The Perpetuation of Racial Inequality in Schools

     As has been mentioned before, one of the core problems with Affirmative Action is that it does not actually address the cause of unequal outcomes when it comes to race.

     The dark side of this is that it assumes that some kids are assumed to be incapable of achieving anything because of their race. Perhaps even more troubling, than the “equality of dunces” is purposefully writing off whole segments of America’s youth because they are part of a low-scoring ethnic/racial group. Florida, for example, has endorsed racially based academic goals:

“[T]he board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent.”

     Virginia has also set disparate standards based on race:

“In math it set an acceptable passing rate at 82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities.”

     There is simply no excuse for that. Public schools have a moral obligation to teach ALL students and provide the tools for ALL students to achieve their maximum potential. Regardless of whether one believe that black and Hispanic children are doing poorly due to racism, due to other social factors, or due to the failure of the schools themselves, simply lowering standards for these kids does not address the root cause of why so many kids of one racial/ethnic group are statistically doing worse than other kids.

     The only possible excuse for these actions is that the proponents of this truly institutional discrimination firmly believe that it is society that is racist and evil, and that by simply achieving a superficial equality of outcome, then “equality” will be created, and everything will work out fine. This “solution,” though, has been tried for decades without true and lasting success. In fact, Affirmative Action policies may actually end up furthering segregation

     By passing students who otherwise could not pass, the students are robbed of a chance to actually learn and equip themselves with the tools they can use to get ahead. Fed through the system, the students are left less equipped to take on the modern world and be less likely to get ahead than those who had to meat stricter standards. Thus, racial inequality is perpetuated, ironically, by the system that was designed to end it.

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