislature last week falls into the latter category. It would require that credit card companies track gun and ammunition purchases to, as the bill’s authors put it, “enable financial institutions to monitor suspicious purchasing patterns.” Allegedly, the information could be useful to law enforcement.

How, exactly, isn’t clear. Nor is it clear, in the vague language of the legislation, which purchases would be considered suspicious and how or when that information would be provided to police. Which law enforcement agency would receive the data? That, too, is left unsaid.

However, the sale of such weaponry is already significantly restricted in New York, and rifles that are compliant with state laws are legal, and their purchase requires background checks. So what would make the purchases suspicious? Would a purchaser need to buy a certain number of guns to be considered problematic?

Again, the legislation doesn’t say.

While we’re asking questions, here’s one with relevance to privacy concerns and civil liberties: Is it appropriate for the state to ask financial institutions to monitor the purchases and activities of their customers for potential governmental use? Yes, credit card companies flag money laundering and transactions that seem fraudulent, but those are areas within a bank’s purview. The same can’t be said for weapons purchases.

For those reasons and others, the legislation would undoubtedly face constitutional and other legal challenges, which is par for the course with gun legislation and not a reason to shy away from passing good gun laws. Yet with so many recent New York laws tossed by courts, nobody should feel confident that a law so vague, poorly defined and inconsequential will pass judicial scrutiny.

So what was the point of this legislation?

We suspect lawmakers are eager to look like they’re taking action. Maybe, like so many other Americans, they feel helpless amid the all-too-frequent horror of mass shootings and want to do something. Or more cynically, maybe lawmakers want to tell voters they’ve accomplished something when they know they haven’t.

But meaningless laws aren’t harmless, particularly when it comes to gun legislation. For one, they allow opponents of gun control to claim that enough laws have passed and we don’t need more. Two, they may undermine the public’s belief that legislation is effective or that government, more broadly, can address the nation’s problem with gun violence. That would especially be true if the measure is ruled unconstitutional.

This, then, is a bill that shouldn’t become law. It’s a misfire, at best.

___

The Wall Street Journal. June 11, 2024.

Editorial: The Cost of Forgiving Medical Debt

The CFPB wants to bar non-payment of healthcare bills from credit scores.

The Biden Administration is canceling student loans and easing mortgage payment terms. Now the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) wants to erase unpaid medical bills too. Does this Administration believe in having to repay any debt?

The CFPB on Tuesday proposed a rule that would remove medical debt from credit reports. Its goal? Help people with low credit scores qualify for mortgages and loans they can’t afford. “I just don’t want to see the credit reporting system be weaponized,” director Rohit Chopra said. But who’s really weaponizing credit reporting?

Mr. Chopra says noting the nonpayment of medical bills is unfair given the vagaries of illness. But this is a reason to carry health insurance. Very few Americans with insurance rack up enormous medical debt. Affordable Care Act plans have deductibles and co-pays, but the ACA’s subsidies can offset premiums. Patients often prioritize other loan payments so cars aren’t repossessed or homes foreclosed. A credit-report blemish is the only tool healthcare providers have to encourage payment.

Credit-reporting agencies in recent years have removed delinquent medical debt that has been paid, as well as debt that is less than $500 or has been in collection for less than a year. According to the CFPB, these actions have reduced the share of Americans with medical debt on credit reports by about two-thirds.

Medical debt affected the credit scores of roughly 15 million Americans as of last June, averaging about $3,100—far from a terrible burden. Most also carried other forms of debt. Progressives say medical expenses can drive Americans into bankruptcy, and this happens. But providers are usually willing to reduce or extend payments for those who can’t afford care.

Removing a credit notice for not paying medical bills will result in more unpaid bills. It will also reduce the incentive to buy health insurance, which will undermine the Administration’s goal of increasing coverage.

Providers will raise prices charged to insurers to compensate for unpaid bills, which will push up premiums. Providers also say they’ll demand more upfront payments for care, which could reduce access for low-income patients. This is simple economics.

But this White House doesn’t believe in moral hazard or consider unintended consequences. The Administration has forgiven hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt, in part by capping payments at a nominal share of income. Even if you can afford to make your full payment, why would you? The Administration has even suggested that borrowers could make more than $100,000 by investing their “savings” from reduced payments.

Estimated costs of its loan forgiveness continue to be revised up in part because its forecasts don’t consider the incentives for borrowers to take out more debt and colleges to raise tuition. The Administration is also stealthily reducing payments for struggling homeowners to prevent foreclosures. This limits housing supply and pushes up prices.

The President’s endless debt relief makes credit scores less indicative of credit-worthiness. Don’t be surprised if lenders rely more on income, resulting in less credit for lower-income Americans who pay their bills. It will be another case in which Mr. Biden’s policies to buy votes do more harm than good.

___

Jamestown Post-Journal. June 11, 2024.

Editorial: Continued Push For Law Enforcement By Camera Is Troubling

Legislation introduced in the state Assembly this spring is the latest step in a troubling trend – law enforcement by camera.

Assemblyman Fred Thiele, D-Sag Harbor, recently introduced the Protect our Pedestrians Act (A.10169) to amend the state Vehicle and Traffic Law to create owner liability for failure of an operator to comply with stop signs in the villages of Upper Brookville and Flower Hill in Nassau County and East Hampton in Suffolk County.

You may ask why a bill affecting three villages on the other end of the state affects us here in Chautauqua County. The answer is simple. It won’t take long for cameras in Nassau and Suffolk counties to spread statewide – especially if the cameras bring in revenue.

Thiele’s bill isn’t necessarily about money on its face. We don’t doubt Thiele has the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists at heart. But inevitably local governments who choose to install cameras on stop signs will hope the cameras bring more money into local government coffers.

The problem is the lack of discretion that camera-driven law enforcement brings. Police officers have the ability to use discretion when they write tickets. Sometimes, a warning is given if there was no threat to public safety even though a law was broken. It’s a way to teach proper road etiquette without penalties for a first offense. As a society, our willingness to cede human intuition to cameras is worth serious discussion. The camera may not lie, but it isn’t always accurate, either. Just look at Buffalo, where school zone safety cameras ended up being pulled because they didn’t work as advertised and people got tickets they shouldn’t have received.

Everyone has to do a better job of keeping intersections safe. Drivers have to be more careful and slow down. Pedestrians and cyclists could help themselves by walking and riding safely. Everyone’s carelessness leads life-changing accidents.

But law enforcement by camera is a troubling way to ensure safety. How far are we from jaywalking tickets by camera? How about littering violations caught on camera? Not picking one’s dog feces on a walk if it’s caught on camera?

Any nuisance, no matter how small, can become a cause for camera enforcement in the right, or wrong, hands. We should tread lightly with our reliance on cameras to enforce laws.

___

Dunkirk Evening Observer. June 10, 2024.

Editorial: GOVERNMENT Being responsible when on the road

It is a privilege and responsibility for workers to be able to drive government-owned vehicles. Some are necessary, such as fire trucks, police cars, dump trucks and plows.

Others are a bit more of a luxury. Governments could reimburse drivers for using their vehicle, but instead use taxpayer dollars to purchase the item for travel or as part of the job.

But scrutiny comes — and is deserved — with those cars or pickups that are paid for with taxpayer dollars.

On the New York state license plate, it notes if there is an agency the car belongs to — whether it be a municipality, school district or a high-ranking elected official. Last week, a motorist in a county vehicle was reportedly weaving into and out of traffic with some reporting the individual driving past the speed limit, according to more than one social media posting.

We cannot confirm or deny those reports. But it is worth noting the license plate was apparently forwarded to the county.

We have a lot of governments in this region. Spending taxpayer dollars on vehicles is something that happens on a regular basis and rarely questioned.

The lesson in this case is simple. For those driving any type of vehicle with a license plate noting a school district or municipality, other motorists are watching. And yes, you are held to a higher standard.

END