Goldstein’s “illiterate” thoughts on literacy in 11th District

BEACHWOOD, OH – Russian American Beverly Goldstein completely missed how the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) defines “literacy” when she and her Russian American husband, attorney Michael Goldstein, claimed 66 percent of Cleveland’s adults are “illiterate” and “can’t read.”  Had either Goldstein read how “literacy” is measured by the federal government she’s seeking a seat in the U.S. Congress to write, amend, repeal and vote on legislation both would have known their comments were “illiterate.”  

U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge chose not to respond to Goldstein’s disrespectful comments because she knows the USDOE measures three types of literacy in adults between the ages of 16 and 65 based on school enrollment at all levels, test scores and academic attainments.   

The three literacy types are prose, document and quantitative.  The three literacy definitions below were cut and pasted as written from the USDOE’s website.

“Prose literacy refers to the knowledge and skills needed to search, comprehend, and use information from continuous texts. Adults at the Below Basic level, rated 0 to 209, range from being nonliterate in English to being able to locate easily identifiable information in short, commonplace prose texts.

Document literacy refers to the knowledge and skills needed to search, comprehend, and use information from noncontinuous texts in various formats. Adults at the Below Basic level, rated 0 to 204, range from being nonliterate in English to being able to locate easily identifiable information and follow instructions in simple documents (e.g., charts or forms).

Quantitative literacy refers to the knowledge and skills required to identify and perform computations, either alone or sequentially, using numbers embedded in printed materials. Adults at the Below Basic level, rated 0 to 234, range from being nonliterate in English to being able to locate numbers and use them to perform simple quantitative operations (primarily addition) when the mathematical information is very concrete and familiar. At the Basic level, rated 235 to 289, adults are able to locate easily identifiable quantitative information and use it to solve simple, one-step problems when the arithmetic operation is specified or easily inferred.”

The Goldstein’s have interestingly inserted images of black 11th Congressional District residents into her campaign.   The approach she’s taken in her discussions with and about black “inner city” residents is that of a “I know what’s best for for black people liberal Jew,” although she claims to be a Donald Trump conservative.

Goldstein tweeted on September 26th after the Cuyahoga county council voted to allow transgender people to use public restrooms that matched their gender identity.  She blamed the outcome on the lack of “LITERATE inner-city church-attending Black voters.”  Goldstein observed that only 66 percent of inner city Cleveland was literate.

The USDOE’s statistics on US literacy just for black citizens of the USA shines even more light on the illiteracy of Goldstein’s comments.  

Black people or the Descendants of Slaves were impacted by laws that made it illegal to teach them literacy skills. In Ohio the general assembly in 1802 enacted “black codes” to restrict opportunities to free blacks. After the end of the Civil War in 1865 President Abraham Lincoln sought to completely empower freed Slaves as citizens, but was prevented by an assassination. The USDOE graph shows the percentage of black people who could not read or write in any language from after the Civil War until 1979. There’s no truth whatsoever to the illiterate Goldstein’s comments that inner city Cleveland residents, where whites are the minorities, can’t read.

Historically, black people or the Descendants of Slaves were impacted by laws that made it illegal to teach them literacy skills.  The modern day contrast is in Israel’s treatment of Ethiopians and Sudanese immigrants.  They refuse to allow them to be educated; and in May 2012 tried to burn them out of their homes and businesses.

Neither Goldstein’s Russian ancestors were in Ohiowhen the general assembly in 1802 enacted “black codes” to restrict opportunities to free blacks.   After the end of the Civil War in 1865 President Abraham Lincoln sought to completely empower freed Slaves as citizens, but was prevented by an assassination.  But even before and after the Civil War the percentage of black literate citizens was growing.

U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge chose not to get into a battle with opponent Beverly Goldstein over the illiterate comments she made about black literacy in the city of Cleveland. Unlike her opponent, Fudge has actually read USDOE literacy reports.

The graph shows the percentage of freed Slaves and their descendants who could not read, write or compute in any language between 1870 and 1979.  Even at the close of slavery in 1865 the percentage of literate Slaves was nearly 21 percent.  Each decade after slavery the percentage of literate blacks grew until there were only 1.6 percent of black people in the entire nation who could not read, write or compute in any language by 1979.

Goldstein has attained the educational level of PhD or “doctor of philosophy” in “audiology.”  In her area of knowledge she’s “trained to diagnose, manage and treat hearing or balance problems for individuals from birth through adulthood.”  That’s the “audiology.org” definition.  

But what it appears from her and Michael’s published “literacy” comments is that neither demonstrated “document literacy” when they failed to search, comprehend, and use information from noncontinuous texts in various formats” to come up with commercials about literacy. 

What the video and visual messages Goldstein created and shared demonstrates only her illiterate Russian understanding of what the word “literate” means in academic terms.  

Eric Jonathan Brewer

Cleveland's most influential journalist and East Cleveland's most successful mayor is an East Saint Louis, Illinois native whose father led the city's petition drive in 1969 to elect the first black mayor in 1971. Eric is an old-school investigative reporter whose 40-year body of editorial work has been demonstrably effective. No local journalist is feared or respected more.

Trained in newspaper publishing by the legendary Call & Post Publisher William Otis Walker in 1978 when it was the nation's 5th largest Black-owned publication, Eric has published and edited 13 local, regional and statewide publications across Ohio. Adding to his publishing and reporting resume is Eric's career in government. Eric served as the city's highest paid part-time Special Assistant to ex-Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White. He served as Chief of Staff to ex-East Cleveland Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor; and Chief of Communications to the late George James in his capacity as the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's first Black executive director. Eric was appointed to serve as a member of the state's Financial Planning & Supervision Commission to guide the East Cleveland school district out of fiscal emergency and $20 million deficit. Former U.S. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson told Eric in his D.C. office he was the only mayor in the nation simultaneously-managing a municipal block grant program. Eric wrote the city's $2.2 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant application. A HUD Inspector General audit of his management of the block grant program resulted in "zero" audit findings.

As a newspaper publisher, Eric has used his insider's detailed knowledge of government and his publications to lead the FBI and state prosecutors to investigations that resulted in criminal prosecutions of well-known elected officials in Ohio; and have helped realign Cleveland's political landscape with the defeat of candidates and issues he's exposed. Eric's stories led to the indictments of the late Governor George Voinovich's brother, Paul Voinovich of the V Group, and four associates. He asked the FBI to investigate the mayor he'd served as chief of staff for public corruption; and testified in three federal trials for the prosecution. He forced former Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj to admit her investigations of police killings were fraudulent; and to issue notices to local police that her investigators would control police killing investigations. Eric's current work has resulted in Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo accepting the criminal complaint he guided an activist to file against 24 civil rights-violating police officers in the city he once led for operating without valid peace officer credentials. USA Today reporters picked up on Eric's police credentials reporting from his social media page and made it national.

Eric is the author of of his first book, "Fight Police License Plate Spying," which examines the FBI and local police misuse of the National Crime Information Center criminal records history database. An accomplished trumpet player and singer whose friendship with Duke Fakir of the Four Tops resulted in his singing the show's closing song, "Can't Help Myself": Curtis Sliwa of New York's Guardian Angels counts Eric among his founding chapter leaders from the early 1980's role as an Ohio organizer of over 300 volunteer crime fighters in Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown, Ohio. For his work as a young man Eric was recognized by Cleveland's Urban League as it's 1983 Young Man of the Year.

Known in Cleveland for his encyclopedic knowledge of government and history, and intimately-connected with the region's players, every local major media outlet in Cleveland has picked up on one of Eric's stories since 1979. There is no mainstream newspaper, television or radio outlet in Cleveland that does not include an interview with Eric Jonathan Brewer in its archives over the past 40 years.

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