Creaming On Whitney Tilson

When Whitney Tilson starts talking about, or quotes someone in regards to creaming, one should give him as wide a berth as possible. God knows what Whitney truly is talking about. Anyway as you can see Whitney leaves one laughing in his latest email. Oh, I know Whitney didn't write this piece, except the introduction, but I am still attributing it to him cause I know how much it turned him on. After reading this and commenting, I thinking Whitney is not only admitting there is creaming, but condones it as well.

1) Below is a very powerful email from a friend about how the NYC public school system (and, I’m sure, pretty much every public school system) really works, the political difficulty of changing it, and why high-quality charters (whether creaming or not) are an important option for low-income families:

Creaming? How so Whitney? I for one was taken aback and was perplexed at what you meant until I put it in the proper context. So this is done in Scarsdale? In Poughkeepsie? In Dobbs Ferry?Amenia? Please explain. Why not put the money and let's create high quality public schools?

Every great DOE school is selective -- whether by test score or by Realtor, if you know what I mean.

No, I don't know what you mean? Is the Century 21 lady at fault?

Look at the map of Manhattan District 2, one of the best public school systems in America. It could only have been drawn to intentionally ensure that white kids on Upper East Side, Chelsea, and Greenwich Village wouldn't have to bump shoulders with black and Hispanic kids.

It was? I am assuming that the map of District 2 was written in 1969. Chelsea at the time was a few steps above shit hole. In fact I worked in Chelsea in the early 80's. The neighborhood was respectable, yet gritty. Not a lot of people with bucks there. It started to change in the early to mid 90's. In fact, I was down in the Meat Packing District last year and was shocked at the transformation.

You see anonymous writer and Whitney toy, District 2 is diverse. Chinatown and Little Italy also inhabit the district as do Hell's Kitchen and the projects. Let's not throw all our eggs in one basket.

Try renting a 2 bedroom apartment in that district for less than $3,000.

Now, I don't know if you can. But I know that under Bloomberg and his destruction of neighborhoods for the regular people prices have risen.

Does District 2 cream? Hell yes! Kids there have benefited from a double-whammy (which was designed to benefit white kids, but now is increasingly filled by Asian students): they attend a middle school where you have to ace the 4th grade tests to be allowed in. They also get the best teachers in the city because who wouldn't want to teach the richest public school families in America?

White kids? Asian kids? What about kids with chicken pox? In my opinion, I don't think it is your skin color that determines whether or not you succeed in your school, but a myriad of factors. Stability of the home, the parenting, the value placed on education, socio-economics, eating dinner together every night, diet, vocabulary used at home. It is an endless list. But can you please show facts to back up the middle school where one must ace the 4th grade test and the best teachers gravitate to District 2?

Schools filled with rich kids, when the system is rigged in their favor (the education level of their parents, the reality that rich kid schools are able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for teacher aides and books and such at fancy fundraisers, etc.), equals selective schools.

But what about all these hedge fund managers who have all this money and can, yet won't lift a finger for public schools but do for charters? Can't they help us?

Then we give them the best teachers and we allow their test scores to mask the city's low aggregate scores. We create gifted and talented programs for them and give them a much stronger curriculum and higher expectations. We watch their parents spend a small fortune on afterschool tutoring and organized activities for their kids.

See the last two responses.

The NYC 'system' is rigged in favor of rich kids. (Joel Klein has tried to unrig it, but the political force is too strong.)

ROTFLMFAO!! Yeah, keep believing Klein is trying to help the the disadvantaged and I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell. If anything, Klein is attempting to rid the system of as much low economic and academic kids as possible to make the DOE safe for all the white boys and girls. The charters are his way of doing it.

If you believe in the power of school choice, you HAVE to believe that choosers are somehow different than non-choosers. So parents who assert themselves and CHOOSE great schools for their kids are inherently different than parents who don't.

But we're talking about a public school system in NYC that already operates this way and favors students of means.

Why shouldn't we try to level the playing field of all this creaming by allowing low-income families these same opportunities?

Why should we stop charter schools if they provide a chance for low-income folks to be "creamed" if it means their kids will have better doors opened to them?

This was all very convoluted but the point I am getting is it is OK to cream if they cream. But does District 8 cream, District 7? Maybe District 10 does. I think they do.

I think Whitney got some cream last night in the men's restroom at JFK.

It's funny Whitney, you, and your anonymous friend really come off as ignorant, bigoted and stupid. Statements are made without any factual validity. You both are in love with what you think is your own minds. But yet your won't put your money where your mouth is. However, I think Whitney has put his mouth where his money is.