Keep Your Politics and Racist Theories Out of Math, For Everyone's Good

If your kid can't do math, the problem isn't that "math is racist" or some other such ridiculum:

Hundreds of mathematicians and scientists have signed a statement calling on educators to abandon “well-intentioned” efforts to close achievement gaps in math education, saying it could have “unintended consequences.”

The “ Open Letter on K-12 Mathematics ” is significant pushback against efforts to reform math education due to achievement gaps that often fall upon racial lines. Liberal activists and educators say the reforms are necessary to achieve racial equity due to those racially disparate achievement levels.

To date, the letter has been signed by 597 math professionals from all over the country, including numerous college professors, high school teachers, and researchers, ranging from engineers to physics and computer science professors.

The letter says “well-intentioned” efforts to reform math education, including a much-maligned effort in California dubbed the California Mathematics Framework, may superficially achieve goals of reducing student achievement gaps but are ultimately just “kicking the can to college," which they say would lead to lower math achievement in schools, thus hurting the ability of students to enter STEM fields. 

These authors give a huge benefit of the doubt in assuming such efforts are well-intentioned.

The problem goes far beyond just your own kid:

A top Democratic economist says the rise of "antiracist" math curricula is a national security threat.

Larry Summers, a Harvard economist who led the National Economic Council under former president Barack Obama, shared a letter on Monday signed by almost 600 academics that condemns the rise of woke math initiatives in K-12 schools. The letter says the initiatives have devalued foundational math courses such as algebra and limited advanced math courses "to reduce achievement gaps." Summers called rigorous math instruction "an economic and a national security imperative," noting that "in China, math standards are not subject to continued erosion by social justice warriors who can't themselves define exponential growth or solve quadratic equations."

Radical education activists want to purge math curricula of allegedly racist practices, which include showing your work and arriving at the right answer. Democratic donors have played a role in propagating this now-popular trend in math education, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation bankrolled A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction, the nonprofit behind a curriculum that asks teachers to observe how math "is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views."

Proponents of "antiracist" curricula often push to eliminate advanced math classes in order to reduce achievement gaps for underprivileged students. The coalition behind the open letter, k12mathmatters, says this misguided approach diminishes "access to skills needed for social mobility."

Just like a nation cannot tax itself into prosperity, neither can it improve education by lowering standards--unless you're going to be very Orwellian, of course.