{"id":1313494,"date":"2019-08-12T20:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T02:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/guest-opinion-equitable-education-viewpoint-only-further-divides\/"},"modified":"2019-08-12T20:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T02:36:00","slug":"guest-opinion-equitable-education-viewpoint-only-further-divides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/guest-opinion-equitable-education-viewpoint-only-further-divides\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Opinion: \u2018Equitable\u2019 education viewpoint only further divides"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rachel Hahn<\/strong>
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I read with interest Rob Stein\u2019s column (July 25), \u201cCreating a more equitable education system starts by reflecting on our own privilege.\u201d Then my interest turned to dismay.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s parse some of the superintendent\u2019s thoughts.<\/p>\n

Stein believes that \u201cconversations about equity are best undertaken by first looking inwardly at ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

I disagree.<\/p>\n

Conversations about equity are best undertaken by first explaining what is meant by \u201cequity,\u201d why \u201cequity\u201d has replaced \u201cequality,\u201d and what that means for our system of education.<\/p>\n

And, \u201clooking inwardly\u201d is best left for the personal and spiritual realm.<\/p>\n

Stein says that he is \u201cnot advocating that we suddenly or radically equalize resources or take away privileges.\u201d He is merely advocating that we gradually \u201cshare some of our advantages\u201d and \u201cpursue changes that make our schools more equitable.\u201d For example, it seems he is suggesting that we eventually (but not suddenly or radically) do away with our AP classes, which are resource intensive.<\/p>\n

Again, I disagree.<\/p>\n

Instead of pursuing changes that make our schools more \u201cequitable\u201d (which is not the same as equalizing opportunity) we should pursue changes that make all of our students more capable of academic excellence.<\/p>\n

Stein quoted an essay written 30 years ago in which the author cited her \u201cwhite privilege\u201d for being able to \u201cdo well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to her race,\u201d (which, as far as I know, is nothing that anyone in any of our schools would ever say). Furthermore, in any school system, the allocation of resources should be unrelated to whether people can \u201cgo shopping without being unduly scrutinized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The essay referenced above was written by a white woman whose economic privilege was indisputable. Her assertion that her \u201cprivilege\u201d was simply about being white is difficult to reconcile with the fact that she grew up in a town where the median income was four times the national average and she was so aristocratic that her wedding was announced on the New York Times social register.<\/p>\n

Yet, she managed to classify her elite level of privilege as something shared by every white person across the country by virtue of the color of their skin.<\/p>\n

Thirty years later, parents in our school district who struggle to make ends meet are being told by a man who chose to send his own children to private schools that they should \u201cexamine their privilege.\u201d And it was 25 years ago when Stein undertook his \u201cinformal experiment\u201d at Harvard. He seems to imply that since then, no progress has been made.<\/p>\n

His references to Harvard certainly make him seem important, but his column, while offering no practical solutions, will likely serve to inflame an existing undercurrent of resentment. In a time when we need unity and cooperation, our superintendent has created more discord and resentment.<\/p>\n

Stein\u2019s children never came home from our high schools complaining that they had to sit quietly, doing nothing while the teacher let others catch up.<\/p>\n

He never had to listen to his children tell him that, because of disruptive children, they weren\u2019t learning in our schools.<\/p>\n

He never had to watch his children transform before his eyes from students who once loved to learn, to children who have no interest in school.<\/p>\n

No child should be left behind, including those who are left unchallenged.<\/p>\n

Every child in our district should be able to obtain an education that reflects their potential and should not be constrained by some administrator\u2019s idea of \u201cequity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In my experience, the vast majority of parents in our district are deeply committed to providing remedial and other appropriate educational opportunities for any student who needs it.<\/p>\n

It is profoundly unhelpful to demand that parents \u2014 especially those who make education their priority and stay actively involved in their children\u2019s education \u2014 \u201cexamine their privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board is elected by parents, and the superintendent answers to the board. I encourage all parents in our district to get involved.<\/p>\n

Ask some hard questions of our superintendent. Attend board meetings. Find out how many of the parents on the district accountability committee don\u2019t send their own children to our schools. Demand that the board members in your zone step up. Have a meeting with the CFO of the district and really take time to understand the school budget. Learn how much money the school takes in and how funds are allocated. It is quite eye opening, I assure you.<\/p>\n

We need a leader who will prioritize providing the best education for all of our children, not someone who will prioritize his own ideological guilt.<\/p>\n

Rachel Hahn grew up in Aspen and has two children in the Basalt schools. She describes herself as an \u201cinterested mom\u201d who likes to do research and pays attention to what the Roaring Fork School District Re-1 is up to.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Hahn I read with interest Rob Stein\u2019s column (July 25), \u201cCreating a more equitable education system starts by reflecting on our own privilege.\u201d Then my interest turned to dismay. Let\u2019s parse some of the superintendent\u2019s thoughts. Stein believes that \u201cconversations about equity are best undertaken by first looking inwardly at ourselves.\u201d I disagree. Conversations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1313494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-07 07:31:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}