There is not enough time for students to get to calculus in high school if they are held back by being forced to take Algebra I as freshmen, but that is exactly what American diversity, equity, and inclusion gurus want to do to our kids. In Japan and other countries that are far ahead of us in math education, students learn algebra in middle school. Recently our students’ math skills have fallen another half-year below where they are expected to be, according to a report. Some blame this on the Covid pandemic, during which many schools shut down for too long, but a bigger cause is liberals prioritizing equity over education in public schools.
The math achievement in our country has dropped to its lowest level in two decades among fourth-grade and eighth-grade students. Many pre-teens cannot even do basic subtraction with two-digit numbers. For decades public colleges were forced to offer remedial math programs to help students catch up to where they should be, but recent studies show that approach to be a failure. Like reading, math is best learned at an early age and it becomes harder to learn basic skills as a student gets older.
Electing conservative school board members can help with this issue, but not so much in deep blue states like California where the Democrat-controlled legislature imposes its leftwing ideology statewide. California just saw the passage of Assembly Bill 1078, which penalizes local school boards if they fail to teach the state-mandated DEI curriculum.
In truth, for our students to have maximum opportunities to excel in their schools, we need to have the best of both worlds. It takes both a strong family-focused school board as well as a strong family-focused legislature working in tandem to ensure that our schools stay on track. Our resources are limited, and most limited of all is our time, so every hour spent on worthless diversity training is another hour our children will never have to learn vital skills in math, science, and reading.
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/family/education/what-will-it-take-to-fix-our-schools/
