A plan that advocates predict will discourage low-income students from applying to college is expected to be voted on by California State University’s (CSU) Board of Trustees in January.
The proposal would do away with a fourth-year math or science requirement for applicants, which critics allege will adversely impact students of color.
“It’s nothing more than the soft bigotry of low expectations and it's not going to help improve any results at the K to 12 levels, especially for so-called disadvantaged, low-income students, and underrepresented minority students,” said Wenyuan Wu, executive director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER). “They are not going to see their math proficiencies improve.”
But a Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) study cited by CSU officials determined that most CSU applicants already take the fourth year of math or science in high school.
As a result, requiring the fourth year is unnecessary, according to media reports.
“CSU does not plan to pursue a change to our admissions requirements,” Nathan Evans, vice chancellor of academic and student affairs, told the Epoch Times last month at a Committee on Educational Policy hearing. “Instead, we anticipate employing multiple strategies…to strongly recommend and incentivize the completion of an additional quantitative reasoning course to prepare students for the full range of academic professions.”
However, omitting the requirement, according to Wu, sets a precedent that it is acceptable to lower educational standards.
“If the problem is in the grade schools at the K-12 level, then policy solutions need to be implemented at those levels to drive changes, to improve teacher performance, to improve classroom management, and to help students, especially those who need the help the most,” she said.
Wu is further concerned about a war being waged on merit.
“It’s not just getting rid of a fourth-year high school math requirement,” she said. “It makes you wonder what will be next. What if we see certain demographic groups not performing well in reading or writing, do we lower standards in English Language Arts?”
Wu said she plans to testify and give public commentary at the January hearing.
“Higher education bureaucrats and professors don't have a really vested interest in the betterment of our public education system, especially if they don't have children in the system,” Wu added.
“A lot of them will be long gone with a lot of money and a lot of connections after the damage is done. They are not going to face the consequences. It's the children and the average American family with children who will face the consequences and it's very, very sad.”