Still Stuck on Stupid

With literacy on all levels (i.e., without adjectives or with—scientific, historical, civic, etc.) on the wane, public officials everywhere scratch their heads over what to do about it while concocting schemes such as the one devised by the school board in the city Tony Bennett sings about.

“San Francisco high school students, just months out of middle school, can start earning San Francisco State college credit this fall through a ninth-grade ethnic studies course,” Jill Tucker reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on March 1, 2010. “Currently, five ethnic studies courses are offered at three high schools, but they offer only high school credits.”

“The school board voted to expand the ethnic studies program last week, increasing the number of courses to at least 10 sections at five high schools,” Tucker writes. “To help with the added costs associated with expanding the program, San Francisco State offered to help train district teachers and assist with developing curriculum.”

There’s tax dollars working overtime for you. “At a school board meeting last week, the head of the university’s Ethnic Studies program also promised that students would earn up to six college course credits for the high school freshman course—a rare opportunity for a 14-year-old,” Tucker reports. “The courses will become part of the California State University’s Step to College program, which has offered college credit for high school students across the state since 1985.”

“Most of those courses require students to be juniors or seniors.”

“We’re not really looking for the 4.4 (grade point average) students,” Jacob Perea, dean of the School of Education, who runs the Step to College program at San Francisco State said. “We’re looking for the 2.1 or 2.2 students.” Betcha they find ‘em.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.