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Comment by TaylorAlexander | Hacker News Reader

Yes certainly. I recently started listening to the audiobook A Peoples History of the United States and there is a LOT of history we don't cover. Right now I am listening to a talk by Noam Chomsky about inequality and it's remarkable that the top % of the wealthy that have control over the country also do not go to public schools. It's as if we have a second school system for the subservient class.

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Public schools in some districts are terrible. If you can afford to send your children to private school, that’s an easier option than changing the entire public school system in your district (unless you’re Bill Gates).

Both you and the person you are replying to are correct. I don't know if you were trying to refute their claim.

Of course it goes without saying that even the public schools in Medina, WA (home of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos) are some of the best in the nation.

Gates sent his kids to local private schools.

And went on to try to change the education system?

Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice? It's to further weaken the underclass since the rich don't even go to public school.

> Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice?

Can you document this? I'm a southern California resident, and I keep hearing stuff like this from people online, but I know no local examples of this at all.

https://edsource.org/2021/california-math-guidance-sparks-ne...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/why-univer...

I read the first link and some supporting links like “a pathway to equitable math instruction”:

https://equitablemath.org/

This is…. Reprehensible

Quite dystopian.

Equal opportunity is a universal value that everyone can agree to strive for.

Equalized outcomes is a dystopian nightmare (equity).

The move to blur the lines between these two concepts is disturbing.

In what way?

As sibling wrote very well:

“ Equal opportunity is a universal value that everyone can agree to strive for.

Equalized outcomes is a dystopian nightmare (equity).”

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/01/24/42658513/seattle...

Having gone to high school in California, we never covered Mexican-american or Spanish-american wars, civil war focused almost exclusively on slavery. 90% of WW2 was about Japanese internment or how racist nuking Japan was. History of Communism was never mentioned for obvious reasons.

The public schools (at least in Washington State) are run by the teachers' union, which is the most powerful political entity in the state.

The teacher's union does not dictate the curriculum.

Typically the state legislatures dictate what is in the curriculum broadly, sometimes extra specifically, and the administrators and teachers create their lessons to satisfy the legislation.

How does the teacher's union suppress subject matters in the history department?

> the state legislatures dictate

It's very hard to get elected in this state without a teachers' union endorsement.

It doesn't follow that they suppress Filipino colonization, is there some example of teachers union demanding of legislators that they pass laws like that?

It's also hard to get elected without people voting for you, or funding for political campaigns.

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