Even in Madison: Limits to Political Correctness

Hat tip to Mark Kapocius for this:

An editorial in the Wisconsin State Journal complains about how the school board, wanting to give a contract to a minority bus company, risked the safety of school children:

Political correctness is costing the Madison School Board dearly.

The School Board wanted so badly to award a contract to a small, local, minority-owned bus company last year that it rejected the advice of staff, who had painstakingly analyzed a handful of prospective vendors.

Instead of awarding bus contracts to the companies with the best overall proposals, the School Board directed staff to reconsider smaller companies — including minority-owned Mr. Mom’s — using narrower criteria.

In the process, School Board members downplayed safety and other concerns, which have come back to haunt them.

The editorial goes on to recite a long list of problems affecting this particular company, including “failing to check drivers for criminal records or drug use” and “operating a bus with brakes that failed while driving students on a field trip.”

Kapocius notes: “ostensibly, diversity and set-asides are okay when dealing with innocuous issues such as faculty hiring and admissions practices, but not when driving kids to school.”