As an old man, I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea that schools don’t encourage excellence in students and fail to recognize merit and achievement in individual students.
Somehow when I wasn’t paying attention, these beautiful concepts upon which American public education thrived for more than 100 years became an adjunct to systemic racism and white supremacy.
It blows my mind that such creatures who run our school systems would hold some students back because other students don’t apply themselves with the same energy, have parents who aren’t as encouraging, or are distracted by other pursuits — all in the name of “equity.”
If we’re concerned about “equity,” why not cripple all children so that kids who are unable to walk for any reason are able to achieve equal outcomes with the able-bodied? Yes, it’s that ludicrous. And how this concept was able to invade our schools is a mystery.
Baltimore County schools are losing 75% of their funding for the gifted and talented children program. “Budget cuts,” says the superintendent. But as Jazz Shaw at Hot Air points out, parents should be asking themselves, are these cuts really necessary?
So what’s really going on here? The Public Schools Superintendent who proposed the budget is saying that the change would produce “savings” for the school system. That may be true, but his report also cites a 2020 study saying that Black and Hispanic students are “underrepresented” in the program.
It’s not as if the Baltimore County Public Schools have seen their budget decrease significantly. Unlike many other urban school districts, Baltimore County only saw a net decrease of 49 students from 2021 to 2022. So their tax revenue should be nearly flat, not requiring such a significant cut to the successful program.
As the pushback against “equity” education grows, schools feel they have to hide their activism to prevent parents from finding out. And, as Jazz points out, the hugely discredited concept of “equality of outcomes” is the goal.
This truly looks like yet another example of the war on merit. What passes for “equity” in many of our cities today is a thinly veiled desire for a system that strives for equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. If some students, particularly those coming from politically favored demographic groups, aren’t doing as well as others, you might expect the schools to work harder to bring everyone up to peak performance. But instead, they seem to be leaning toward dragging the top performers down to an “equal” level of mediocrity.
Teachers will say, “Well, look what I’ve got to deal with. Disruptive kids, huge class sizes, horrible primary education where kids come to high schools that can barely read. Better to make everyone’s educational experience equal and besides, white supremacy… systemic racism…”
Parents who can afford it take their kids out of those hellholes and put them in private schools where excellence is still celebrated, encouraged, and coddled. But for how long? Colleges and universities are being infected with the equity virus, and it won’t be long until the fight over college standards will dominate decisions on what school your college-age kid should attend.
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