'Maybe standardized tests aren't racist?'

'Using the SAT, ACT in college admissions isn't "racist." What else has the left got wrong?'

Ingrid Jacques in USA Today

Critics have insisted for years that standardized college entrance exams "are racist, inequitable and unfair," says Ingrid Jacques. But it looks like the "progressive groupthink" was wrong. Dartmouth researchers found that making SAT and ACT testing optional to boost diversity, as many schools did when Covid-19 hit, actually made it harder for low-income and minority applicants to get in. Turns out the tests are "a consistent measuring device of student preparation, regardless of where they're from." 

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'Tom Suozzi makes the Democrats look good for a New York minute'

Gail Collins in The New York Times

Tom Suozzi's flipping of ousted Republican Rep. George Santos' New York congressional seat gave Democrats reason to cheer, says Gail Collins. House Republicans now have such a slim majority they can barely pass their "most mindless partisan posturing." The Democrat Suozzi "hardly super-embraced" President Joe Biden. But congressional races are mainly about party leaders, so "this was, truly, a big Biden win." Suozzi gave "a pretty dull victory speech" but maybe voters have "had enough drama."

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'Taking Rafah is essential to defeat Hamas'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

President Joe Biden promised support for destroying Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack, says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. But his administration is joining in the "diplomatic pressure on Israel to stay out of Rafah, Hamas's final stronghold." Arguing "there are too many civilians in Rafah" bows to Hamas' strategy of hiding among innocents. "Rafah is Hamas's last stand as a governing force," so it's pulling "every political lever to stop Israel." The Biden administration shouldn't cooperate. 

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'The Mayorkas impeachment is just the latest GOP stunt'

Chris Lehmann in The Nation

Impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was just "another low parody of constitutional oversight" by the House GOP, says Chris Lehmann. Their flimsy case against Mayorkas' handling of the border will get rejected by the Senate. But the point of this first-ever impeachment of a Cabinet member was never to "root out" corruption, as the nation's founders envisioned. It was about appeasing Donald Trump, "the Caligulan bully" turning the GOP into "a brown-shirted theater" of grievance.

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