[Caption] Florida State Senator Frederica Wilson at the press conference where she called for repealing the FCAT law.

”Sen. Wilson says she wants the FCAT [Florida’s Comprehensive Assessment Test] law to be repealed because it’s pushing Florida’s children to a life of crime and destitution.

Surrounded by dozens of leaders from the African-American community and the Miami-Dade County school system, Wilson condemned the test. She echoed the cries of superintendents across the state and called the FCAT system flawed and also said the company that administers the test is responsible for a host of problems….

Sen. Wilson says she believes the FCAT is particularly affecting African-American children. She says all too many of them go to school, get a passing grade, yet cannot pass the FCAT and are kept out of the 9th grade. It’s a situation that she says fosters a downward spiral for too many children.

”So they take drugs to numb their pain. And after they take drugs, they’re in the fuzz, they don’t even know where they are. They join a gang, they pick up an AK-47, they sell drugs, they turn to crime, they’re jobless, they’re fearless, and they’re godless,” said Sen. Wilson.

Wilson argues that millions of dollars that the state spends on FCAT testing could be better spent on other things such as vocational training [NS: her one good idea!], drop out retention programs, books, supplies and more.

The FCAT is used to monitor students’ progress and schools’ compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind act . Third graders must pass the reading test to be advanced to fourth grade, while high school students must pass the 10th grade reading and math tests to receive a standard diploma.

State Senator Frederica Wilson is running for the Congressional District 17 seat…”

St. Sen. Frederica Wilson Wants FCAT Law Repealed by Lisa Cilli and Tiffani Helberg, CBS Miami, August 11, 2010.

And here I thought that blacks only variously got hooked on drugs and/or landed in jail due to the predations of white drug dealers and racist, white cops.

(This is the condensed version. For the article-length version, including both grammar teacher lectures to CBS and good-natured badinage with readers, go here.)

A tip ”o the hat to American Renaissance.