SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Dori: Why Seattle Public Schools are the laughingstock of the nation
Feb 25, 2020, 1:21 PM
(AP)
(AP)
Seattle is in national news more and more because we are the laughingstock of the nation. Last week, it was our effective legalization of drugs. This week, it is the Seattle Public Schools’ desire to get rid of gifted learning programs for students because of “a lack of diversity” in accelerated learning classes.
I know it’s hard to believe, but I was in the Seattle schools’ gifted classes back in the 1970s. I did not have any advantages. I did not have two parents in the house. I was just a little ahead of my grade level.
They say “institutional racism” is why white and Asian students make up a disproportionate amount of the honors program. Around 15 percent of Seattle Public Schools students are African-American, yet they make up less than 2 percent of advanced classes.
The reason for that is not institutional racism. It’s what is going on at home. When you have kids disproportionately born out of wedlock, and just one parent at home, it is clear those kids tend to do worse in school. So what they are saying is, “Let’s just eliminate honors and AP classes for the high-achieving kids so the low-achieving kids don’t feel so bad.”
Dori: If you want performance gap to change, family patterns must change
We have to teach every kid that they are a victim. Instead of raising up the kids at the bottom, you have to bring down the kids at the top. It’s socialism, plain and simple.
The funny thing about all of this is, what is the institution that these people are calling racist? It’s the Seattle Public Schools. The schools, with the teachers and administrations, are dominated by the far Left — especially in Seattle. What we must be saying, then, is that the far Left is racist, because that’s the institution.
This is not about racism — it’s about parental involvement. Regardless of your race, if you are not involved in your kid’s life because you are not making the effort, or you don’t have the time because you are the sole breadwinner, your kid’s education is going to suffer.
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