Public Schools, Educational Institutions or Social Service Agencies? EQUITY vs EQUALITY

Jordan Peterson argues, "equality of outcome" is an IMPOSSIBLE goal & TERRIBLE idea. Equity: When the Left Goes Too Far, Jordan Peterson

In fact, it is a Marxist premise which works only in theory. Here’s why: people are individuals. Everything about us is different. We have different interests, talents, gifts, passion, life experiences, and backgrounds.  Our families are different. Some good and some no so great.  Our founders knew this when they drafted the US Constitution...

Dr. Neil Shenvi, a homeschooling theoretical chemist who lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife and four children, published an article on August 20, 2020 titled, North Carolina Considers Using Public Schools To Discriminate In The Name Of ‘Equality’

“If the board of education is proposing we prioritize equal outcome over equal treatment, it will have to draw clear lines to ensure it doesn't inscribe injustice on the heart of our educational system. It has drawn no such lines.”

What Is Equity?

Equity is a buzzword in education today, with numerous major school systems (New York, Oregon, Illinois) committing to incorporate it into the curriculum. If you consult the dictionary, “equity” means “the quality of being fair and impartial,” something no parent or educator would dream of opposing. Given this definition, it’s natural to assume equity is merely a synonym of “equality.”

A popular image commissioned by the Interaction Institute for Social Change illustrates the difference between equality and equity in practice. The picture shows three individuals, one tall, one medium height, and one short in stature viewing a baseball game from behind a fence. They are all standing on boxes of equal height. Everyone can see except the short person, who remains shorter than the top of the fence, even with aid of his box. This image is labeled Equality. The next picture features the same scenario, except the tall person has no box, the medium height person has one box as before, and the short person has two boxes to stand on, giving them all similar abilities to see over the fence. This image is labeled Equity.

Note that equality entails giving all three people equal resources but leads to an undesirable outcome, while equity produces a desirable outcome by supposing that some people require unequal resources to offset their disadvantages.

At first glance, the North Carolina resolution appears to be defining equity in terms of equality of opportunity. It maintains that the state Constitution legally obligates the board of education to “ensure equity, demanding ‘equal opportunities shall be provided for all students.’”

Elsewhere, it explicitly defines “educational equity” as “the belief and practice of ensuring that every student is treated in a fair and just manner” and even says that “equity is equality of opportunity.”