Last week I blogged about the Department of Education’s bold new plan to reduce racial academic achievement and suspension/expulsion gaps. Among other things, the department will send letters to certain school districts and state-supported colleges letters, putting them on notice about potential ‘civil rights’ investigations to determine whether minorities have equal access to Advanced Placement classes, why minorities have higher suspension rates than whites, etc.
Secretary Arne Duncan accused the Bush administration of letting so-called civil rights violations slide. The Wall Street Journal editorializes (emphasis added):
“Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last week that the Obama Administration will ramp up investigations of civil rights infractions in school districts, which might sound well and good. What it means in practice, however, is that his Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will revert to the Clinton Administration policy of equating statistical disparity with discrimination, which is troubling.”
As there is no actual racial and ethnic discrimination to investigate, the Obama administration will focus on disparate impact. That’s enough to keep the administration busy for years to come, for disparities between the races, the sexes, and whatever else, will never go away. Like the poor, disparities will always be with us.
I agree with the WJS’s assessment of the consequences of focusing on disparities as proof of discrimination. If districts are afraid to suspend or expel students who won’t behave, will their fear have a chilling effect on getting rid of troublemakers who happen to be racial minorities? If schools have to worry about the racial balance in AP class, will they lower standards? Well, they can avoid a government probe by suspending and expelling no one, and getting rid of AP classes. But then, some other “discrimination” will pop up. They can’t win.
“Mr. Duncan does minorities no favors by suggesting that racist policies are causing the achievement gap while ignoring the impact of culture, family structure or failing schools. He would do better to focus his department’s energies on improving educational choice, promoting performance-based pay for teachers and other reforms. Parents want better schools, not social engineering.” (emphasis added)
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