The progressive agenda has helped to lower academic performance among the nation’s students. Combined with the lockdown orders that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that learning is in great peril.

But one of the issues that has been eclipsed by critical race theory and transgender ideology is the effort to suppress the advancement of certain children under the guise of promoting “equity.” This reality is all too apparent, in the recent story detailing how school districts in Virginia and elsewhere are deliberately withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the families of students who have made remarkable academic achievements in school.

The issue came to light in December, when it was revealed that the administration of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in northern Virginia were refusing to notify parents when their children won National Merit awards. They had been doing this for the past five years, before they were caught in 2022. Recently, more schools in the district admitted to doing the same.

In a piece for the New York Post, author Asra Nomani noted that most of the students in question were Asian and that this conduct was a part of an effort to ensure “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.”

Nomani continued:

But TJ School officials had decided to withhold announcement of the award. Indeed, it turns out that the principal, Ann Bonitatibus, and the director of student services, Brandon Kosatka, have been withholding this information from families and the public for years, affecting the lives of at least 1,200 students over the principal’s tenure of five years. Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors.

Virginia’s attorney general’s office has launched an investigation into the matter, and the state legislature is working on legislation to prohibit schools from concealing National Merit awards from parents.

During a phone call with Shawna Yashar, a parent of one of the students, Brandon Kosatka, the director of student services for Thomas Jefferson High School, admitted that the decision to withhold the information was intentional. “We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements,” he said, also explaining that he and the principal did not wish to “hurt” the feelings of students who did not win the award.

What makes this particularly evil is the fact that these awards benefit children by helping them get accepted into universities. It can literally contribute to determining their future as adults. The notion that school officials would deliberately deprive them of these awards under the guise of “equity” is atrocious.

But it is also a product of Marxist thinking.

All across the country, schools are lowering academic standards in order to manufacture equal outcomes between white, black, brown, and Asians students. They are not concerned with helping each child achieve their full potential – they want only to keep everyone on the exact same level because it somehow makes them more “equal.”

I’ve often pointed out that Marxists seek to close racial, education gaps by bringing down successful students instead of uplifting black and brown students. They do not want black and brown students to perform as well as whites and Asians, but would rather lower the performance of top students because this somehow creates a level playing field.

Sound familiar?

Communist ideology, when it is drawn out to its logical conclusion, results in everyone (except the ruling class) being equal. The problem is that it means everyone is equally poor. Translating this into academics, they are ensuring that all students are equally uneducated.

But there’s another element in this equation. This not only promotes “equity,” but dumber kids, turn into dumber adults who are easier to manipulate by the indoctrination camps we call government schools. This is because the Marxist crowd is playing the long game. By dumbing down the populace and indoctrinating it into Marxist ideas, they will have a much easier time winning power and expanding the government’s presence in our lives.

If this isn’t a case for school choice, I don’t know what is, dear reader.