Institutionalized Educational Prejudice

Large metropolitan areas in California, especially along the coast, make up a majority of the population, and those voters are traditionally much more liberal than the remainder of the state. That assertion is easily confirmed by an examination of political party voting patterns. Thus, liberalism dominates California politics to such an extent that California is often referred to as the People’s Republic of California. The liberal agenda is well demonstrated in the administration of the failing public education system.

In the U.S., English and math skills are accepted objective criteria to measure the educational competency of students. And accordingly, individual schools are rated based upon the aggregate competency of its students. Please note that multiculturalism, diversity, tolerance, sex education, social responsibility, leftist politics, and gay and lesbian accomplishments are not included in the objective measurements. The latter subject matter was just approved by the California Senate. Whether the requirement to specifically include homosexual contributions in history text books survives the rest of the legislative process remains to be seen. Significantly, no California Republican lawmaker voted for the proposed law. What does that tell you about Democrats?

Several years ago, Californians did authorize a law requiring that high school seniors must pass a standardized exit exam in order to receive a high school diploma. That law is set to go into effect this year. Predictably, parents of students who are failing the exit exam test have sued claiming discrimination. See my post, “High School Exit Exams.”

Now it seems that the California State Board of Education has recognized that their plans to improve the educational competency of students have failed. That recognition highlights liberal prejudice and an acknowledgement of the futility of expecting the educational system to reverse the corrosive effects of the socialized entitlement environment from which lower achieving students hail. Unlike Pres. George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program that requires all students to meet grade-level proficiency, the California State Board of Education set-up a system which required whites to meet a higher educational standard than other enumerated racial, English learner, and lower socio-economic subgroups.

In California, the recognized student subgroups are: black, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Filipino, Hispanic or Latino, Pacific Islander, White, English learner, socio-economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities.

… students who make up a significant subgroup such as black or English-as-a-second-language students only had to meet 80 percent of the goal set for their white peers.

The California State Board of Education is now scrapping their program, which blatantly prejudges individuals in the enumerated subgroups. That program told those individuals, and the world, that they are not capable of competing on a level field with moderate and upper socio-economic whites. Good intentions not withstanding, the liberal pandering and emoting is nothing more than elitist prejudice leading to balkanization and disengagement by the enumerated subgroups. I’m glad to see that the Board of Education is waking up to at least their failure, even if they don’t recognize their prejudice.