Priorities

 
How much do you think things like this actually help students learn?
 

Guitierrez, along with all of Portland Public Schools’ principals, will start the new school year off this week by drilling in on the language of “Courageous Conversations,” the district-wide equity training being implemented in every building in phases during the past few years.
 
Through intensive staff trainings, frequent staff meetings, classroom observations and other initiatives, the premise is that if educators can understand their own “white privilege,” then they can change their teaching practices to boost minority students’ performance."

 
My guess is not much:
 


A caption of the first picture in the article states that “racial equity is a top focus for the school and district.” The article then goes on to explain that the school in question is among the 15% worst-performing schools in the state and has five fewer full-time positions than last year. Meanwhile, the entire district is being dragged through “equity training” to better understand their “white privilege.” No word as to whether there is any correlation between educators' understanding of white privilege and students’ math scores.
 
Please understand that when school districts sound the alarm about scarce resources, they turn around and spend it on nonsense like this. Look at that graph again. According to Cato (from which the graph was borrowed), if “public schools had merely maintained the level of productivity they exhibited in 1970, Americans would enjoy a permanent $300 billion annual tax cut.” $300 billion dollars per year absolutely wasted.