But re-defines “merit” to align with affirmative action principles

The Peel Board is hiring; hopefully not too many white people.

First some background and context. The Peel District School Board (PDSB) has long lamented the lower average academic achievement of black students, especially boys (it has also become politically necessary for them to point to low achievement for Indigenous kids although they make up less than 1% of the student body).

So it was that in 2017 a concerted effort was made to improve outcomes for black boys. Of course, there were then, and still are, examples of very successful black boys in the system, and many kids, girls and boys alike, who are not black, were struggling then and still are now. It should be obvious to anyone that struggling at school is not entirely (at all?) a race-based thing. But rather than explore common denominators for school success the board did what our institutions are all doing these days which was to jump on the race-essentialist bandwagon.