California school district re-instates merit-based policy

 Found out about this via Instapundit. Remember a while ago NYC wanted to end their elite programs in the name of racial/ethnic equity. It seems they had done something similar in San Francisco instead of grades and test scores admission to an elite school was determined by a lottery.

Via California Globe:

With the sting of a February recall election that saw three of its members bounced from its ranks fresh in their memories, the San Francisco Unified District Board of Education has voted to drop a 2-year-old lottery system to gain entrance into the elite Lowell School. By a slim 4-3 vote, the school will return to a merit-based applications process that uses grades, tests, and essays as criteria for acceptance. The system will go into place for the Freshman class entering in the Fall of 2023

Lowell High School of San Francisco, once considered one of the more prestigious and highest performing public schools in the nation, found itself again in the cross hairs of the ongoing debate regarding the use of merit-based criteria to gain entrance into its esteemed halls. With this latest School Board decision, the debate is hardly over. Lawsuits are expected and there will no doubt be continued posturing from those prioritizing Diversity and Inclusion over attracting the best and brightest of students irrespective of race or ethnicity.

In October of 2020, the San Francisco School Board voted to change its competitive admissions process for Lowell from one based upon grades, test scores and essays to one that was mostly based on a lottery system. At that time, the Board cited difficulty in securing sufficient letter grades and test scores given the ongoing pandemic as the cause for the change. Just a few short months later in February of 2021, the Board rammed through a proposal by a 5-2 vote to make the lottery system permanent. The majority cited “pervasive systemic racism” and a lack of diversity for its decision to make the lottery admissions process permanent.

See there! You see systemic racism and diversity & inclusion in this article. When using those terms ask yourself what they really mean? Of course the article continues in trying to get more Blacks and "Latinx" students in their ranks resulted in less white and especially Asian students. And that means parents of the Asian students realize they're being targeted. 

Rising crime in many of America's major cities and the downgrade of the education system should be concerning for those who care about the health of our urban areas.

BTW, I really wanted to use a far more "reputable" source such as an article from the SF Chronicle to further discuss this, however, I had encountered a paywall. I could guess that this article might say something much different than the above article I excerpted. Perhaps sooner than later I can eventually read this article when perhaps after some time it will be available to the public.