Yes.
Always eager for something to do involving the coercive restructuring of society, interventionists have lately been hyping the supposed benefits to K-12 schools of engineering diversity along socio-economic lines. The idea is to ensure that every school has a nice mixture of students from rich households, poor households, and everything in between. Recently John Edwards has been talking this up.
Liam Julian of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation punctures the balloon here.
The truth of the matter is that it’s possible for students to obtain a sound education even if nearly all of them come from “disadvantaged” backgrounds — as is the case with private schools in inner cities that struggle to get by on a minimal budget — and also possible for a “diverse” school to do a miserable job. The great “diversity” crusade is an unnecessary and unproductive diversion.
