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The US & World Report ranked Amity #39 among high schools in the state of Connecticut. This was a significant drop from a ranking of #28 last year. It is important to note that this is a downward trend from previous years, starting with a #20 rank in 2020.
In a previous edition of the Woodbridge and Orange Town News, an Amity Board member tried to explain away the result saying that because of the pandemic, they based the most recent ranking on the district’s 2018-2019 academic scores (like the Connecticut State Assessment Scores), and therefore it brought the ranking down. What he failed to acknowledge or consider was that those academic scores were actually higher that year compared to this year, and when applied to this year’s ranking, actually contributed to raising this year’s ranking, not lowering it.
At the end of his article, he once again discounts the results from US News & World Report and says that he would feel more comfortable with the results of the rankings from Niche which just came out. He states they ranked the school 10th. However, that is FALSE. Amity ranked 24th amongst high schools in Connecticut and also demonstrated the same significant downward trend seen by US News, starting with a #16 rank in 2019. In contrast, in 2014, the school was ranked first in the state by Newsweek.
Here is a visual representation of the decline:
Regarding academic performance, according to Niche, Amity received an A, but a closer look reveals that nine schools earned an A+ in academics and Amity ranked 13th out of the 20 schools that received an A. In addition, Amity’s administration received a C, which is again a decline from last year’s C+. And in the top 100 public high schools in Connecticut, there are only four administrations ranked lower than Amity.* The Amity Board member in his column again tried to explain away this result and stated that the C was a result of the input of a small number of negative residents.
Explaining away an issue does not demonstrate leadership. To demonstrate true leadership, you listen to ALL of your constituents, acknowledge rather than discount the issues, and problem solve and brainstorm to implement change rather than ignore or discount the problems.
It is unfortunate that we cannot rely on our media to provide a balanced view. Please note that someone submitted a column that provided our perspective on rankings to the Town News way before the deadline, but it was never printed, and the article by the board member somehow included his arguments discounting that perspective even though it never actually appeared in print.
Our group has been accused of book banning, which is another lie. We are simply asking that students be exposed to books that are age appropriate. A good example is a book of poetry by Emanuel Xavier that was in the ninth grade English curriculum. Here are some excerpts that students were instructed to read.
From a poem, What I Never Told You About Prostitution:
“That my mentor was Jay, an HIV positive hustler,
known for his big, uncut Puerto Rican d**k…
That I used to be picked up regularly by a pedophile
Who would drive me around in his car
sharing stories about how he f****d his daughters
Never asking me to do anything
just listen while he parked and j****d off”From a poem Morning After the C**k:
“I look under the covers
a mess of lube stains and condoms
His c**k is so Friday night…
I have no clue where I am and this is not the same guy
I remember making out with”
I emailed the publisher and inquired as to what age this book was appropriate for and they responded that it was meant for adults.
I have watched the politics going on in the current race and am also disappointed in the way the Democratic Party hysterically calls those who are asking for change as MAGA extremists. I have never worn a MAGA hat, but regardless, this is not about party politics. As noted by the most recent slate for Line B, the candidates are a mix of Republicans, unaffiliated and even Democrats. It’s about doing what’s best for our children, our grandchildren, and teachers in removing this indoctrination from the curriculum. Compelling them to learn or teach this racist, political, and anti-Semitic ideology that includes the over-sexualization of our children is not in anyone’s best interest.
Some recent news in the field of education further demonstrates exactly why this ideology, which is based on Critical Race Theory (CRT), should be removed.
Ibram X. Kendi, a Boston University professor came up with a simplistic idea based on CRT that he considered an unimpeachable truth—that racism is the cause of all racial disparities and that anyone who disagrees is a racist. He called for discriminating against people of one racial group to benefit another racial group. He called it “anti-racist discrimination,” but for an independent thinker, it is simply racism in reverse. This, by the way, is the basis of DEI’s definition of Diversity. Please note that the common definition of including people from many different backgrounds is something we all agree on, but is not DEI’s definition.
After three years, we now see that Kendi’s unpopular ideology, bogus research, and his Center for Antiracism Research is a total failure. He accumulated more than $55 million for his Center at BU, produced virtually no research, and laid off nearly half of his employees, who accused him of mismanaging funds and failing to deliver on key projects. In the wake of these allegations, Boston University announced an official investigation.
His failure is the ultimate vindication for those of us who said that CRT, and by extension DEI, which is based on CRT, was not a solution to America’s problem and would harm, and not enhance school culture. Ibram Kendi was simply a false prophet with a dangerous philosophy. The abject failure to produce any research is in significant contrast with the abundance of research which I have often cited that clearly states DEI/CRT doesn’t work and can even cause harm. Even the NYTimes wrote that his ideology was never the right answer. As we have suggested over-and-over, the answer is to return to the colorblindness proposed by Martin Luther King who valued hard work, character, and merit.
To return to excellence in education, I encourage you to vote for all the candidates in Row B on the ballot, especially those who are running to replace those currently on the regional Amity Board of Education. You can read more about them from the links below.
In Woodbridge:
https://www.woodbridgegop.com/our-team/brucemarien (Watch the video of his statement too)
https://www.woodbridgegop.com/our-team/danieldelprete
In Orange:
https://orangectrepublicans.com/candidates.html (Hit the arrow on the upper right to move to the Amity Board of Education candidates.)
In Bethany:
https://bethanyrepublicans.org/2023-campaign
Please feel free to forward this to many of your friends and family as the only way to improve the school is to plot a course of change that these candidates offer. It is about creating a safe environment for our children, challenging them academically, and respecting parental rights to raise their children as they see fit.
See you at the polls on Election Day, Tuesday, November 7th.
*Thank you to Bruce Marien, a current Woodbridge candidate for the Amity Board of Education, who provided me with the ranking statistics and analysis provided above.
