I know it’s hard to believe that a proposed course of action in San Francisco could be too hard-left even for that formerly great/now disasterized city.
But Superintendent of Schools Maria Su’s proposal to revise the city’s public school curricula and requirements, managed to square the circle.
From Joe Hutchison’s article for London’s Daily Mail:
Parents across the political spectrum are up in arms after San Francisco’s school district announced a new plan that will see pass marks lowered.
Superintendent of Schools Maria Su unveiled the new ‘Grading for Equity’ plan last night that will scrap homework and weekly testing, and allow students to pass with scores as low as 41 – down from the current pass mark of 61.
It comes after left-wing activists argued that homework and testing disproportionately affects students from poorer backgrounds and creates an uneven playing field.
But even liberals pushed back against the new policy. Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman for Silicon Valley known for his progressive values, slammed the move on X: ‘My immigrant dad asked me where the missing 10% went when I scored a 90. He came to America for the chance to work hard & pursue excellence.
‘Giving A’s for 80 percent & no homework is not equity – it betrays the American Dream and every parent who wants more for their kids.’
Think this version of “public school education” (I have to put that in quotation marks) is insane? Use the link and keep reading. It’s even worse.
The idea, you see, is that, in the interests of equity, instead of trying to come up with ways of raising lower-achieving students’ education success rates, you just lower the requirements enough so that virtually everyone passes – even if they don’t show up for class, don’t do any homework and get lousy grades. Then it’s all “equal”.
No one learns a damn thing, no one leaves the school system prepared to deal with the real world. So everyone is in the same situation. Equity rules!!!!
And what was the reaction of San Franciscans?
Well, here is the beginning of the Daily Mail’s revised/updated version of this article:
San Francisco’s education chief was today forced into a humiliating U-turn on a woke new program to lower pass marks in an effort to promote ‘equity.’
Superintendent of Schools Maria Su unveiled the new ‘Grading for Equity’ plan last night that would have seen homework and weekly testing scrapped, with students allowed to pass with scores as low as 41 – down from the current pass mark of 61.
But just hours later on Wednesday afternoon, Su released a statement following widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum saying the district would hold off on implementing the move for a year.
She said: ‘At the May 27 Board of Education meeting, we presented a proposal for a professional development opportunity in standards-based grading. There was no action taken at the meeting. No changes to grading practices have been adopted by the district or Board of Education.
‘We hold every SFUSD student to high standards, and our goal is to support student success by prioritizing learning and mastery. It’s clear there are a lot of questions, concerns, and misinformation with this proposal.
‘We want to make sure any changes benefit our students. I have decided not to pursue this strategy for next year to ensure we have time to meaningfully engage the community.
‘Right now we need to continue to focus on balancing our budget, stabilizing the district, and rebuilding trust.’
My favorite part? “We hold every SFUSD student to high standards”. Remember “Baghdad Bob”, the Iraqi shill for saddam hussein, who was telling us how well hussein’s army was doing while U.S. tanks rolled by behind him? When it comes to being full of crap, San Francisco’s Maria Su is giving him serious competition.
So tell me: how do you figure this same proposal will be seen if Su reintroduces it/tries to implement it a year from now?
Here’s another question for you: given what she proposed, is current mayor Daniel Lurie idiotic/ideologically lunatic-left enough to keep her as Superintendent of Schools there?
I’ll be checking to see. Meanwhile, my condolences to citizens of San Francisco who actually value serious education for their children.
