During the pandemic, as was seen in many states, the Oregon State Board of Education voted to suspend certain basic competency requirements for students to advance. The challenges of remote learning were too complicated for many families and there didn’t seem to be many other viable alternatives. But unlike most of the country, Oregon still hasn’t brought back the fundamental requirements for competence in reading, writing, and math. This week, the Board decided to throw in the towel entirely and suspended those requirements for another five years until at least the beginning of the 2028-2029 school year. So what will an Oregon high school diploma be worth in a few years if you happen to be an employer or college admissions official? Well… if you happen to have some fish lying around that need to be wrapped, that’s at least something, I suppose. (Fox News)

High schoolers in Oregon won’t need to demonstrate basic competency in reading, writing or math in order to graduate for at least five more years because, according to education officials, such requirements are unnecessary and disproportionately harm students of color.

“At some point … our diploma is going to end up looking a lot more like a participation prize than an actual certificate that shows that someone actually is prepared to go pursue their best future,” former Oregon gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan told Fox News.

The essential skills requirement has been on pause since the coronavirus pandemic, and last week the Oregon State Board of Education voted unanimously to continue suspending the graduation requirement through the 2027-2028 school year.

So the Oregon Board of Education members actually described a fundamental grasp of reading, writing, and mathematics as “unnecessary.” They also repeated the common liberal claim that the requirements disproportionately impact students of color. That’s an incredibly racist claim to make that the left never seems to be publicly called out on. It assumes that Black and Latino students are somehow incapable of competing educationally on equal footing. (They also fail to mention the way that Asian students typically outperform everyone else.)

Has anyone checked to see if any of the board members could pass a basic elementary skill test? College level work and almost all jobs with any sort of decent pay rates require the ability to competently read, write, and do at least simple mathematics. Of course, the board is rejecting all of these arguments and claiming that the parents who submitted public comments demanding that the standards be returned are all making “racial superiority arguments.”

Instead, the board is currently considering implementing an “equity grading system” that would do away with grades entirely. The proposal would do away with homework (which is apparently also racist) and students would not receive a failing grade if they are regularly truant. They wouldn’t even be flunked for cheating. This sort of system could not possibly produce students who are prepared to go out into the adult world.

America’s public schools were floundering even before the pandemic, despite receiving record amounts of public funding in many areas. Some of these shortcomings are no doubt driven by societal changes, with fewer kids coming from two-parent households where an emphasis is put on studying, completing homework, and making it to school on time every day. But the pandemic truly threw a spotlight on the failures of the teacher’s unions and the way they are more concerned with the paychecks and bonuses of their members than the welfare of the children or even keeping the schools open. It’s a toxic combination, and the real victims here will be the next generation of young people who will head out into the world with no idea what’s about to hit them.