Our Schools Have Failed The Test And Bureaucrats Have Been Exposed

“…Montgomery County, Maryland is a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C. Like many such jurisdictions, Montgomery County remains tightly locked down. Its public schools are closed, and all students are required to participate in “distance learning.” The results have been disastrous –particularly for minority students.

Since the advent of the great “War on Poverty” liberal educators in Montgomery County and elsewhere in the nation have trumpeted their efforts to close the “achievement gap” -the yawning chasm that exists between the performance of white students and minority, particularly black, students. Quite rightly educators have focused on the fact that in an increasingly high-tech world, students who come out of school without the requisite education are doomed to a lifetime of poverty and are much more likely to end up institutionalized.

That was then. This is now. The theology of COVID-19 now reigns supreme. The teachers unions have discarded all considerations of the impact of their decisions on their students. A generation of slow but steady progress has been washed away by the principle that schools cannot open. Never mind that young people are themselves at very little risk from the disease. No challenge will be permitted to the principle of lockdowns.

The results have been disastrous. Since the county moved to “distance learning” there has been an over 500% increase in the number of black junior high students failing mathematics and an over 600% increase in the number of Hispanic students failing such tests. The percentage of black elementary school students failing English has increased 350% and the percentage of Hispanic students failing English has increased over 500%. The county is looking at numbers that have not been seen since 1961, almost sixty years ago…”