VA blocks Confederate flags on cemetery poles
Memorial Day policy change follows ban’s failure in Congress.
The Department WASHINGTON — of Veterans Affairs will no longer allow Confederate flags to be flown on flagpoles at national cemeteries on Memorial Day or Confederate Memorial Day.
The policy change follows debate in the House of Representatives earlier this year over continued display of Confederate imagery on federal lands. It also further reduces the number of flag images that can be displayed on federal land after the National Park Service made similar policy changes last year.
The Veterans Affairs decision comes a few months after an amendment to bar the display of the flag imagery in VA cemeteries was added to the House’s fiscal 2017 military construction and VA spending bill. It was later removed in a closeddoor session.
The amendment’s removal frustrated Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., who along with several colleagues sponsored a series of amendments this year that would have reduced the display of Confederate images on federal land.
They opted to write to the VA in July, asking its leadership to take administrative action to stop the flag from being displayed on large flagpoles.
Earlier this month, Interim Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald E. Walters wrote back to Huffman saying the VA would change its policy regarding the flag’s display in national cemeteries that contain mass graves of Confederate soldiers.
“We are aware of the concerns of those who wish to see Confederate flags removed from public venues because they are perceived by many as a symbol of racial intolerance,” Walters wrote in a letter.
“We are also aware that the national cemeteries originated during the Civil War and that they are the final resting places of those who served on both sides of that conflict and, as such, flags of the Confederacy are also viewed by some merely as historical symbols.”
The VA will, however, continue to allow sponsoring groups, such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans, to display small versions of the flag on individual graves on certain holidays, at no cost to the federal government.
Huffman said Tuesday he was “grateful” for the VA’s decision to prohibit largescale flag displays at national cemeteries.
Whether the image should be displayed on federal land has been one of the central policy debates of the appropriations process since last year, when three amendments to reduce the display of Confederate flag imagery were added to the House’s fiscal 2016 Interior-Environment spending bill.
The resulting uproar caused GOP leaders to pull the bill from the floor and eventually halt the entire House appropriations process.
The latest WASHINGTON — scores from the ACT college entrance exam suggest many of this year’s high school graduates aren’t ready for college-level course work.
In its annual score report released Wednesday, the testing company said only 38 percent of graduating seniors who took the exam hit the college-prepared benchmark in at least three of the four core subjects tested — reading, English, math and science. That compares with 40 percent last year. The benchmark is designed to measure a strong readiness for college.
The average composite score also declined a bit, down to 20.8 this year from 21 in 2015. The four tests are scored on a scale of 1 to 36. Many colleges use the composite — the average of the four scores — in admissions decisions.
ACT’s Paul Weeks said the declines were expected, given the changing demographics of the testing population.
Sixty-four percent of the 2016 graduates took the ACT, meaning nearly 2.1 million students, compared with 59 percent the year before. That increases the share of test-takers who aren’t necessarily college bound, said Weeks, senior vice president for client relations.
By comparison, 1.7 million graduating seniors in 2015 took the SAT, the other major college entrance exam. The College Board expects to release updated 2016 numbers for the SAT in the fall.
Of the ACT-tested high school graduates this year, 61 percent met the English benchmark of 18 points, which indicates a student is likely ready for a college composition course and would earn a “C” or better grade.
In reading, 44 percent met the 22-point mark that suggests readiness for a college-level social-sciences course. In math, 41 percent met the 22-point threshold that predicts success in an algebra course. And in science, 36 percent reached the 23-point score that predicts success in an entry-level biology course.
But more than one-third — 34 percent — of 2016 grads did not meet any of the four benchmarks. Weeks called that number alarming, an indication those students are likely to struggle with first-year courses and end up in remedial classes that will delay their completion of degrees and increase college costs.
The report showed a wide gulf, by race, in the percentages of graduates hitting three or more of the college-ready benchmarks. Forty-nine percent of white test-takers met the three-or-more benchmark, compared with 11 percent of African-Americans and 23 percent of Hispanics. The gaps haven’t shifted in the past four years.
The testing company says 20 states funded ACT testing for public school students in the 2016 graduating class. They are Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.