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412 points tafda | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.477s | source
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csa ◴[] No.42247695[source]
It’s not just California, but California may be one of the more egregious state neglecters.

The push at the state level for policies that focus on equality of outcomes over equality of opportunities will not end well for the gifted and talented communities.

Whenever I hear these people talk about their policies, I can’t help but recall Harrison Bergeron.

Focusing on equality of outcomes in a society that structurally does not afford equality of opportunities is a fool’s game that ends with Bergeron-esque levels of absurdity.

Imho, the only viable/main solution is to acknowledge that we all aren’t equal, we don’t all have access to the same opportunities, but as a country we can implement policies that lessen the imbalance.

Head Start is a good example.

Well-run gifted and talented programs in schools are also good examples.

Killing truly progressive programs for the purpose of virtue signaling is a loss for society.

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phil21 ◴[] No.42247816[source]
> Killing truly progressive programs for the purpose of virtue signaling is a loss for society

It's not just a loss for society. It's society-killing.

Taking resources away from those who move society forward and spending them on those who are unlikely to "pay it back" is a way your culture dies. Conquerers in the past used this strategy to win massive empires for themselves. It's a ridiculous self-own.

This is perhaps the sole political topic I will die on a hill for.

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hintymad ◴[] No.42248738[source]
> Taking resources away from those who move society forward

And those people do not even have to be geniuses or top students. Our society moves forward on the back of millions of ordinary people, yet those ordinary people, me included, would benefit most from a rigorous education system.

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laidoffamazon ◴[] No.42248767[source]
lol, when people talk about these things they’re talking about the Lowell High kids that want to go to Yale, not normal people like me. Let’s be real here.
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1. phil21 ◴[] No.42248886[source]
No, I'm talking about regular kids who grow up in hard circumstances that just need an opportunity for a better life.

This can mean a jump from working class to middle class and nothing more. That is absolutely driving society forward.

Not offering a means out of "the shit" for these kids is a way to hold them down into the circumstances they were born into and nothing more.

Zero kids I'm thinking of who went through these programs went to Yale or any other ivy. Most have great lives 20 years later, off the backs of that early opportunity for achievement.

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2. laidoffamazon ◴[] No.42250327[source]
I really do not think the modal case of social mobility is people in G&T programs, which definitionally only target the top N% of students