Opinion: The Quiet Bigotry Of Low Expectations In Oregon Gov. Decision To Drop Reading, Writing, Math Requirements For High School Diplomas

In an incredible example of the soft bigotry of low expectations and the damaging effects of the socialist principle of equity, or equality of outcome, the Oregon Governor Kate Brown has signed an atrocious bill that will ultimately do more harm than good.

Senate Bill 744 was signed into law, which means there is no longer a requirement for students to demonstrate the achievement of essential reading, writing, and math skills in order to obtain a high school diploma in Oregon.

Charles Boyle, the governor’s deputy communications director, made a statement saying that dropping the proficiency requirements for reading, writing, and math are intended to benefit “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of colour.”

Here’s the problem with that, though. This is a textbook example of the quiet bigotry of low expectations, and it’s absolutely racist.

What this says is that you believe that in order for “black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of colour” to even be capable of graduating from high school, you have to eliminate basic educational requirements. By extension, you are insinuating that those demographics are not intellectually capable of meeting basic educational requirements.

And that’s racist.

Not only is it racist, it’s actually more damaging to those demographics than it is helpful. If you feel the need to eliminate these basic educational requirements, then it follows that a number of students already fail to, or will subsequently fail to meet those basic educational requirements.

What I call the “lowest common denominator” theory says that when success and exceptionalism are discouraged, people will only put forth the effort to accomplish the bare minimum required, as extra effort brings no extra success. Thus, if students can get a diploma without being proficient in basic reading, writing, and math, they are unlikely to put forth the extra effort to be proficient in those things as they bring no extra success.

And yet, they will have a high school diploma, which is a fairly standard measure of basic educational proficiency in this country.

So now, these students will be entering adulthood, the workforce, and living their lives with a meaningless high school diploma. They will get into colleges for which they are not prepared and subsequently struggle in their higher learning endeavors. They will be hired to jobs for which they are not academically qualified and will subsequently struggle in those jobs. Their entire educational and professional lives will be a misrepresentation of their basic educational proficiency.

Eliminating the standards is not the long-term answer. The long-term answer would be addressing social issues that lead to a discrepancy in reading proficiency in young children who come from poorer families and broken homes. The long-term answer would be creating and providing resources for families to counterbalance negative socioeconomic factors. The long-term answer would be empowering families to take their children’s education into their own hands by funding students rather than systems, thereby affording all students equal educational opportunities regardless of socioeconomic or geographic limitations. But those things require effort and time, two things the woke progressive left would rather not deal with. Despite having a more positive long-term effect on the actual students, those long-term answers wouldn’t show the kind of immediate changes that woke progressives like when trying to radically alter society.

In the short-term, Oregon school districts will be able to announce more “equitable” graduation numbers as soon as this school year. Then they can immediately tout themselves as paragons of woke progressive social equity success and use their supposed “success” to pressure others to make similar changes.

Meanwhile, Oregon’s leadership just has to ignore the fact that they are setting entire demographics up for future academic and occupational struggle and potential failure by assuming they are incapable of basic educational proficiency and catering to the lowest common denominator, rather than taking the time to fix the problems the right way.