by Frank Holmes, reporter
Schools in Democrat-controlled states have unveiled their latest policy to advance “equity,” and it has parents shaking their heads—and their fists—in response.
Public high schools across the country have announced they will stop letting the most advanced students take honors classes…because it discriminates against less intelligent students.
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Honors classes in subjects from English and Math to History and Social Studies usually teach the same material as the regular classes, but they go faster, in greater depth, and students do harder assignments modeled to their abilities.
That’s not fair to students who can’t do the work, government-school administrators — nearly all of whom belong to teachers unions like the NEA and AFT — say.
The latest school to announce the move is picturesque Culver City, California. The Culver City Unified School District announced, from now now, students of every talent and ability will study in the same classroom, at the same pace.
They call it the “heterogeneous classroom,” because people of all intellectual abilities study together…but parents say that will only slow down the pace and keep the most talented children from developing to their full potential.
“The political dogma behind this is the belief that honors and advanced placement courses, as well as proficiency tests, are a form of ‘segregation’ and ‘oppression’ by white culture entrenched in our schools because, according to their statistics, it is often students of color who are under-represented in these advanced programs,” wrote Kevin Connelly at the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR).
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“This is applied critical race theory,” he added,
Liberals say this model will open up opportunities for children who are not gifted to do their best. One Culver City officials said children who got tracked into lower classes felt like they were “unable to break out of the molds that they established when they were 11.”
The administrator didn’t explain why the student couldn’t study harder and get better grades.
“We really feel equity means offering opportunities to students of diverse backgrounds, not taking away opportunities for advanced education and study,” said a concerned parent in Culver City, Joanna Schaenman.
Statistics show, their plans make things worse for minorities. In 1980, New York’s most intensive high school, Stuyvesant, had 200 black students; by 2018, it was less than 40. Fewer and fewer of the Big Apple’s black and Latino students now pass the Specialized High School Admissions Test, which opens the doors to the city’s best high schools.
“No more honors programs meant a curriculum well below what some students were capable of. It meant fewer complex texts to analyze and no algebra in middle school,” wrote Alina Adams, a New York Times bestselling author who frequently writes on education topics.
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“Mastery of both is vital to success on the high school admissions test — but students were no longer being taught what they needed to know to pass it.”
If public schools don’t care about helping minorities, why are they doing it?
Their real focus seems to be “equity.” Administrators seem interested in bringing some minorities down a peg.
Culver City school decision-makers were apparently frightened and angry when a presentation revealed that Asian students make up 10 percent of the CUSD school body but 34 percent of the advanced classes.
After a fresh batch of equity-based indoctrination, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District said they had “a moral imperative” to wipe out honors class opportunities for all students.
Patrick Henry High School in San Diego did the same last year, without parents feedback or even prior knowledge.
What’s worse, it’s not just California. Outraged parents from coast to coast have watched in horror as high schools ripped away the classes, which help their children earn scholarships or get admitted to a good college.
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Barrington schools in Rhode Island told parents they were canceling all honors classes last March, but they backed down a little: They let students get an “honors distinction” even though they’re taking the same classes as everyone else. It’s sort of an honors class participation trophy.
Parents eked out a win in Madison, Wisconsin, where Woke administrators spent most of last year pushing the issue.
Parents who want advanced students to have advanced classes have a “racist attitude,” said Superintendent Carlton Jenkins. “We are no longer going to uphold what is considered to be a segregated mentality.”
They finally brought the proposal to abolish honors classes up for a vote in the far-Left university town last December, but it failed. The school board voted to expand the honors distinction program but keep separate honors courses.
Instead of pulling down the top students, schools in blue cities might want to try teaching children who aren’t learning. More than two-thirds of all fourth graders in America failed to read at grade level—up two points since the pandemic, according to figures from theNational Assessment of Educational Progress. “From 2019 to 2022, 42 states and Washington, D.C., saw increases in the share of fourth-graders scoring below proficient in reading, with 29 states seeing jumps greater than two percentage points,” reports KidsCount.com.
Last year in 55 Chicago public schools, not a single kid knew reading or math at their grade level, according to a Wirepoints report.
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With numbers like these, why are left-wing public officials focused on grinding down smart children, who would be capable of thinking for themselves?
Parents from Communist countries say the whole plan sounds too familiar.
“I was born in Cuba,” said Culver City parent Pedro Frigola, who opposes wiping out honors classes. “And it doesn’t sound good when people are trying to achieve equal outcomes for everyone.”
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”