District Proposing To Spend More Funds On Equity Programs Over Core Subjects
Seattle schools are now spending more of their budget on equity programs than they are on core subject funding initiatives.
Despite falling grades, enrollment, and an inability to fill vacant teaching positions, Seattle Public Schools have proposed to spend more funds on equity programs than core subjects like science and math. As parents flee the public school system in search of adequate education options that teach useful skills, diversity, equity, and inclusion is at the top of this district’s priority list. While many families agree that Americans should all be treated equally, Washington state has approved measures that elevate minorities and punish white students for merely being white and even come under fire for mishandling special education protocols during the pandemic.
Seattle schools have been focused on identity politics for some time. It was in 2019 that educators argued to teach that “math is racist” because black students don’t excel in math as well as other students do. They argued that “Western Math” is used to exploit the black community and hoard natural resources. While some may argue that history is taught from a focused lens, math is based on hard numbers and pattern recognition concepts which are used across the globe. This is considered so universal that scientists sent signals into space using basic math and science coding because it has been theorized that regardless of language development, life on other planets would be able to understand mathematical messaging.
Since then, test scores have dropped significantly. 70% of students failed math from 2019-2021. Based on that alone it is no wonder that grade school enrollment plummeted, and staffing shortages became so common that classes had to be canceled. Seattle schools are clearly failing, but instead of losing accreditation, the state has somehow continued to push for more detrimental policies in other districts which judge students based on the color of their skin.
What’s more, Seattle schools may claim that a need for more diversity and inclusion is important to student development, but during the 2020 pandemic the district was accused of failing to offer students with special needs the “free appropriate education,” they are entitled to under federal law. This diverse group of students were neglected. Teachers were advised to “not to deliver specially designed instruction,” and were not allowed to “adapt lessons to each child’s needs.”
Seattle school officials blame the pandemic for these disparities rather than their mishandling of the situation and their misleading political practices that started well before lockdowns and public health mandates. In addition, despite the fact that students are failing core subjects at record rates, the schools have budgeted $5 million for identity-based studies, yet math and science are to only receive $1.6 million each, and science lessons are to receive 1.3 million. Altogether these core classes, which have represented the foundation of American education for decades, are receiving half a million less than diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Parents who wish for their children to meet success as adults are asking how spending more on identity-based lessons will teach children the skills they need to properly balance a checkbook, understand the natural world, or properly carry out professional tasks. As the fight to ensure that curriculum transparency and parental rights are pressed upon districts like the Seattle Public Schools, students continue to struggle to learn useful skills and values that ensure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans. Whether the proposed budget is enacted depends upon its passage.
