No Such Thing as Education Standards
by Shari Dovale
Headlines hit this week concerning Oregon’s Education requirements, or rather their lack of such.
In 2020, former Gov. Kate Brown suspended the proficiency requirements for students to graduate. They no longer had to prove they had mastered the essential skills for math, reading or writing.
The students were graduated out of the school system even if they could not read, do basic math or understand the basic elements of spelling or grammar.
Claiming that these requirements are unfair to marginalized students (including students of color, English second language students, or students with disabilities) the Oregon Department of Education (DOE) has extended this lack of accountability for the next 5 years.
Can the state (if they wanted) step in and stop the DOE from refusing to teach these students?
Actually, no. The state has absolutely no say in proficiency standards for education. They are only required to pay the tab for education each year. This is not unusual throughout the states.
I looked at the constitutions for states within the American Redoubt, including Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Each state requires the establishment of a free public education system paid for by the state, generally through land grants, taxes, and similar. None of the states have any mention of proficiency or standards for graduation.
Wording is made unique throughout, with the closest to proficiency coming in the Montana constitution:
It is the goal of the people to establish a system of education which will develop the full educational potential of each person.
Wyoming is crystal clear on the issue:
Neither the legislature nor the superintendent of public instruction shall have power to prescribe text books to be used in the public schools.
Idaho just wants to be sure that religion stays out of the schools, with the exception that they include politics and do not enforce that issue:
No books, papers, tracts or documents of a political, sectarian or denominational character shall be used or introduced in any schools established under the provisions of this article
Each state has put themselves in the position to have their children taught zip and they can do absolutely nothing about it. The schools can decide to go on a 12-year curriculum of only teaching pottery or yoga, with no reading or math included, and they are perfectly within their rights to do so.
Oregon has decided to dumb down their students, not prepare them for the real world, and not strengthen their abilities to function in the workforce. Each state that has agreed to pay for education, yet refuses to set proficiency standards, has jumped on the bandwagon to destruction of our youth.
Maybe they are preparing them for “shovel-ready jobs” as Obama promised in 2009?
The Progressive Left’s favorite site, Wikipedia, defines “Dumbing Down:
Dumbing down is the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content in education, literature, cinema, news, video games, and culture.
Dumbing-down varies according to subject matter, and usually involves the diminishment of critical thought by undermining standard language and learning standards, thus trivializing academic standards, culture, and meaningful information, as in the case of popular culture.
To be sure, when young people are learning more about how to type on their social media accounts, with all of it’s abbreviations, acronyms, and lack of profanity filters, the schools are promoting this trivialization of education.
Kids are now being taught to stay at home on zoom and listen to a teacher that may not give a hoot about what they are learning. They get little sunshine or exercise. They don’t get enough physical activity to even be prepared for a “shovel-ready” job.
And now they are told, at least in Oregon, that this level of learning is acceptable. Teachers don’t have to concern themselves with actual teaching. They can spend their time on LGBTQRST+++ issues, rewriting history, and how children “of color” are incapable of learning math, English, or even how to read.
What is to stop your state from enacting these same Lack of Proficiency standards?
Related: Democratic Socialist Party Urges Members to Become Teachers
Related: Dumbing Down K-12 Education
Parents need to step up, limit the students time on social media, and get them into HOMESCHOOL.
Only then will these children be prepared for life after school.
