Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has fired the latest salvo in America's assault on meritocracy: a 61-page opinion holding that the suburban Loudoun County school system discriminated against black and Hispanic youngsters because its selective-admission high school, the Academies of Loudon, hadn't admitted enough of them.
The ruckus began in New York, where admission to nine of the city's hundreds of high schools is governed by the eighth-grader' scores on a specialized admission test.
Is every middle school churning out eighth-graders with the requisite skills and knowledge to succeed at Bronx Science? Are all children who make good grades eager, motivated learners ready to make the most of what these high-powered schools have to offer?
Instead of repairing the elementary and middle schools attended by poor and minority kids so that more of them will be prepared for places like Stuyvesant, and creating more such schools for bright children from every background to get a top-notch education, New York's equity seekers are pressing to reallocate an extremely scarce resource.
Consider another furor in Virginia, over admission to the esteemed Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, regularly ranked the country's top high school by U.S. News.
Students who aren't doing advanced math by the end of middle school aren't likely to succeed in selective-entry high schools.
Developing talented students is the right approach, but that means starting "Gifted and talented" programs in many more elementary and middle schools.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-progressive-assault-on-selective-high-schools-11606349353
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