The Failure of Educational Equity

An Ugly Theory With Deep Roots in Our Institutions

Equity has failed the education system and our nation’s youth. Radical postmodernists and Marxists have pushed ideological purity to the detriment of a generation of American children. They have accomplished nothing while claiming to be the progenitors of a more inclusive era. The result has been a decline in the student population, especially among young males. Political activism, authoritarian control of thought, and woke indoctrination have become the norm. The push for equity is at the heart of this problem.

A few modern free thinkers have aired their frustration on this issue. I have included some of their quotes below.

Jordan Peterson

The radical left types that dominate the humanities and social sciences (and, increasingly, the HR departments of corporations) most particularly constitute the mantra of Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity. Of these three, equity is the most egregious, self-righteous, historically-ignorant and dangerous. Equity means “equality,” in some manner, and is a term designed to appeal to the natural human tendency toward fairness, but it does not mean the classic equality of the West, which is (1) equality before the law and (2) equality of opportunity,” says Jordan Peterson

He continues, “equality before the law means that each citizen will be treated fairly by the criminal justice and judicial systems regardless of their status—and, as well, that the state recognizes that each individual has an intrinsic value which the polity must respect, and treat as a limiting factor to state power… There is likely no more fundamental presumption grounding our culture. So that kind of equality is to be celebrated.

Equity is… predicated on the idea that the only certain measure of “equality” is outcome. The equity-pushers assume axiomatically that if all positions at every level of hierarchy in every organization are not occupied by a proportion of the population that is precisely equivalent to that proportion in the general population that systemic prejudice (racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.) is definitely at play… and that there are perpetrators who should be limited or punished that have or are currently producing that prejudice. 

None of this stops the pushers of the DIE triad from using the doctrine of equity as a moral weapon, in service of their fundamental claim: white men historically and currently and unjustly and cruelly dominate, historically and currently (this despite the fact that American Asians, for example, make 30% more at the median than Caucasians in the US—a difference that is almost exactly the same as the gap between Caucasians and Latinos). 

All inequalities of outcome must be regarded as unjust, and used as proof of the central contention—that is, the idea of patriarchal Western oppression that is the central dogma of the radical left. This is a terrible thing: not only because it identifies perpetrators who must be punished, and victims who must be coddled and protected but because it risks interfering with the progress that has vastly improved the standard of living for even the world’s poorest.

James Lindsay

According to the author James Lindsay… “Equity” is often conflated with the term “Equality” which means sameness and assumes, incorrectly, that we all have had equal access, treatment, and outcomes. In fact, true equity implies that an individual may need to experience or receive something different (not equal) in order to maintain fairness and access. For example, a person with a wheelchair may need differential access to an elevator relative to someone else.

In Critical Social Justice, the meaning of “equity” takes pains to distinguish itself from that of “equality.” Where equality means that citizen A and citizen B are treated equally, equity means “adjusting shares in order to make citizens A and B equal.” In that sense, equity is something like a kind of “social communism,” if we will—the intentional redistribution of shares, but not necessarily along lines of existing economic disparity but in order to adjust for and correct current and historical injustices.

In common parlance, this is the difference between attempting to force equality of outcome by enforcing some resource allocation system and equality of opportunity, which Critical Social Justice regards not only as myth but as a harmful ideology that upholds injustices like “white supremacy.” And the social justice Marxists view Whiteness as property that must be abolished. 

Equity is often sought under a combined suite of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) or sometimes “justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion” (JEDI), and as such, these terms have become major buzzwords in most professional sectors, particularly including education. Often, however, Theorists and activists remark that equity may not be enough, because it is, in some sense, incrementalist in orientation, and therefore that revolution (of the system) might be advocated instead. 

In early 2020, and rather shockingly, in the Washington state legislature, an “Equity Task Force” was assembled that offered the following definition for equity: “Equity = Disrupt and Dismantle,” which is to say an explicit call for a systemic revolution. (Nota bene: The Task Force was assembled even after the state voted against Affirmative Action.) 

Thomas Sowell

The great author and American hero Thomas Sowell says… the claim that racism is the sole reason for disparities between groups is provably false and, despite being tried over and over again, racially discriminatory social engineering projects mandating equal outcomes have never worked in practice. The people who benefit from these projects are primarily those paid to administer them. Socially counterproductive policies are just one of the many costs of the quest for cosmic justice. 

The rule of law, on which a free society depends, is inherently incompatible with cosmic justice. Laws exist in all kinds of societies, from the freest to the most totalitarian.  But the rule of law-- a government of laws and not of men, as it used to be called-- is rare and vulnerable.  You cannot redress the myriad inequalities which pervade human life by applying the same rules to all or by applying any rules other than the arbitrary dispensations of those in power. 

Ironically, the quest for greater economic and social equality is promoted through a far greater inequality of political power.  If rules cannot produce cosmic justice, only raw power is left as the way to produce the kinds of results being sought.  In a democracy, where power must gain public acquiescence, not only must the rule of law be violated or circumvented, so must the rule of truth. 

However noble the vision of cosmic justice [warriors], arbitrary power and shameless lies are the only paths that even seem to lead in its direction.  As noted at the outset, the devastating costs and social dangers which go with these attempts to achieve the impossible should be taken into account.

Conclusion

Due to the excessive levels of political indoctrination taking place in the education system there has been a mass exodus of students and teachers over the past decade. According to the National Education Association 55% of educators are considering quitting. This would leave an even greater percentage of activists left to police the thoughts of the poor souls still in school. The education system must return to teaching critical thinking, math, science, and English. 

US colleges enrolled nearly 2 million fewer students than 5 years ago and men accounted for more than three quarters of that decline. This is not THAT surprising. Woke educators put most of the blame for systemic racism and misogyny on the backs of these teens. Teens and young men should not be saddled with the guilt of cosmic justice or the sins of their forefathers.  It's time for parents to stand up and fight back for the sake of the next generation.