Submitted by John Arbeeny.
The devil is in the details.
The OSPI “ACADEMIC AND STUDENT WELL-BEING RECOVERY PLAN: PLANNING GUIDE 2021” alleges to “Transform K–12 education to a system that is centered on closing opportunity gaps and is characterized by high expectations for all students and educators. We achieve this by developing equity-based policies and supports that empower educators, families, and communities.”
Sounds good doesn’t it but there’s that word “equity” which connects this to “Critical Race Theory” (CRT). As with many such “equity policies” what we have is the CRT wolf dressed in equity’s sheep clothing. Don’t believe it? Just take a look at OSPI examples in several school districts excerpted here.
“The Shoreline School District acknowledges that institutional racism exists within public school systems….”
“Those with power are dependent, in part, upon the racial groups they deprive to maintain their standing.”
“Students of color; students with disabilities; English language learners; immigrants and refugees; LGBTQ+ students; and Native American and Alaska Native students have all been negatively impacted by the institution of education.”
“Highline students have experienced significant, measurable, system-wide inequities in achievement due to institutional racism and institutional biases, and a failure to address how race; language; disability; socioeconomic status; country of origin; gender; gender identity and sexual orientation; and the intersectionality of those characteristics impact educational outcomes.”
“……. the recent incidents of violence against Black Americans highlights the systemic bias and institutional racism in our society that has senselessly and atrociously devastated so many Black lives throughout our country’s history;”
” ….this violence, racism, and disregard of human dignity and life reflect and perpetuate a system within which students, families, and staff of color and their families are oppressed and attacked, both through explicit racist actions as well as unconscious bias and microaggressions”
“The Camas School District Board of Directors stands in solidarity with the Black community, in our schools, district, and nation to condemn this violence and the blatant disrespect by some Americans for Black lives – we see it, we hear it, and we are committed to changing the system.”
“The Quincy School District seeks to disrupt and eliminate predictable patterns of inequity based on race, class, culture, ability, gender, sexuality, citizenship, and other group-based identities. Race continues to be the most persistent predictor of student performance.”
Oh OSPI stops short of endorsing these school districts’ racist rants but yet includes them as examples to follow. This is just a taste of the race based, CRT based attempt at “equity”. You have to wonder how long has this been going on that school Boards, Superintendents, administrators and teachers didn’t know or do something about it prior.
Well it hasn’t and they haven’t.
However CRT/equity gives the educational system an “out” on dismal measureable, fact based academic performance, replacing it with indefinable emotionally driven equity training. At the same time our greatest economic threats overseas are out producing us when it comes to educational excellence and an educated population.
But at least some of us will feel good (or bad depending on skin color) about ourselves so that’s something. In the meantime the ship of education will be sinking.
John, interesting discussion on Critical Race Theory, You seem to pooh-pooh the ideas behind the theory and then blame its teachings on other problems as if by teaching CRT, schools are short changing our education systems. You conclude with “At the same time our greatest economic threats overseas are out producing us when it comes to educational excellence and an educated population.” I would beg to differ. I see us being left behind not by explaining CRT, but rather by the high costs of universities and the loans they saddle students with, while most European countries provide free college educations to their students. India has a publicly funded higher education system.
I don’t just “pooh-pooh” the ideas behind Critical Race Theory: I categorically oppose those ideas. CRT is nothing more than warmed over Marxist critical theory which replaces the inevitability of social struggle based on economics with race.
Any time you insert something like CRT into the educational system you deflect emphasis from academic performance and have sown the seeds of its own destruction. We all know how that wonderful experiment called the Soviet Union turned out after 70 years. It collapsed on itself. I don’t want to have to wait for 3 or 4 generations of students and our educational system to suffer through the same fate. CRT or any of its derivatives going by other names as to avoid that label (equity, diversity, inclusion) have no place in an educational system.
As far as our competition goes, college isn’t free in either China or India or Europe contrary to your assertion. Yes the cost for tuition and living can be far less than in the US but that is a reflection of their lower cost of living. One of the reasons college costs are so high in the US is precisely because of the government funding support which inflates the cost of every aspect of a college education. As long as Uncle Sam is willing to throw money at it the cost will go up to accommodate that largess. However there are many scholarships, grants and other funding available in the US if….and only if…..you apply and qualify academically for those awards.
Additionally the acceptance qualifications in China and India and Europe are very competitive, unlike the US where almost anyone with a pulse can get admitted……run up huge student debt…….and then drop out disappointingly because they were never prepared academically to go to college in the first place. That is largely due to the US education system increasingly becoming a diploma mill.
Just take a look at Clover Park High School with English scores of 50%, math and science scores under 18% and you have to wonder how 83%+ can graduate. Do you think those graduating students are prepared for college? In a word NO! But as we’ve seen in campaigns for the Clover Park School Board, Board President Schafer crows about the District’s 89% graduation rate; a meaningless number that covers over an unfortunate secret behind it.
It also doesn’t hurt to mention that the CPEA is CPSD’s branch of the NEA/WEA and they openly supported the implementation of Critical Theory Praxis.
Indeed CRT has nothing to do with the USA being left behind educationally, just like our “great” healthcare system – it’s time for us to look at the education system in a different light as well. I agree the EU and foreign entities subsidize education (and healthcare) thereby taking some of the “for profit” mentality away , or lessening it. If we wish to regain our powerhouse status, we need to look at how we educate and what the cost is, “bang for the buck” so to speak. I see no harm in teaching CRT, tempered with the fact that as a country we have made great progress but still have a ways to go. Teach true history, good and bad.
CRT is more than just teaching “……true history, good and bad”. It is assigning blame or victimhood based on the alleged characteristics of race, on those living today who had nothing to do with that history. The often encountered “institutional” and “systemic” racism in CRT completely ignores the very real and persistent socio-economic issues that create the disparities in education which cannot be addressed by pitting one race against another.
It would be great if we could teach a complete history of all Americans to our children, and let them discuss what happened and make up their own minds. This would be a great opportunity for learning critical thinking. I agree that disparities in education are complex and caused by many factors: cultural, socio-economic, health, etc.
John:
You focus on the core job of education while those who want CRT and other subjects, such as gender and other sensitive topics that belong to parents, drummed into our children much as Hitler, Mao, Stalin and other dictators have done to control their subjects. Public education has become indoctrination not education. The education bureaucracy is simply moving the deck chairs on the Titanic that our public education system has become. Anyone who can find a way to have your children and grandchildren educated in private or charter schools run don’t walk and don’t sacrifice another generation of our young people in a failed system.