Judge Howard Manning and The Ruling Class
Reflecting on the Ruling Class, as described by Codevilla, while reading “The Death of Common Sense,’” by Philip K. Howard, one can almost hear the conversations in the cloisters as judges discuss rules for the ruled. They may rationalize these decisions as benevolent to some individual or special interest group but one will notice they seldom, if ever, have any effect on the Ruling Class themselves. There are many examples, public schools being just one.
A lawsuit is brought by the parents of a student with certain difficulties in learning. The parents, wishing to deny the situation of their child, both in reality and as a personal responsibility, seek solace in the courts. The result, because the judge finds it easy to confer some ‘right’ to a public education at the taxpayer’s expense on the child, is an expensive program for the child that, because of his disabilities (the child being unable to progress at a normal pace), is almost a complete waste of taxpayer resources. But the parents are made happy in their wish to pretend their child is being given every opportunity to be as other children.
To begin with, this was not the intent of the framers of the state constitution. From Article IX, Section 3: The General Assembly shall provide that every child of appropriate age and of sufficient mental and physical ability shall attend the public schools, unless educated by other means.
In addition there is the issue of what happens to the school and the other children. Having to spend exorbitant amounts of taxpayer funds on individual students of inability, the other students suffer in comparison; as the funds to educate them are redirected in order to care for a child who, according to the state constitution, shouldn’t be in public school anyway. In the meantime the judge and, too often, the lawyers who bring the lawsuits send their children to private school.
Another instance in North Carolina is the ‘lawsuit’ that involves Judge Manning. This judge was named an administrator of last resort for the state school systems by another judge, former Chief Justice Burley Mitchell. Today, Manning is involving himself in whether or not the state legislature has performed its duty to fund the state’s schools according to his personal demands. What is occurring here, which Speaker Thom Tillis objects to, is the judge’s attempt to usurp the legislative function. Without delving into the details, the judge, following the lead of the state Supreme Court, is attempting to decide those things that are the duty, according to the state constitution, of the legislature to decide.
It is all part of a pattern of lawsuits that are destroying our public school systems, while pretending to enhance the opportunities of individuals or groups. The results are for all to see. Teachers tell it best. In “The Death of Common Sense” we are told: “But the greater harm … (is) the disruption of learning caused by the breakdown of order … All you need is one kid who sits in the back of the room shouting put-downs at other students to guarantee that little learning takes place … years ago the kids who habitually misbehaved were easy to distinguish and we could do something about it immediately. Today I have to build a record.”
This unhealthy tolerance of misbehavior can be directly attributed to the various lawsuits and the courts. In protecting and doling out ‘rights’ to every complainant, accepting too many lawsuits into the court system no matter how destructive of society, judges determine rules that have a deleterious effect on the education of the general population, but don’t affect them or their children directly because they don’t attend public school. The rest of us, and our children, must suffer the consequences of the indifference to common sense. And this is contrary to what is written in the state constitution about education:
Section 1. Education encouraged.
Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, libraries, and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.
Should we even have to ask: What is discipline, if not the teaching of morality?
As it is lawsuits and their results that have brought us to this pass, perhaps a lawsuit would be an answer. As discipline has deteriorated in the public schools due to lawsuits, due to rights of ‘due process’ for misbehaving students, due to an inability of teachers to govern their classrooms, due to the interference of the courts, perhaps a lawsuit whose purpose is to point out this destruction to the courts would be in order.
A class action suit by parents of well-behaved students, who are in public school for the education offered there, but can’t receive one due to the disruptions of the misbehaved, would be interesting. The defendants, as always, would be the school boards, local and state, past and present, that decline to support teachers, for whatever reason, in their need to control the classroom, their need to teach social mores to the students in their sphere of influence.
The courts would be put in the position of having to reconcile the results of their previous “good will” with the actual destructive results on education. It would be interesting to watch the judges twist the words of the constitution and their previous rulings in order to extricate themselves from the morass they have created. But think of the benefits to the children. Order in classrooms would be restored. Teachers would have authority to discipline children, to teach the morality of our society.
Of course Judge Manning, being omnipotent in his own eyes, need not wait on a lawsuit. He could just jump right in. His is the ‘responsibility’ to make sure all children get a good education. As money is only part of the equation, he could and should address this critical issue. But he won’t. It is part of his job to blame others and keep the courts and the Ruling Class Judges free of responsibility for their actions.
Why are we paying him and his ilk?
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