Close Thomas Jefferson High School, Close Stuyvesant High School

It cannot be the job of public education to decide which 13-year-olds will win, and which will lose. There is a much better answer.

When The New York Times published a story on the admissions legal battle at Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School hundreds (and hundreds) of comments appeared. Many of those claimed that altered admissions standards for the “elite” school were an assault on “meritocracy.” “The only thing admissions should be based on is merit” was a constant refrain from those who believe that “merit” is only deduced by a multiple choice test for which (for a few thousand dollars) your child can be “prepped.”

Newsweek, “The Number 1 High School in America Offers a Real Head Start” (and leaves the rest of the kids behind) Photo: Vicky Somma/Newsweek

Running alongside this argument was the “model minority” theme (though, this being The Times, those words were avoided). The reason TJHS had become mostly Asian (and white) is simply that those racial groups “value education” and “invest in their children,” in obvious contrast with the (undescribed, of course) lazy, irresponsible…