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> It doesn't really matter how good the model is, it's an impossible task politically. There will always be some people aggrieved by the new process and they wi

> It doesn't really matter how good the model is, it's an impossible task politically. There will always be some people aggrieved by the new process and they will always have plausible ways to spin it as racist or classist or whatever else is necessary to fuel the outrage machine. As if the previous setup was some kind of examplar of egalitarianism. So just because every system has flaws, we should throw in the towel and give up? Taking that line of thinking all the way means we can just replace university allocations with a lottery. That's not how society works. Even if every system have flaws, even if the current suffers from racism and classism, we have to strive towards making it better. The system the UK invented here does not even try. It very clearly favors people with nice postcodes. Maybe we should replace it with a lottery, it would be equal. But I'm pretty sure the people with nice postcodes would like it much, and that's the people propping up the UK gov. Etonians, Oxford, silver spoon etc. I for one believe there must be _some way_ to fix the situation and is better than what they came up with.

dynamite-ready 6y ago
It's clear there's some abuse of power going on here. It doesn't sound like an entirely objective process. That the algorithm has been selectively applied, is definitely worth an independent review and some time in court. That argument can be made without drawing emotional prejudices into it, but it wouldn't hurt to raise the question of prejudice while conducting this debate, because there has been evidence of a class based skew in the UK education system for years now. And this appears to be the most overt attempt to rig the system yet seen.
- DanBC 6y ago
  > That argument can be made without drawing emotional prejudices into it, but it wouldn't hurt to raise the question of prejudice while conducting this debate, There's a public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010 which is one reason people are looking at the disproportionate impact on some groups.

dynamite-ready 6y ago

It's clear there's some abuse of power going on here. It doesn't sound like an entirely objective process. That the algorithm has been selectively applied, is definitely worth an independent review and some time in court. That argument can be made without drawing emotional prejudices into it, but it wouldn't hurt to raise the question of prejudice while conducting this debate, because there has been evidence of a class based skew in the UK education system for years now. And this appears to be the most overt attempt to rig the system yet seen.

DanBC 6y ago
> That argument can be made without drawing emotional prejudices into it, but it wouldn't hurt to raise the question of prejudice while conducting this debate, There's a public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010 which is one reason people are looking at the disproportionate impact on some groups.