Spare me your equity

If I had questions about the direction of education in Aspen after reading Aspen High School Principal Sarah Strassburger’s response to Joyce Rankin (“State board of education representative off mark on Aspen High Survey,” April 11, The Aspen Times), the Aspen Education Association has removed all doubt with its letter (“Aspen teachers support equity and principal,” April 23, The Aspen Times). We may expect to see our classrooms obsessed with your child’s “identity.”

Is there a more deceptive word in our lexicon today than “equity”? It sounds so high-minded, such a noble goal, the penultimate outcome of true democracies. But don’t confuse it with “equality.” We all recognize that in our world being “homophobic” and being heterophobic are not “equally” wrong; that being “Islamophobic” and being Christophobic are not equally frowned upon; that white racism is worse than anti-white racism. In each pairing, the attitudinal deck is stacked by “equity,” which demands that greater sympathy and tolerance be given to the minority identity, in an effort to force it into having the same status as the majority identity. Equity is affirmative action.

So what will our schools do when they see that calculus classes are predominantly Asian and white? How will MIT jigger its admissions criteria so as to avoid the bad optics of an “unrepresentative” student body? The dullest among us can see that excellence and achievement will be taking a back seat to “identity.”

You can figure it out. And if equity and “inclusivity” at any cost is what you want, then knock yourselves out, parents.

Chad Klinger

Snowmass Village