The Beehive State, Utah, has been a conservative bastion for many years. But, due to an influx of West Coast tech and start-up workers, it is less certain that the state will stick to its long conservative history.
One indication of this political tilt is that the state’s Board of Education approved resource slides to implement “educational equity” in its schools. Equity is an oft-used left-wing buzzword to derail equal opportunity in the name of righting past wrongs.
In this case, the state approved seventeen slides, which will be sent to teachers and used as a training resource. Yet the approval process went through a contentious and controversial comment period from parents and teachers.
According to the slides, “educational equity” is “acknowledging that all students are capable of learning and distributing resources to provide equal opportunities based upon the needs of each individual student.” It adds, “Equitable resources include funding, programs, policies, initiatives and supports that recognize each student’s unique background and school context to guarantee that all students have access to high-quality education.”
The slides also claim that “equal opportunity does not mean equal outcomes.” The slides also prevented teachers from pushing ideas that one’s sex, religion, or race determines their abilities and that victimhood is not a reasonable argument.
In short, educational equity is recognizing that all students have the capacity and ability to learn and should have equal opportunity based on a student’s individual needs. It is a guarantee from the state that they will have access to adequate school resources regardless of their situation.
It sounds as if Utah is trying to thread the needle on Critical Race Theory without offending either side, but it ultimately does not satisfy either side of the debate.
