War on “White Privilege” Creates Chaos in Schools

09 Jun, 2015 by Dave Blount

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What do you get when you end “white privilege” in the classroom? Chaos:

Last week we were stunned to learn that chaos has been the norm in the St. Paul, Minnesota school district, due to a student disciplinary policy that replaces suspensions with time-outs, counseling and other less punitive measures.

We also learned that the controversial policy was influenced by the Pacific Educational Group (PEG), a radical San Francisco-based consulting firm that claims black students lag behind academically, and tend to have more disciplinary problems, because American K-12 education is designed to benefit white students – aka “white privilege.”

Now it’s becoming obvious that several other large school districts around the nation are in the same situation as St. Paul.

They’ve all instituted radical disciplinary policies to reduce the number of black student suspensions, they’ve all experienced serious behavioral problems as a result, and they’re all included on a recent list of PEG client school districts.

That begs a simple, disturbing question – is PEG making a lot of money by promoting policies in public schools that lead to chaos and danger for students and staff?

The simple, disturbing answer is yes — all across the country.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press wrote that “PEG’s input has spurred district-wide changes in St. Paul, from a push to reduce suspensions to a bid to integrate students with intensive special needs into mainstream classrooms.

“Critics say PEG’s work has alienated some educators and, in recasting certain discipline issues as cultural misunderstandings, let disruptive students and their families off the hook.”

In Denver, staff at the Bruce Randolph Middle School complain that

“The disproportionate amount of time and resources that in the past would have been spent on improving instruction is instead spent by our entire staff, including administrators, instructional team, support staff, and teachers on habitually disruptive students that continually return to our classroom. This has now reached a critical point.”

In Oakland, a student received a talking-to instead of a suspension after setting another student’s hair on fire.

In Portland, New York Post reporter Paul Sperry writes that

“After a black high school boy repeatedly punched his teacher in the face, sending her to the emergency room, the teacher, who is white, was advised by the assistant principal not to press charges. The administrator lectured her about how hard it is for young black men to overcome a criminal record.”

Sperry provides some insight into the mentality involved:

“I know that PEG has had an outsized role in reshaping not only discipline policy in these districts but also curriculum — including lesson plans, activities and materials — as well as even hiring,” Sperry told EAGnews. “They emphasize the recruitment of minority faculty and even recommend ‘racial equity’ and ‘restorative justice’ coordinators.

“What’s more, they do the racial-sensitivity training of teachers as part of professional teacher training workshops, reprogramming them to think that THEY are the problem, not the misbehaving kids, that their ‘whiteness’ and ‘cultural insensitivity’ is the reason African-American students tend to be, on average, more disruptive and violent than other students and tend to underperform academically.”

Why would any local school district subject itself to this lunacy? Sperry explains:

“If they don’t adopt the kinds of programs promulgated by PEG, they risk losing millions in Education Department grants. They also risk discrimination and race-bias investigations and lawsuits filed by DOE’s Office for Civil Rights, which has been flexing its muscles like never before under this administration.”

Yet again we see why people who care about education should want Jimmy Carter’s Department of Education abolished.

You think it’s bad now? Wait until initiatives like Common Core tighten the federal death grip on schools.

On tips from JeffersonSpinningInGrave and JusttheTipHQ. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

Dave Blount

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