The Culver City Unified School District in California is abolishing honors English classes in its high schools, citing racial “equity” concerns, reports the New York Post. This will put its students at a disadvantage if they apply to selective colleges that expert their students to have completed honors classes. The district will also do more to inject LGBTQ+ issues and critical race theory into classroom instruction. Students who used to be in honors classes are bored with the dumbed-down education they are now receiving.
Increasingly, progressive K-12 school districts have taken similar actions that reduce the college opportunities of their students in order to advance a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Black and Hispanic students were underrepresented in honors and AP English classes, according to English teachers. Replacing honors classes with a one-size-fits-all curriculum is intended to “ensure students of all races receive an equal, rigorous education,” according to school officials.
Some parents in the Culver City Unified School District see the abolition of honors classes as likely to harm their children. A mom told Fox News, “My daughter, who is a sophomore has said that it’s not working … She’s now getting like an A+++ in her English class … [and] the class is kind of a joke.”
A father, Pedro Frigola told “Fox and Friends” that he “was troubled” by the district’s “Equity, Social Justice, and Inclusion Plan,” which triggered the abolition of honors English.
The CCUSD Equity Advisory Committee says “equity is [the district’s] moral obligation.” “We are working to cultivate a liberated learning environment that is free of bias,” says the Equity, Social Justice, and Inclusion Plan. Specific objectives of the plan include increasing coverage of concepts of gender equity, LGBTQ+ issues, and critical race theory in classrooms.
“Examining equity” about “access to AP/Honors Courses” is also listed as an objective of the plan.
Curtailing advanced classes will make it harder for high-performing students to compete for college admissions with students from districts that continue to offer advanced classes.
An English professor at Georgia State University Perimeter College says that equity “cannot tolerate” or coexist with merit because merit “exposes equity for the sham that it is. Anything that smacks of merit—that suggests one student might actually be superior to another—must be eliminated.”
