Liberal white education gurus are dumbing down academic standards in the name of “equity education,” Catholic League president Bill Donohue wrote Thursday, a practice he says “carries racist undertones.”
The education establishment in places like New York City is bent on lowering standards because “too many educators have given up on black students,” Donohue contends, and instead of helping them clear the bar, “they lower it.”
The image of white racists as red-necked hillbillies does not reflect reality, he argues, since many of those who demonstrate a belief in black intellectual inferiority “wear suits and dresses” and possess graduate degrees.
Moreover, “equity education” is a misnomer, he writes, since it has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with giving up on black students and setting them up for future failure.
Standards of proficiency in math and science, which actually matter in the real world, have been replaced with meaningless diversity and inclusion categories such as “cultural competence,” Donohue notes.
New York City public schools are failing miserably to ensure their students achieve competency in English and math, whereas “black students who attend New York City charter schools outperform black students in traditional New York City public schools by 35 points in math and 23 points in English,” he writes.
Even black leaders like New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman — the founding principal of a New York charter school where black students excelled — are caving to the education establishment, and Bowman now wants to do away with charters, Donohue observes.
What is needed is not more destructive fads like “equity education” but a return to serious academic standards that demonstrate belief in the innate potential of black students and prepare them to succeed in the real world, Donohue suggests.
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