Academia, Politics

Achieving Equity Through Mediocrity: Chicago Moves to Eliminate “High-Achieving” School Programs
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Board of Education are following the lead of other major cities and eliminating gifted school programs in the name of achieving greater racial and social “equity.” Eleven “high-achieving selective-enrollment schools” will be eliminated, according to Chicago Board of Education CEO Pedro Martinez, to reduce “stratification and inequity.” As we have previously discussed, major cities with failing public education programs are erasing performance gaps in their schools by decapitating the top performers rather than elevating the performance overall. Other schools have also eliminated or lowered proficiency standards to achieve higher passage rates.According to the Daily Mail, the Board will vote today on the Mayor’s plan with the support of the president. The Chicago Tribune blasted Johnson in an editorial for reneging on a campaign promise not to abolish the selective schools.President Jianan Shi has portrayed gifted programs as just adding stress by allowing some students to achieve higher levels of education. Shi declared “the goal is […] to change (the) current competition model so that students are not pitted against one another, schools are not pitted against one another.”Some of these targeted schools are among the nation’s top performers, including Walter Payton College Prep (ranked 10th), Northside College Prep (ranked 37th), and Jones College Prep (ranked 60th). However, these schools only highlight the failure of the system overall.One can imagine how thrilled countries like China must be as we decapitate our educational system to bring down both standards and schools to a low median.

As previously discussed, school boards and teacher unions have long treated parents as unwelcome interlopers in their children’s education.

That view was captured in the comment of Iowa school board member Rachel Wall, who said: “The purpose of a public ed is to not teach kids what the parents want. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client is not the parent, but the community.”

State Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Wis.) tweeted: “If parents want to ‘have a say’ in their child’s education, they should home school or pay for private school tuition out of their family budget.”

Parents who question unpopular policies are often treated as extremists.

Michelle Leete, vice president of training at the Virginia PTA and vice president of communications for the Fairfax County PTA, said parents would not force them to reverse their agenda: “Let them die. Don’t let these uncomfortable people deter us from our bold march forward.”

I have been a huge supporter of public schools my whole life. While my parents could afford private schools, they helped form a group to keep white families in the public school system in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. They wanted their kids to be part of a diverse school environment. I also sent my kids to public schools for the same reason. I view our public schools as important parts of our society as we shape future citizens.

Teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. They are force-feeding social and political priorities, including passes for engaging in approved protests.

As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”

Once parents have a choice, these teachers lose a virtual monopoly over many families, and these districts could lose billions in states like Florida.

Chicago is literally telling families of highly competitive students to leave public education or reduce their expectations. For those who can afford it, they must now look to private or religious schools. Most cannot afford such choices and the state has long been hostile to vouchers. Indeed, the state (which has long been dominated by the far-left teachers union) recently became the first state to rollback on vouchers as other states are expanding such programs.

As a proud Chicago native, it is hard to watch what is happening in the city under Johnson and this city council. I still hope that sanity will take hold in the city before they do irreversible damage, but this education plan hastens the decline of one of America’s greatest cities.

 

334 thoughts on “Achieving Equity Through Mediocrity: Chicago Moves to Eliminate “High-Achieving” School Programs”

    1. The link you have has a dead link to the charter schools discussion (not sure what you base your opinion on), here is a active link: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-myth-of-charter-schools/

      That stuff from Diane Ravitch is almost 15-years old, now. Regarding Charter schools, her attempts to dismiss them with weird statements like: “teachers statistically account for around 10–20 percent of achievement outcomes. Teachers are the most important factor within schools (ed. what of the other 80-90%), and “The propagandistic nature of Waiting for “Superman” is revealed by Guggenheim’s complete indifference to the wide variation among charter schools. There are excellent charter schools, just as there are excellent public schools (ed. the problem is that excellent and even mediocre non-charter public schools are the vast minority of them, whereas most of the graft and corruption in charters has been excised, even by 2010 and clearly more so now, and mediocre and better charters are flourishing).”

      Charters have one unique and critical difference, they (most) can get rid of kids, which is what needs to happen in regular public schools. This trope about forcing kids to attend is counter-productive and creates the downward spiral. Try teaching a class of 30 kids with 2-3 kids that should be kicked out, its a disaster from the accounts I have heard from and seen.

  6. “. . . other major cities and eliminating gifted school programs . . .” (JT)

    The Left:

    Topples statues. Defaces paintings. Stops traffic and sporting events. Kneecaps energy production. Parades its deviancy in public. Bowdlerizes the language. Attacks dissenters. Guts free speech. Mutilates a child’s genitals. Corrupts Western institutions (such as the law).

    And now it kills intelligence.

    The Left is a movement of destroyers.

  7. Jonathan: The big Q for some of us on this blog is why you have not addressed the burning issue of the day–whether a president has absolute immunity for criminal prosecution. It’s the most important issue before the courts in recent memory and you have yet to opine. And the clock is ticking because DJT has asserted the immunity in several of his civil and criminal prosecutions that are being heard by the courts right now.

    In the Jan. 6 DC case Judge Chutkan ruled DJT does not have presidential immunity from prosecution. He has appealed that decision to the DC Court of Appeals that is putting the case on a fast track. The Court of Appeals just issued an order scheduling oral arguments for Jan. 9. That’s a rocket sled for this court! In the meantime Jack Smith has leapfrogged to the US SC asking the highest court in a writ of cert. to rule on the issue of presidential immunity. The Supremes seem interested and have asked DJT to respond by Jan. 20.

    Two things can now happen. Either the SC will grant the writ or it will defer to the DC Court of appeals to rule first and then take up the case. If the DC Circuit can act this quickly you know the Supremes can do the same. In Gore v. Bush it only took the SC only 72 hours to rule in favor of Bush. The reason for these expedited appeals is that DJT future is riding in the balance. If the conservative SC rules in favor of DJT, Jack Smith’s DC case goes away. A decision by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals could come within days of the oral arguments.

    A number of constitutional scholars and former prosecutors have already weighed in on the issue. They think DJT is not immune from criminal prosecution for acts “outside the parameters of a president’s official duties”. As one of the preeminent conservative “constitutional scholars” why are you suddenly silent? Maybe it’s because you spend so much time these days beating up on the Biden family. But the train is leaving the station and you are going to left behind if you don’t offer your sage advice on one of the most important constitutional issues of our time!

    2. Dennis McIntyre, Bribery Biden’s Baghdad Bob assigned to this forum, leaps up in totally irrelevant ‘BUBUBUUUTTTT… MUH TRUMP’ outrage:
      “The big Q for some of us on this blog is why you have not addressed the burning issue of the day–whether a president has absolute immunity for criminal prosecution.”

      We know that Baghdad Bob McIntyre wasn’t referring to his boss Bribery Biden, The Big Guy, with that comment.

      Baghdad Bob demands we believe The Big Guy’s continued claims he doesn’t know the customers of The First Son, The Bagman Formerly Known As The Crackhead Kid. The Big Guy doesn’t know about them, doesn’t know who they are, never met ANY of them in the Vice President’s office, never played golf with them, never talked with them on the phone during business meetings to sell America to the ChiComs and Russia.

      And who’s this ‘us’ you refer to, Baghdad Bob McIntyre – you got a mouse in our pocket? Or just another fascistic minded fellow Soviet Democrat apparatchik?

      Police state fascists are identifiable by, among several things, by demanding that those who are obstacles to their communist Great Leap Forward be jailed – while their Dear Leaders be treated to ‘Don’t believe your lying eyes’ while they stuff their pockets with bribes from enemy nations to serve THEIR interests – not America’s

      You’re a pathetic example of the Soviet Democrat cult, Baghdad Bob McIntyre.

    3. Dennis – why do you want Turley’s opinion on this subject? You have access to other legal opinion writers on this subject. You obviously formed an opinion of your own. Are you going to change your opinion? Of course not. You will support any opinion that helps prosecute Trump. You are simply being coy.

  8. Knowledge is Power.
    Ignorance is slavery.
    2023 stealth version of implementing anti-literacy laws.
    Like their beloved genocide, dems aren’t going to give up their slavery so easily either.

  9. ….but this education plan hastens the decline of one of America’s greatest cities.

    I had forgotten about the excellent interview Dr Jordan Peterson did with Camille Paglia just 6 years ago, whereby she explained, per his request, post-modernism. Chicago fits the bill all too well. Paglia is refreshingly brutal in how she articulates Marxism grip in the USA.

  11. Why is it when Generational Flight happens Chaos fills in the Void?

    A generation moved Westward after the collapse of the U.S. Automobile and Steel Industries (Rust Belt),
    and the Void left was filled with Chaos (Chicagoland, et.al.)

    [Link] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt#Background
    [Link] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt#Outcomes

    By Nineteen Eighty (1980) we were all running for our lives. To make (have) a future Life. The paradigm shift of Computer Technology (Tech) helped pull some of the Country out of it. Others lost (Rust Belt)

    US inflation, which peaked at 14.8 percent in March 1980, fell below 3 percent by 1983.[25][3] The Federal Reserve board led by Volcker raised the federal funds rate, which had averaged 11.2% in 1979, to a peak of 20% in June 1981. The prime rate rose to 21.5% in 1981 as well, which helped lead to the 1980–1982 recession,[26] in which the national unemployment rate rose to over 10%. In addition to the rises in key interest rates, the so-called ‘Volcker shock’ included monetarist-inspired policies, such as monetary targeting.

    [Link] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker#Chairman_of_the_Federal_Reserve

    Volcker Shock is coming again in the form of Powell Shock (1.0), The exodus of California is just the start of the Flight.
    The $8 Billion Dollar deficit of Gov. Gavin Newsom is the California Hand-Basket to Hell. We’ll all be running like the Illegal-Immigrants at our Southern Boarder.
    America a World 3.0 (Third World) Country has arrived.

    1. 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐠𝐚 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝 $𝟏𝟓𝟕.𝟑 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 – 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 $𝟓𝟔.𝟕 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝’𝐬 𝐆𝐃𝐏 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫
      At recent Congressional hearings on federal bank regulators’ newly proposed rules to force the largest banks in the U.S. to hold more capital against their riskiest trading positions (so that taxpayers aren’t on the hook for more bailouts), the banks and their sycophants holding Senate and House seats made it sound like it’s the American farmers who will be hurt because the derivatives they use to hedge against crop failures or price swings in their crops will become more expensive..

      We knew this was a completely bogus argument because the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates that “agriculture, food, and related industries contributed roughly $1.264 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021….”
      By: Pam Martens and Russ Martens ~ December 18, 2023
      https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/12/three-wall-street-mega-banks-hold-157-3-trillion-in-derivatives-thats-56-7-trillion-more-than-the-entire-worlds-gdp-last-year/

      1. “At recent Congressional hearings on federal bank regulators’ newly proposed rules to force the largest banks in the U.S. to hold more capital against their riskiest trading positions”

        Why are you posting completely off-topic posts, Anonymous? Protocol on this forum is that I am the only one allowed to do that. Stick to the topic of Turley’s columns and leave the completely off topic posts to me, you inconsiderate jerk.

  12. The irony is that these people think they are equalizing the country (albeit by making everyone equally dumb) but instead are making a new elite class – smart people. Those who can afford it will send their gifted kids to private school where they will get an actual education. These people will be sought out by businesses who want to succeed (do you want to fly in a plane designed by a stupid engineer?). These smart people will eventually run those businesses and the country.

    1. Those who can afford it will send their gifted kids to private school where they will get an actual education.

      I see it a little different. The Bell Curve has the accurate distribution of IQ. You dont have to be gifted to exceed in success.

      This nation was built on work ethic and a societal code of conduct. Both of those traits are evaporating.

  13. Why have six exceptional scholars when you can have twelve mediocre ones. Twelve is always more than six.

  15. WE WERE WARNED!!!!

    Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt literally predicted this kind of thing very publicly in her 1999 book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” and in videoed interviews with her and she was publicly tarred as a lunatic conspiracy theorist quack by everyone that supports the public education system.

    Here’s a couple of quotes from Iserbyt…

    “Anyone interested in the truth will be shocked by the way American social engineers have systematically gone about destroying the intellect of millions of American children for the purpose of leading the American people into a socialist world government controlled by behavioral and social scientist.”

    “The American people are underwriting the destruction of their own freedom and way of life by lavishly financing through federal grants the very social scientist who are undermining out national sovereignty and preparing our children to become the dumbed-down vassals of the new world order. It reminds one of how the Nazis charged their victims train fare to their own doom.”

    “Social engineers use a deliberately created education “crisis” to move their agenda forward by offering radical reforms that are sold to the public as fixing the crisis – which they never do. These new reforms simply set the stage for he next crisis, which provides the pretext for the next move forward. This is the dialectical process at work, a process our behavior engineers have learned to use very effectively. Its success depends on the ability of the “change agents” to continually deceive the public which tends to believe anything the experts tell them.”

    There has been a “gradual transformation of our once academically successful education system into one devoted to training children to become compliant human resources to be used by government and industry for their own purposes. This is how fascist-socialist societies train their children to become servants of their government masters. The successful implementation of this new philosophy of education will spell the end of the American dream of individual freedom and opportunity.”

    There are a lot more related quotes out there.

  16. They are promoting an entire generation of low education children. How do they expect any of those children to get out of poverty if they take the tools away from them? This is a great dis-service to these children, all but guaranteeing them to life long poverty.

    1. You of all people might enjoy the following interview of Camille Paglia on C-Span 1998.

      Camille Paglia, a Democrat, a tenured faculty professor, was prophetic, as an atheist lesbian, in characterizing our present world. Worth watching in its entirety especially as she handles callers to C-Span, some not to friendly. She handled them with elegance, poise and went for their jugular. If you don’t have the time to watch the entire C-Span interview, start @13:50 where she addresses the dismal educational system in America in the 1990s.

      If I were a lesbian I would like to be like Camille!

      Camille Paglia: “I’m not a conservative at all. I am an atheist but I believe very strongly that religion needs to be honored much more in education and in the world. Because certainly the kind of philosophy that’s coming out of the schools which is a kind of nihilistic post-structuralism which believes there is no truth there is no meaning in existence that nature doesn’t exist history’s history doesn’t exist. I think that there are kids at these elite schools who are going to be the the future leaders of the professions and in politics and in law and so on that they have nothing. There’s a nothingness at the heart of American culture. When parents haven’t given any kind of spiritual guidance, there is no religion even to rebel against in the home. And then they go to university and are taught to question everything and to end to adopt opposed a fashionable chic irony okay about life. It’s a disaster. So I in general I support this idea that that there should be a moment in the school day which some people may use for silent prayer others may use for simple meditation. I think that there’s nothing, there’s nothing wrong with that – to remind people that the universe is much bigger than the individual self.”

      C-Span: “but you’re an atheist”

      Camille Paglia: “I am an atheist but I respect religion enormously. I come out of a very vibrant Italian Catholic heritage. I believe the great religions of the world contain an enormous amount of truth about the meaning of the universe”

      1. “to remind people that the universe is much bigger than the individual self.”

        That is, in part, the recognition of Godliness.

  17. Jonathan: Scapegoating seems the theme of your column. You falsely compare the CPS move to do away from “high-achieving selective” enrollment schools to China’s education system: “One can imagine how thrilled countries like China must be as we decapitate our educations (sic) systems to bring down both standards to a low median”. Another illustration of how you try to weaponize an issue to serve your political purposes.

    I am no authority on public education. However, I do recall that in middle school the school district decided to create an “Advanced Placement Program”. An APP class was introduced at my school. Teachers chose the students for the class. I was one chosen. The APP class was composed almost exclusively White students–although the school population was one-third Black and Asian. That’s where I first experienced White privilege. Are these the kinds of “gifted and talented programs” you think need to be preserved?

    The fundamental problem in this country is that public education in underfunded by the federal government. That means states are the primary source for funding public education. And there is a huge disparity in what the states spend. Per pupil spending in NY is about $30,000. In the former Confederate states per pupil spending ranges between about $12 and $14,000. In Arizona and Idaho they spend only between $8 and $9,000 per pupil. It is no coincidence that in states with the lowest per pupil spending they are controlled by the GOP. The Q is who really cares about public education? Something you apparently don’t want to address.

    Then there is the problem of “White flight” from the public schools. In Chicago 30,000 students fled the public schools this year for private, religious or charter schools. I suspect most were White children from wealthier families who can afford the added cost. This doesn’t solve the problem. It makes it worse in terms of racial disparity in public education. White students who leave reduces per pupil spending in minority school districts.

    I applaud the CPS for wanting to address the issue of racial inequity in Chicago’s public schools–to respond with “anti-racist processes and initiatives that eliminate all forms of racial oppression”. But instead of offering a constructive solution you scapegoat–blaming the “far-left teachers union”. That’s hardly the way to guarantee that every public school student in Chicago gets a quality education to which they are entitled!

    1. “The fundamental problem in this country is that public education in underfunded by the federal government.”

      Wrong. There is zero correlation between spending and student achievement. Show me data from anywhere where they spent more money and then outcomes went up. Then look-up some notables where they did spend more and nothing happened, like KCMO and Newark.

      The only racial oppression is perpetrated by black parents on their black kids and black-run governments on their majority black districts. Oh, and of course affirmative action and the institutional oppression of whites and asians, but we shall overcome…

      Aside: is dennis a chatgps account? Reads like it

      1. I’ll bet a higher percentage of 18 year olds in Arizona and Idaho can make change for a dollar, than in Chicago, NYC, DC, or LA.
        Education begins with the Parents, schools are only a supplement to prepare for getting a productive job.

      2. is dennis a chatgps account?

        The Media Matters paid trolls like Dennis (Svelaz, Gigi, Bob, Wally, brandrunner902cbad416, Elvis bug, Justice Holmes, YNOT, etc, all one and the same troll) follow to the letter the playbook written by Saul Alinsky. They are not here for dialogue nor for entertaining opposing views. They are here to promote one view and one view alone, as stated in Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals:

        The Rules for Radicals – Saul Alinksy

        “Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.”
        “Never go outside the expertise of your people.”
        “Whenever possible go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
        “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
        “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”
        “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”
        “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
        “Keep the pressure on.”
        “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
        “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.”
        “If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.”
        “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
        “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals

        Every time the troll mentions my avatar name so as to lump every other commenter on here as being me, he is following the above set of rules. Ditto for everything “Dennis” posts. When it doubt about what the trolls post, consult with Saul Alinsky.

        1. Their stupidity has the opposite effect on me, it simply reaffirms my opinion that the left has very very very little to offer anyone that isn’t a political operative (read crook).

    2. The fundamental problem in this country is that public education in underfunded by the federal government.

      Dennis when are going to start doing your own thinking? Are you really this retarded. You believe this crap?
      Besides the Constitutional problem of the Federal Govt having to power to engage in education, There are mountains of evidence that proves exactly the opposite.

      Zuckerbucks failed
      “We’re setting up a $100 million challenge grant,” he told Oprah, sitting alongside New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker,

      $100 million wasted. Not a hint of movement in scores.

      There are dozens of stories out there offering opinions as to why the money failed. Go read those stories. Stop believing in leftist talking points, Even retards can figure out eventually they are being lied to.

      1. Iowan2: Have you heard about the US Dept. of Education? It was established in 1867 to help the states set up school systems. The current Dept. was established in 1980 by Congress under constitutional authority. Don’t recall any challenges indicating the Dept. was not properly constituted. So please provide those “mountains of evidence” you claim to the contrary. Otherwise, I must conclude you are the “retard” and also full of “crap”. No doubt if DJT is re-elected he will either try to abolish the Dept. or gut it. Is that a prospect you look forward to?

        1. it must be upsetting for you that Youtube is deleting your closeup performance video in the Senate building where you got your 🍑 plugged. What will you do next for the attention you desperately seek? lines of crack on Hunter’s 🍆?

          🤣🤣

        4. No doubt if DJT is re-elected he will either try to abolish the Dept

          It is impossible to have education perform worse that what the federal govt has accomplished.

          LBJ in his Great Society bill promised the United States was going to have the best education system in the world. Education has been in a death march since that declaration.

          Show your work? Show is how the highest per pupil spending in Washington
          DC is producing the best graduates. The elited in DC, including the Teachers in the DC schools send their kids to Private Schools.

          If you did more that post talking points delivered to you, you would know better.

    3. Sounds like you are claiming that you weren’t actually that smart and only got into the class because of white privilege.

      The schools they are looking to close aren’t all white and actually hurts all students by placing them in underperforming schools where they will not be as challenged or successful, hurting their chances of getting into a good college

      Why force kids to remain in underperforming schools. There are plenty public charter schools that are still part of the public school funding pool. If a school loses funding due to an outflow of students, that proves there is a problem with the school

  18. The urban voters of America have voted for civilizational suicide. So many cities are now run by “progressive” leaders, and those cities are disintegrating under that leadership. Can anyone name a single good thing to come out of progressive leadership of American cities?

  19. It increasingly looks like the School Board in Chicago, like many School Boards across the United States, are absolving teachers of any accountability for declining test results of their students. Just blame the parents. No responsibility ? No problem…..

  20. American must be the only developed country on earth that is determined to adversely view meritocracy in academic achievement while glorifying meritocracy in sports and popular entertainment. This nation is doomed. Promotion of star basketball players will do a whole lot for future economic competition in high technology, life sciences, and engineering with China and the rest of the world! These people are pure evil and no less a threat than our worst adversaries.

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