Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Board of Education are following the lead of other major cities and eliminating gifted school programs in the name of achieving greater racial and social “equity.”
Eleven “high-achieving selective-enrollment schools” will be eliminated, according to Chicago Board of Education CEO Pedro Martinez, to reduce “stratification and inequity.”
As we have previously discussed, major cities with failing public education programs are erasing performance gaps in their schools by decapitating the top performers rather than elevating the performance overall. Other schools have also eliminated or lowered proficiency standards to achieve higher passage rates.According to the Daily Mail, the Board will vote today on the Mayor’s plan with the support of the president. The Chicago Tribune blasted Johnson in an editorial for reneging on a campaign promise not to abolish the selective schools.President Jianan Shi has portrayed gifted programs as just adding stress by allowing some students to achieve higher levels of education.
Shi declared “the goal is […] to change (the) current competition model so that students are not pitted against one another, schools are not pitted against one another.”
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