Ah yes, using inequity to try to achieve equity:
Universities ‘will give poorer pupils priority’: Private school teenagers will get short shrift in admissions as colleges look to prioritise the disadvantaged
This time, it’s not choosing Blacks over Whites, but poor over wealthy. Yup, I can just see how this will help the poor overcome the “systemic bias” of the British education system. It’s the academic version of the “magic dirt” theory: that somehow, exposing the poor to better education will somehow raise all of them into successful careers after graduation.
Now, I agree that the earlier system of admissions — whereby the son of Lord Snotnose-Dribbling was guaranteed a place at Oxbridge simply he was the future Earl of Dunfartin. But let’s be honest, here: private school education tends to produce better students than state-managed warehouses do. And yes, it’s unfair that a scion of a wealthy (or titled) man should have easier access to places like Eton or Harrow than those of a fishmonger in Whitechapel, ergo a better chance of getting into, say, Cambridge. But denying the “privileged” a place at university in favor of poorer individuals whose grades are worse than the former isn’t much better, is it?
Once again, they’re expecting equality of outcome by “equalizing” admission, when any fool will tell you from experience that it’s a fool’s pursuit.
But the Left have never allowed commonsense, history and logic to interfere with their stupid philosophy, have they?
The world….not just the USA, but the entire effing world….has gone butt fuck crazy…….glad I am 62 and not 32……..but my father is almost 92 and I don’t know if I can stomach 30 more years of this increasingly moronic bullshit……
is it too early in the day for a cocktail??
“Equity” is to “equality” as “astrology” is to “astronomy”. They have similar spellings, deal in a similar subject, and are similarly bullshit.
Want to help the poor? Find the poor kids with good grades, and if they can’t afford to go to school (or wherever they might get a better education than where they currently are) pay for them to go.
How do I know? I was that kid. My father was disabled from a work accident, we lived on workers comp and disability Social Security (at a time when getting it wasn’t a rubber-stamp). I went to college on government grants. I went to a commuter-college (meaning I lived at home and took the bus to school since I couldn’t afford a car). My four years of college from 1981-1985 cost the government a TOTAL of about six thousand dollars, about half each from State and Federal, and about half the state amount was a scholarship which I’d have gotten even if my last name was Rockefeller. Over the last 35 years I’ve repaid that amount in taxes many, MANY times over. Hell, my last year living in NJ my property taxes alone were double that amount.
For my very first job out of college my annual salary was nearly double my parent’s.
This wouldn’t have worked had I had a room-temperature IQ, no work ethic, or a desire to get a degree in Women’s Studies. No, there’s no magic dirt, but you CAN choose which seeds to transplant, then stand back ’cause the harvest is coming.
Mark D
you’re absolutely right. Motivation plays a huge part in changing one’s current circumstances.
JQ
And the myriad of social programs, benefits, freebies, give-aways, free
medical, free housing, free food, because we all care so much (!), has
dampened or outright removed ANY desire to better ones self resulting
in large numbers of people of ALL races, colors, creeds etc. who have
little to no ambition !
It is, I afraid, going to get FAR worse before it gets any better, IF it ever
gets better, which I highly doubt !
So what happens when you block the rich from attending the university of their choice? Do you really think they’re just going to walk away muttering to themselves and sulk for the rest of their lives? Or are they going to find another school they can go to, and block access to that school to anyone else who doesn’t have bank accounts the size of a small country?
And let’s face it – the reason that some people are broke is because they’re fuck-ups who make bad choices, and continue to make bad choices even when the last bad choice is still whacking them in the face like a rake they’ve stepped on in the yard. You could give those people a million dollars, and by the end of the year (if not sooner) they would be broke again, living in squalor, and whining about how the man is somehow keeping them down.
You want to make it possible for everyone to go to college? Stop making a degree the cost equivalent of a four-bedroom house. I have yet to see a degree that’s worth six figures, and I damn sure don’t see any school in the USA that’s producing an education worth that much.
DMan,
you’re absolutely right. when I was changing careers I got a temporary job in a pharmacy. One of the pharmacists who had just graduated had student loan debt of approximately $250,000 for undergraduate and graduate school. That’s a house payment right from the start. Granted pharmacists are very highly paid, around $125,000 year but that still a hefty bill. At least that degree has a practical use.
Stick to STEM sugjects if you want a good return on investment in education. Most humanities have little use in the real world unless you’re going to become a teacher.
JQ
I used to think “Atlas Shrugged” was fiction. Seems like they are doing about every stupid thing TPTB did in that book.
Even though it caused the vapors and the rending of garments, “The Bell Curve” was right on target.
You aren’t poor and stupid because you are uneducated.
You’re poor and uneducated because you’re stupid.
The smart poor kids dig their way out, for the most part.
There were some articles I read or interviews that I watched that made some very good points. Lowering the admissions standards to colleges doesn’t help out poor or under represented demographic students because if they can’t do the work then they drop out with huge college debt. I think that’s a valid point.
Barring Little Lord Fonteroy from admission because of legacy or wealth status is absurd. Colleges need these students so that they pay full price for tuition and they keep donating to the college in the future to keep it financially viable.
JQ
Once again, they’re expecting equality of outcome by “equalizing” admission, when any fool will tell you from experience that it’s a fool’s pursuit.
Disagree. They’re not expecting equality of outcome, they’re expecting to indoctrinate more people into their Church of Marx and Victimology. The talk about “equity” is just a smokescreen. The objective is *power*. At any price (paid by others) and by any means necessary.
You are exactly right. Wish I had said that.
The ‘indoctrination’ IS the goal. Many, if not most of the ‘degree’ are not only
useless but worthless as well. At one time, you CAN’T make this stuff up, one
could actually get a college degree ( sorry, forgot the school’s name )
in ‘Frisbee’ ! Not kidding !!
The ‘degrees’ range from ‘useless’ ( no demand for the knowledge ) to
‘worthless’ ( you can get a job with the degree but don’t plan on buying much ) to
silly – saw someone who earned a Masters degree in ‘Play Theory’ . What the hell
it THAT ?
Bring it on. Employers will quickly realize that private primary school diplomas are worth more than university diplomas, and adjust accordingly.
The common thread is the destruction of the concept of merit. Or perhaps, redefining merit, and any attempt to measure it, as a component of the systematic oppression of the downtrodden.
In America, this has roots in a case in the early 70’s, Griggs v Duke Power. At issue was competency testing that was the key to advancement. The case noted that there was nothing intrinsically racist about the tests themselves, but that the “disparate impact” of the tests (presumably due to the inferior education of the minorities who brought the suit)made them anathema. This set the poisoned barb deep into our society, and is close to the root of many of our current ills.
See https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3482015 for more.
See also the judicial doctrine of “hostile workplace”, which follows a similar formula, providing another legal hook for the woke to hang their nonsense on.
The Left also conveniently ignore the number of scholarships and bursaries that private schools over here offer.
You mentioned Eton: in 2018/19, 255 pupils received a means-tested bursary (averaging a 67% reduction in fees), with 90 students paying no fees at all. That’s 255 out of 1350 – a little under 20%.