From
this article:
some of the factors contributing to educational decline — shrinking
budgets, entrenched poverty, classroom crowding and increasing diversity (emphasis added)
So increasing diversity leads to educational decline? Did I read that correctly? Did the reporter read it correctly? Yes, he did. This is the
executive summary of the original report:
There’s no shortage of factors for America’s educational decline: budget cutbacks, entrenched poverty, crowded
classrooms, shorter school years, greater diversity of students than in other countries. (emphasis added)
But the
full report tells a different story. Buried in the report are complaints that the prospective teachers need to be more diverse and that they would be better simply by changing their ethnic and racial composition. What the report fails to do is lay out a case for why education would be better or worse with more diversity. Instead, there is simply the common mantra that more diversity (except in opinion or thought) is better. It is amusing, however, that the reports authors have garbled their real argument in their summary.
