THE SOFT PEDAL
The Chicago Tribune did a study and determined that school discipline is harsher for black children than white children in the Chicagoland area. Black students are five times more likely to be suspended and eight times more likely to be expelled than white kids. Perhaps the least surprising finding was that blacks in DuPage County are wildly overrepresented in expulsion statistics. Blacks make up 6% of DuPage students and 32% of expulsions. Interestingly, the Tribune did not seek to compare similar acts and see if the penalties were similar. That's a soft pedal.
In other news, Bill Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks died this morning. Wirtz is widely criticized in Chicago for being unwilling to pay market rates for players, and for not televising Blackhawks games, since he believed that people would not attend games if they could watch them for free. Keep in mind, the Cubs broadcast all of their games (and have for at least 35 years) and sold 3.25 million tickets for 81 games at Wrigley this year. The Hawks broadcast no games and drew just over 522,000 for 41 games for 2006-2007. Anyway, Wirtz's nickname is "Dollar Bill" because he was so cheap. This morning on WBEZ they said that Wirtz was "known for driving a hard bargain." Now that's a soft pedal.
The Chicago Tribune did a study and determined that school discipline is harsher for black children than white children in the Chicagoland area. Black students are five times more likely to be suspended and eight times more likely to be expelled than white kids. Perhaps the least surprising finding was that blacks in DuPage County are wildly overrepresented in expulsion statistics. Blacks make up 6% of DuPage students and 32% of expulsions. Interestingly, the Tribune did not seek to compare similar acts and see if the penalties were similar. That's a soft pedal.
In other news, Bill Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks died this morning. Wirtz is widely criticized in Chicago for being unwilling to pay market rates for players, and for not televising Blackhawks games, since he believed that people would not attend games if they could watch them for free. Keep in mind, the Cubs broadcast all of their games (and have for at least 35 years) and sold 3.25 million tickets for 81 games at Wrigley this year. The Hawks broadcast no games and drew just over 522,000 for 41 games for 2006-2007. Anyway, Wirtz's nickname is "Dollar Bill" because he was so cheap. This morning on WBEZ they said that Wirtz was "known for driving a hard bargain." Now that's a soft pedal.
posted by David at 9:22 AM
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