What could explain the difference in the severity of punishment?


Recently some teachers and administrators in the Atlanta school district were harshly punished (caution: autoplay) for changing the results of their students’ answers on the high-stakes tests that are the bane of the US educational system. They did this in order to improve the district’s scores because poor performance could result in pretty drastic consequences for them and their schools.

Jon Stewart of The Daily Show uses this case to make a very strong point about how unequal the justice system is, punishing some crimes harshly while much worse crimes are treated gently, depending on who commits the crime.

(This clip aired on April 22, 2015. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Nightly Show outside the US, please see this earlier post. If the videos autoplay, please see here for a diagnosis and possible solutions.)

Comments

  1. lorn says

    The telling difference is the average income of the teachers compared to bank executives.

  2. Holms says

    Also, I noticed all the teachers were black, and the only guy from the financial side appeared to be middle eastern. Zero white people.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *