San Francisco’s radical math experiment failed a generation and parents are furious

For years, San Francisco’s school leaders thought they could outsmart basic reality. They scrapped algebra for eighth graders, patting themselves on the back for being so “inclusive.” Their grand plan? Delay teaching kids real math, hoping the achievement gap would magically disappear. In reality, all they did was drag everyone down—even the students who could have soared. That’s the left’s idea of “equity”: Everyone gets to fail together.

Look at the carnage. Math scores tanked across the board. Fewer than half of San Francisco’s eighth graders are now proficient in math—a huge drop from a decade ago. For Black students, the numbers are an absolute disgrace. The city’s woke policy didn’t help them get ahead. It left only 4 percent of Black eighth graders meeting math standards last year. The so-called “experts” in City Hall threw away a generation’s potential because they cared more about feel-good headlines than results.

While politicians pranced around bragging about fairness, parents scrambled to fix the mess on their own. The lucky ones could hire private tutors or pay for summer classes just to keep their kids’ heads above water. “Public education” became a joke—unless you could afford to buy your way around its failures. This is classic leftist hypocrisy: preach equality, create more inequality, then duck the blame.

Now, after ten wasted years, San Francisco’s leadership pretends it just discovered that actually teaching math is, shockingly, how children learn math. But the damage is done. The city spent a decade playing with kids’ futures for political points, propping up radical ideologies instead of proven educational methods. Meanwhile, California’s statewide math and reading scores still lag behind most of America. Of course, the Democrats running the place insist everything is just fine. Don’t believe your own eyes, they say—believe their “progress.”

Thankfully, voters are waking up. Education is shaping up to be the issue in California politics, and the establishment is on the defensive. There are leaders—finally—willing to take on the Left’s disastrous experiments. The question is, will Californians demand real accountability this time? Or will they let the same “experts” destroy the next generation while hiding behind empty slogans?

Source: Townhall