Education Equity failure. Who didn't see this coming?
The push for “equity” in education often means pulling kids downward rather than pushing others up. That’s because it’s a lot easier to put everyone on even ground by tearing down. Building people up is hard.
That’s true in most aspects of the universe, but especially in education.
One victim of the equity push has been gifted education. There were a lot of reasons cited, but they all revolved around equity. Not universally, mind you—some school systems weren’t that stupid—but in many places.
But the problem is that the people most hurt by this? It’s not the rich white kids.
Michelle Barmazel and Karen Blumstein, co-presidents of the Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education (MAGE), speculate that same fear might also be behind their state's reluctance to offer more gifted programs. Blumstein, for one, told the Boston Globe that Northeastern states in particular are concerned that such programs would seem "elitist."
Speaking to Fox News Digital during a recent interview, she said equity concerns are not only baseless, but they also conflict with reality for many families who belong to underprivileged groups.
"That idea that it's elitist cannot be further from the truth because, if we are providing gifted programming in our public schools, then we are systemically providing access to all students, no matter their zip code, no matter their socioeconomic status, no matter their racial background, whether or not they're immigrants or an English language speaker. It would systematically provide opportunity," she said.
Barmazael agreed, homing in on children and families who belong to certain racial demographics, namely African Americans and Hispanic Americans, as she added, "By not providing it in the schools, we are basically creating a huge equity chasm, and leaving it to only those people who have deep pockets to supplement their kids, to stay in the upper echelons."
What the education equity crowd doesn’t seem to get and never seem to get is that the wealthy will always have an advantage. They can afford the things that allow their kids to have an edge.
They can, for example, provide their kids with preparation for the SAT or ACT. Remove that requirement and they can pivot to making sure their kids have extra help writing their admission essays and maintaining good grades.
Kill gifted programs and they just start providing that kind of thing via other means.
And really, who is surprised? I’d have done the same for my oldest if I had the means. I think most of us would. Wanting your kids to have better than you is a natural part of being a parent.
Removing it from public schools doesn’t exactly make the disparity disappear. The wealthier families have the ability to seek it out elsewhere. You’re never going to change that.
But the irony is that one thing that could help is school choice programs.
Vouchers that allow parents to send their kids to schools that meet their needs—including the needs of particularly bright students stuck in struggling schools—would negate much of that advantage.
That won’t happen in pretty much any state where education equity is a significant threat.
Those are states where the teachers’ unions have a firm hold on education, after all, and they love them some public schools. They think of them as some sacred cow that cannot be touched. The powers that be send their own kids to private schools, but they want to force everyone else to use public schools, even if that isn’t the most efficient use of taxpayer money.
School choice is blasphemy in those places. They’d rather let kids struggle and suffer in bad school districts than put a plan in place that allows a choice in the matter.
Because education equity isn’t about education. It’s about scoring political points and making sure everyone knows you think the correct way.
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