Department Of Education To Award Grants Based on Equity Moving Forward
The Department of Education just rolled out an initiative to fund state grants based on equity performance.
Thanks to the Biden Administration’s agenda to advance equity over equality, the Department of Education will award grant money based on how each state implements this political order to judge people based on their race. Instead of allowing equal opportunities to be offered to students and their families — which allow them to decide how they wish to pursue their education and the careers it may lead to — Biden’s Executive Order 13985 demands that “equity” be furthered instead. Often confused with equality, equity works to ensure that everyone has the same outcome no matter how much effort they put in.
Opponents of such education policy warn that when there is no higher reward for success, or going above and beyond, over-achievers are discouraged and even sometimes punished. One example is the current state of gifted programs which give high-scoring students more work to keep them busy instead of just allowing them to skip a grade. The Department of Education is following orders, and basing funding on politics instead of student, teacher, and/or school performance. In essence, schools that are touted as going “WOKE” will receive more funding, even if their students are failing, while schools that teach traditional subjects like math, reading, science, and English will see less funding if they don’t add Critical Race Theory and other controversial teaching practices into their curriculums even if they are performing well and students are graduating at high rates.
The policy in question is specifically titled “Advance Racial Equity.” The legitimacy of this Executive Order alone is not only being questioned, but likely to face lawsuits and potential Supreme Court challenges because it systematically implements racial preference with taxpayer dollars. Systematic racism is unconstitutional. Offering minority students further advancement solely based on their identity is not constitutional and so as The Department of Education moves forward with this plan, it has already faced much backlash from parents and students of all races.
Even minorities have spoken out against educational practices that single students out based on race and other identifying characteristics. As public schools continue to suffer from declining enrollment rates, homeschooling is not only on the rise, but minority families are homeschooling at record rates. It seems that not everyone is on board with this plan to judge students based on the color of their skin in order to combat racism and further equity. Whether the department of education acknowledges this or not, the fact remains that public education and the United States budget deficit are under intense scrutiny, especially now that inflation has reached a 40-year high and doesn’t seem to be balanced out any time soon.
In addition to racial implications, the Biden administration is determined to advance “gender inclusivity.” Part of the Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government is dedicated to combating sex stereotyping. So as states like Florida pass laws that restrict schools from teaching young students about sex education before they are ready to understand it, The Department of Education is working to allocate more funding to schools that pander to gender identity and lessons that teach about sex and sexuality at an early age.
The Department of Education has not projected how they estimate this will affect enrollment and student performance. Schools that adopted “equity” policies early on back in 2020 and before have yet to report any improvement in any of the communities, but school violence is on the rise in many of these areas. Knowing that, and based on the battles parents have been fighting against school boards and unlawful policies in public education, these grants are likely to create yet another point of contention.
