Utah school grades came out recently and they show a clear bias. Only one Utah public high school received an A. Twenty-six high schools failed. The one public high school that received an A was Davis High; 10.4 percent of Davis High students are economically disadvantaged, 0.8 percent are English language learners, 7.8 percent are ethnic minorities and 7.7 percent are in special ed. Compare that to a typical failing school; 73.9 percent of Granger High’s students are economically disadvantaged, 19.6 percent are English language learners, 73.8 percent are ethnic minorities and 11.5 percent are in special ed.
You might think that schools are graded to identify schools in need and help them. This is not the case. Class sizes are not reduced in failing schools. Extra resources are not given to failing schools. The purpose of failing a school seems obvious. State legislators want to put a big scarlet F on as many public schools as possible.
Wake up Utahns, the Utah Legislature has your public school in its cross hairs; and if your public school has a diverse student body with many that are economically disadvantaged, chances are your state legislators have already marked your school with a big scarlet F.
Andrew Platt
Kearns