“But why isn’t anyone ever talking to, like Chicago, like most of the shootings are young black men killing other young black men,” Maher asked his panel. “Is that not correct?”

“Yeah, that’s correct,” Brown University economist Glenn Loury replied.

“OK, much more than what the cops do,” Maher said. “Why doesn’t anybody talk about that? Why aren’t there, you know, a hundred, giant black celebrities who would have the respect of those people say ‘What are you doing to yourself, why are you killing each other?’”

“I feel like it’s never addressed,” Maher said.

When the other panelist, University of Washington international studies associate professor Daniel Bessner, said further investment would help address the problem, Maher pushed back.

He noted one in three children in the country can’t read at a basic level of comprehension and 85% of black students lack proficiency in reading skills.

“We already spend a lot of money on schools. So, are you going to keep telling me more money will fix this because I feel like this is much more connected to the problems of people who can’t read,” Maher said. “Yes, they’re going to have problems with gainful employment, and it seems like, you know, a lot of times the solutions that come from the left seem symbolic. They don’t seem like we’re addressing what really needs to be done, which is get kids learning, get them reading, get them to have a job.”

He further said, “It doesn’t seem like the money is getting to this problem if 85% of black students lack proficiency in reading skills.”

A blind pig...

Facts are racist.

just like LBJ intended

Lefties are going to crush him.

Fuck that asshole.

He's a professional panderer. I can't watch him for more than 5 minutes without seeing how absolutely insecure with himself he is.

He's like the guy leading the race at Talledega... always switching lanes back and forth to make sure he doesn't get anyone too mad at him.

Unless there is another reason….

Yes and the Department of Education is complicit.  

It’s hard for me to believe that 85% if a certain demographic in a large American city are illiterate.

He's about to get cancelled for pointing out the obvious

Good

Well the new Mayor sure isn't going to fix anything. He's all about defund the police and the teacher's union has him in their pockets. So I don't see anything getting better. It's only going to get worse.

I'm surprised Maher hasn't talked himself out of being a liberal yet.

I hate Bill Maher, but he seems to be slowly beginning to understand the most pressing issues are self inflicted from the Left. And he is not afraid to get canceled by saying it!

Of course the other asshole says "more investment."  That's always their answer.

Thats a very high number...I worked in down town NOLA and pulled from the hoods.

all the folks who applied for labor were like 99% literate. Except one, he was mentally retarded, but thats not the schools fault.

A few of the folks were being hamstringed by sickle cell though. It was terrible to see them suffer from a flare up

LINK   "CPS plans to spend $9.4 billion in the 2023 school year on 321,000 students. That comes out to $29,307 per student   a new record. Just four years ago the district spent $7.5 billion on an enrollment that was 40,000 students higher. Then, the total taxpayer cost was just under $21,000 per student."

Average Illinois-wide spending per student in 2023 is under $16k, and obviously downstate spending must be a good deal less than that to counterbalance Chicago's $29k.  In neighboring Indiana it was under $11k: LINK

I have come to the point where I'm actually willing to listen to him.  He's left, but he wrecks the far left as well.

Maher wants to be edgy. His former edginess is now mainstream so to get his edge back he has to flip to the other side.
He is a media whore selling his soul for whatever he can get for it.

I hope he keeps this up.
The left needs to become more fractured than the right is.

lol@ the posters here who are butthurt that Maher has different opinions than them.
Use every weapon in your disposal to defeat the left.
Maher can be one of them.
Get past your feels.

Exactly

He doesn't believe in anything. It's all just a cry for everyone to notice him.

Inconvenient troof

Yep, and ph*ck LBJ

Concur.  His column appeared in the SF papes and that's where I learned to dislike him.

He's not wrong.

He chopped off his foot and now realizes he can't walk.

Fuck him. He is one of the reasons we are in this mess.

Fuck him.  He played a huge role in setting the  conditions for this disaster.

The teachers union is just a protection racket for people that suck at teaching…lowest common denominators.  Most can’t speak English much less teach it.

The op was forwarding faxes 30 years ago

Maher is being forced to stare at the creature he’s long admired. He’s wrestling with his own BS he’s pushed for years because he’s smart enough to see it’s not working.

That’s a bad place to see, to see how all the bullshit you’ve believed for years is a lie. Maybe he’s gotten to that age where he can no longer ignore it.

If so, this is a huge gamble. He’s taking on the sacred cow of the Dems for the past 50 years.

They caused this—intended this. They’re not going to want to take the rap.

A speakeasy? Bars are legal in Chicago now.

CPS plans to spend 9.4 Billion alright but it won't be going to fix the education system. It will be embezzled and stolen and nothing will change. But hey it's just money right!?!? They can always get more.

According to the newly elected mayor, it's the fault of large corporations...


https://www.foxnews.com/media/chicago-mayor-elect-brandon-johnson-rebukes-large-corporations-poverty-violence-city

The past few years he has regularly called out the far left on their bullshit.  I’ll grant you he doesn’t exactly mirror arfcom’s interpretation of the 2A, but since most Republicans don’t, either, he’s not alone on that hill.

Its all so tiresome...

He's becoming red-pilled.

The enemy of my enemy, is my friend.

Or the enemy of my enemy is out there in front of me looking for mines.

Black celebrities would maybe change 5 percent of the thugs - maybe.
It's a gang war going on, and a lack of black celebrities saying quit shooting each won't change much.
You need real prosecutors, real jail time, and a lot more leniency for the cops to sometimes make mistakes in use of force.
None of which will happen.

Attached File

Indeed.

Poster with the bacon-adjacent avatar comes through

No he's not.

He's got an ace in the hole that keeps him from being canceled.

How much money has been dumped into the inner-cities since 1965? And things have only gotten worse. I would feel better if the government just trucked taxpayer money to a pit in the desert and burned it.
That would literally be a better use of that cash. Instead, we subsidize dysfunction - making it easier for people who shouldn't breed to breed like rabbits.

He is a leftist of the highest order. But he realizes that this stuff is destroying leftists. His motives are still from the ideology of the left, but he sees the real human cost of the bullshit policies and the silence on the underlying issues.

Make no mistake, he'd throw us into re-education camps in a heartbeat if he thought he could.

He just happens to be right about this issue.

I think the big leftist cities are reaching the end point of the progressive leftist Lindon Johnson New society wet dream.

Just like others stated look at the "teens" that "graduate" from schools in cities like Baltimore and Chicago they pretty much are illiterate.

Those cities are basically a no go zone of feral humans that cannot exist beyond the boarders of the hood.

Any of the ones that managed to get a education flee to the safety outside the zoo.

It's almost as if we sent money to Africa.

In regards to Maher’s pointing to the policy of throwing more and more money at the problem, to only have the problem become worse, one only has to look where the money goes. I realize that’s an obvious observation.

Chicago corruption would require a Richter Scale to measure, but members who live in smaller cities, towns and counties would be surprised how much corruption and taxpayer abuse is taking place right under their noses.

Local government officials, both elected and career bureaucrats, largely operate in the shadows and many of their policy decisions are made in closed door sessions, whose minutes may or may not be published. And even if the minutes are published on their website, they could be 87 clicks in and are viewed by no one. Local government corruption and taxpayer abuse takes place gradually, over decades. Keep in mind, bureaucrats have all day to think of ways to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense and they can be quite creative. Local government Elected officials often have little to no knowledge of Local government policies and budgets and they are usually easy prey for career bureaucrats who, conversely, can be crafty and cunning. These bureaucrats are smart enough to explain to the Elected officials that many of the same self-enrichment perks that they negotiate for themselves can be me-too’d by Elected officials. Bureaucrats do this to create what I refer to as a “benefit ally” relationship with the Elected officials, therefore removing the most important line of separation between the two. Money. Trying to bring to a vote, let only get a majority vote, the elimination of a taxpayer abusive perk that Elected officials benefit from can be very difficult.

Remember, Local government Elected officials have two primary obligations to the taxpayers who elected them.

1. To make decisions in the best interest of the taxpayers who elected them, NOT in the best interest of the entity they govern. They are two different interests.

2. Protect taxpayers from being abused by bureaucrats.

It’s very simple, but it requires courage that the overwhelming majority of your current Elected officials do not have.


We should have a sub-forum for Local government policy and budget discussion. I’ve been fighting Local government corruption and taxpayer abuse for nearly 20 years and I’d like to help other members do the same thing.

This right here is true. He hates conservatives and reeducation camps would be the nicest thing he'd wish upon us. But I will say it's nice to see him calling out the lunatics on the Left.

He's surprised me with his common sense positions lately.

If midnight basketball and hiring more teachers were the answers, the urban yute violent crime problem would have been solved decades ago. Outside influences have not solved the problem, and insiders just pander for more money and programs that don't address the underlying system problems, which are NOT systemic racism.

He is right that 85 percent of 8th grade black kids are not functionally  literate.  In Decatur Illinois, only 5 % of black kids can read.

https://thehill.com/opinion/education/579750-many-of-americas-black-youths-cannot-read-or-do-math-and-that-imperils-us/