Yale University has hired Joe Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, for its School of Management. Campus Reform notes that “during Cardona’s tenure as the Secretary of Education, 2022 NAEP math scores, a national assessment of U.S. students’ mathematical knowledge, saw the largest decline since the test began in 1990.”
Cardona will teach an elective course, “Education Policy,” reports Yale Daily News.
Touting Cardona’s appointment, a Yale lecturer stated, “We’re at a time where the current administration is taking aim at anything related to equity. And the appointment and the call of Secretary Cardona to come teach at SOM shows that there is a commitment on the part of educators at Yale to still value equity.”
“Equity” is a goal often cited by progressives to get rid of gifted and talented programs for bright kids. Progressives also cite “equity” as a reason to get rid of school suspensions for misbehavior, because it is black students are disproportionately suspended due to higher rates of misbehavior among black students.
Under school-discipline policies promoted by Miguel Cardona, students were effectively rewarded for misbehavior, such as a student who received “tiger tokens” for stopping throwing rocks at a teacher (students who never misbehaved received few if any tokens). Weak school discipline reduced student achievement, especially for black kids, so the push for “equity” backfired. After progressives curbed suspensions in New York City, a researcher found that “schools where more than 90% of students were minorities experienced the worst” effects on school climate and safety. Indeed, the harm from curbing suspensions had “a disparate impact by race and socioeconomic status.” He noted in the New York Post that another “study by a University of Georgia professor found that efforts to decrease the racial-suspension gap actually increase the racial achievement gap.” Joshua Kinsler found that “in public schools with discipline problems, it hurts those innocent African American children academically to keep disruptive students in the classroom,” and “cutting out-of-school suspensions in those schools widens the black-white academic achievement gap.”
Progressives have relied on equity to attack gifted and talented programs. Zohran Mamdani, the socialist front-runner to become New York City’s next mayor, “says he would phase out” New York City’s “gifted program for early grades” to promote equity. This anti-achievement stance has drawn criticism not just from moderates and conservatives, but even people on the progressive web site Bluesky.
“My wife is an elementary gifted ed specialist. The idea that gifted kids either don’t exist or don’t benefit from gifted education services is both wrong and harmful to those kids. Phasing out gifted programs is stupid,” said one outspoken Bluesky user who was trained as a lawyer and has authored or edited several books.
Another Bluesky user noted, “We recognize kids at one end of the distribution need special services and support” through special education. “It follows that kids at the other end are just as differentiated and need specialized services as well,” in the form of programs for the gifted.
As the New York Times notes, supporters of gifted and talented programs “argue that the gifted and talented program is a haven for bright students and that it keeps middle-class families in public schools who might otherwise leave for charter or private schools.”
