Equity = Racism

This is a lengthy post addressing the notion of 'equity' that, IMO, is a code word for reverse discrimination. It does so in the context of changes in school discipline policies mandated by the obama administration. If you don't feel like reading the whole thing I've highlighted key points.

Since this is such a controversial topic, let's start off with what's sure to be a controversial headline.

Obama Orders State-Sanctioned Racism In Minn. Schools

Ending a two-year probe by Education Department’s office for civil rights, Minneapolis has agreed to stop suspending black students for infractions that would still get whites suspended.

Every suspension of an African American must now be reviewed by the superintendent, according to the federal agreement.

Instead of being punished, unruly black kids will be put into “restorative talking circles,” where teachers will examine their own “cultural misunderstandings.”

In other words, it's the teachers' fault that black kids misbehave.

White kids who act up won’t get off so easy.

If you think that sounds a bit racist, you’re not alone. Like most urban school districts, MPS suspends blacks at a higher rate than whites due to the fact black students commit a disproportionately high share of campus crimes.

But the Obama regime, which sees racism behind every corner, blames biased teachers and administrators for the disparity...

Minneapolis is just the latest target of the regime’s war on school discipline. The Education Department has aggressively investigated several other major school districts across the country for what it thinks are too many suspensions of black students.

They too have “reformed” their discipline codes to get the race-baiting educrats off their backs and safeguard their federal funding.

Take San Diego. Just weeks after adopting similar racial discipline quotas, San Diego public schools have witnessed an explosion of violent assaults.

At its premier charter school, Lincoln High, students report daily fights now, mostly involving black kids. In the past month, there have been several arrests, including one involving a butcher knife, according to local reports. Victims have been hauled off by ambulance.

This result mirrors spikes in student crime in Los Angeles after the school superintendent followed federal orders to reduce suspensions of African-Americans.

Violence is still a problem in Oakland, Calif., schools after officials substituted counseling for suspensions on similar orders from the Obama regime.

If you think Obama is a lame duck and that his executive actions are meaningless, think again. His policies have dangerous consequences.

More:

... the escalating violence and disorder (in St. Paul MN public schools) follow a major change in school disciplinary policies. In recent years, district leaders have increasingly removed consequences for misbehavior, and led kids to believe they can wreak havoc with impunity.

In the words of one teacher: “We have a segment of kids who consider themselves untouchable.”

Why have St. Paul district leaders embraced such a head-scratching approach to school discipline? Most parents will tell you that if you eliminate consequences for kids’ bad behavior, you can expect a lot more of it.

But we’re not talking about common sense here. We’re talking about a powerful ideology ... the notion of “equity” — a buzzword that is rapidly becoming the all-purpose justification for dubious policies not only in education but in many public arenas.

Equity, in today’s “newspeak,” is not about fairness — that is, the same rules for everyone. It means quite the opposite. The equity crusade regards people — not as individuals responsible for their own conduct — but, first and foremost, as members of racial and ethnic groups. If one group’s outcomes on social measures are not identical to all of the others’, the cause is presumed to be discrimination and the proper response to be government policies designed to ensure equal statistical results.

That, in a nutshell, is the root cause of so many of society's ills today - the notion that racial and ethnic groups are composed not of individuals each responsible for his or her actions, but rather a homogeneous collection of people who are treated unfairly in one way or another by ... someone.

The dilemma for St. Paul Public Schools leaders is that the district’s black students are proportionately disciplined and suspended at much higher rates than students of other racial groups.

For years, St. Paul school leaders have assumed — as equity ideology dictates — that differences in discipline rates are the result, not of higher rates of misconduct by black students, but of the racism of teachers and administrators, who are believed to unfairly target black students.

Since 2010, the district has spent almost $2 million on “white privilege” and “cultural competency” training for teachers. In addition, it has shelled out millions of dollars for “positive behavior” training, an anti-suspension behavior modification program.

Despite these efforts, the district’s racial discipline gap has remained stubbornly wide. So several years ago, St. Paul school leaders adopted what must have seemed a foolproof way to eliminate statistical disparities. They lowered behavior standards and, in many cases, essentially abandoned meaningful penalties.

It's not just the St. Paul schools, or even public education in general. Lower standards and lack of penalties are becoming the norm in just about every facet of American life.

District leaders have repeatedly denied that the escalating violence and disorder are connected with disciplinary changes. But Dave Titus, president of the St. Paul Police Federation, rejects this as “ridiculous”: “The policies that this district leadership are working under — their system on dealing with misbehavior and criminal behavior — have clearly, clearly failed,” he told the Pioneer Press.

Where is this “equity” mantra — the notion that we must equalize racial discipline rates even if it means eliminating behavior standards — coming from? The Obama administration has made it a centerpiece of education policy. Longtime Education Secretary Arne Duncan made clear that his department considered racial differences in discipline rates “simply unacceptable” and a violation of “the principle of equity.”

But wait. The Obama administration’s data reveal that white boys’ suspension rate is more than twice that of Asian and Pacific Islander boys. If you follow “equity” logic, this must be because teachers are prejudiced against white boys. But isn’t it more likely that white boys’ rate is higher because they misbehave more often than their Asian peers?

That appears to be the case with black students — their discipline rate is higher than other students’ because, on average, they misbehave more. In fact, a major 2014 study in the Journal of Criminal Justice found that the racial gap in suspensions is “completely accounted for by a measure of the prior problem behavior of the student.”

That problem behavior can manifest itself in other ways. Nationally, for example, young black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at 10 times the rate of white and Hispanics of the same ages combined.

Why such a gap? A primary reason is likely dramatic differences in family structure... nationally, 71 percent of black children are born out of wedlock — with the rate much higher in many inner cities — while the rate for whites is 29 percent. Research reveals that children from fatherless families are far more likely than others to engage in many kinds of antisocial behavior.

IOW, it's not the racial or ethnic makeup of the individual, it's the family structure that encompasses that individual. (The relationship is not as simple as it sounds. For an overview of the complexities involved in associating crime rates with single parent families go here.)

Proponents of “equity” say they seek justice for poor and minority children. But it is poor and minority children — struggling to learn in anarchic classrooms — who suffer disproportionately from misguided equity policies. So long as disorder is allowed to flourish in the name of statistical parity, our yawning racial learning gap will continue to widen.

At the same time, equity policies teach troublemaking students that bad behavior and disrespect for authority carry no adverse consequences. How can they ever hold a job or become productive citizens with such a distorted view of reality?

Equity supporters routinely — and baselessly — denounce our schools as bastions of institutional racism. By doing so, they lead minority students to distrust the one institution that offers them a sure route out of poverty.

That last paragraph makes a key point. The way out of poverty, the way to improve one's lot in life, is not antisocial behavior. It's bettering oneself through education, self-respect, and self-discipline.

I grew up in a lower-middle class family. We didn't have much, but we had what we needed, and we got it through the hard work of my parents. They both emphasized the importance of education and playing by the rules. That route handsomely paid off for my sister and I.

If you suggest that today, however, you're being racist...