Asians should be seen and not heard. The Virginia Parent Teachers Association is threatening to abolish the PTA of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology after it elected a slate of candidates opposed to the implementation of Critical Race Theory-inspired policies.
Fairfax County public school officials engineered a new demographic profile — fewer Asians and more Blacks and Hispanics — at the elite public high school by scrapping the admissions test and explicitly using race/ethnicity as a criterion. TJ parents opposed to discrimination against Asians took over the school’s PTA organization in elections earlier this month, and an argument promptly broke out over whether Principal Ann Bonitatus should be allowed to vote in PTA meetings — something previous principals had not done.
The Virginia PTA weighed in, declaring that as a member of the executive committee, the principal does have voting rights. “The inclusion of the principal as a voting member of the EC is, in fact, an organizational standard across Virginia in our local unit bylaws,” said president-elect Jenna Alexander, according to the Daily Wire.
Asra Nomani, a leader of the opposition, struck back: “The fact that a white woman is actively working to install another white woman into a position of additional authority over the will of a majority of minority parents is shocking and disturbing and a reflection once more of the unwelcome and hostile environment in FCPS against minority parents who dare to speak up.”
The other CRT (Culturally Responsive Training, not Critical Race Theory. Meanwhile, over at Berkeley East, school teachers in Albemarle County have expanded its “culturally responsive training” program. Budgeting $360,000 in the coming fiscal year, the school system will hire three additional “equity” specialists. Since training began in 2015, nearly 15% of the district’s instructional staff have completed the training.
For once, school officials are setting concrete goals. According to the Daily Progress, district officials are aiming for a gradual improvement in student achievement data starting in the 2023-24 school year.
My prediction: Culturally Responsive Training does not address a real issue. There will be zero improvement in SOL scores. There even may be backsliding. Time will tell.
