Earlier this month, Ascend, the high-performing Brooklyn charter-school network, fired its accomplished founder and CEO, Steven Wilson. What had Wilson done to deserve this? Not much.



Wilson, a school leader with decades of experience, a onetime senior fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and the author of two books on school reform, became perhaps the most visible victim to date of charter schooling’s worrisome turn to politically correct groupthink. Woke enough to declare that his life’s purpose is “addressing education inequalities,” he nevertheless dared to talk frankly about third-rail questions of educational rigor and excellence, and paid the price.



This past summer, on June 4, Wilson penned a blog post titled, “The promise of intellectual joy” that appeared on Ascend’s website. Wilson argued that “democratic” education must strive to “grant all students the knowledge and faculties of mind that had once only been afforded the elite.” He lamented that intellectual pursuit is today too often seen not as a democratic birthright, but as an elitist affectation.



Wilson fretted that values such as “objectivity” and “worship of the written word” had been dismissed as “damaging characteristics of white supremacy culture.” He said there was a “growing risk” that efforts to make schools more “diverse, equitable, and inclusive” could “be shamefully exploited to justify reduced intellectual expectations of students.” Schools must find ways to make clear that “intellectual pursuit” and “especially intellectual joy” are good for all students, of every race and background. If we fail to do that, Wilson argued, “The distinctly American project of equal opportunity will continue to be thwarted.”



One might find all this all to be anodyne enough. Yet, in the progressive-driven culture war that has consumed charter schooling, Wilson’s lofty sentiments were grounds for angry attacks. Soon after the post appeared, a group that labeled itself “Friends of Ascend” started a petition on Change.org that sought to “hold the CEO of Ascend Public Charter Schools accountable for white supremacist rhetoric.” The petition insisted that Wilson’s post contained “offensive and oppressive content that . . . propagates destructive messages about the community that Ascend serves.”



A few months after the petition surfaced, Ascend’s board reviewed Wilson’s “record,” and he was fired.

They are beginning to realize that cucking will not save them. No one will ever be safe from SJWs. Not even if you're a card-carrying liberal academic who votes Democrat and whose life purpose is to address inequality:Wilson isn't someone who merits defending; this is clearly a case of a man reaping what he has sown. The point is that if even someone with his unquestioned left-liberal credentials is being targeted for discrediting and disemployment, what hope do you have of being left alone?

Labels: cuckservative, SJW