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Letters sent from the board president of an Oakland County school district with a sizable Asian American population has upset some activists in metro Detroit who say it contained stereotypical and inaccurate descriptions of families of Asian descent.
The controversial emails written by Troy school board President Karl Schmidt became publicly known in recent months after they were obtained by some of his opponents during a contentious school board race in which Schmidt is running for reelection.
Schmidt, who has apologized for his descriptions of Asians, emailed the letters in May of last year to the math departments of six universities seeking advice on math curriculum amid a debate in the district over whether to eliminate some math honors programs in its middle schools. Schmidt and five others on the seven-member board members voted last year to remove the math honors program over heated objections from many parents.
Part of the four-page letters emailed by Schmidt said “Chinese and Southern Asian parents” objected to the removal of honors classes because they “often derive social status from the academic status of their children” and will lose “bragging rights” if their children can’t take honors classes. The letter also claimed Asian American parents are more into “speed and computational” learning instead of “deeper” learning.
About 39% of students in Troy schools are Asian American, many of them of Chinese and Indian descent; the phrase “Southern Asian” used in the letter appears to generally refer to Indian Americans. Some questioned why Schmidt was singling out Asian Americans given that there were people of other backgrounds — white, Black, Middle Eastern — who also supported the math honors programs. Local parents of Asian descent told the board they were confused about Schmidt mentioning “bragging rights” because they don’t know Asian Americans who go around boasting their children are in honors classes. They were also concerned Schmidt was disparaging the Asian American community to universities some of them may later apply to.
Troy Schools Superintendent Rich Machesky and board member Vital Anne both have criticized the emails and said they don’t represent their views or the district.
Asian American group condemns letter
Last Tuesday, American Citizens for Justice, an Asian American civil rights group formed in 1983 in Detroit after the killing of Vincent Chin sparked Asian activism, released a statement that condemned Schmidt “for his comments reinforcing negative racial stereotypes to dismiss concerns by Asian American parents about math curriculum.” ACJ called for Schmidt to apologize and the board to censure him.
“Racial tropes such as Asians being better at math, computer science, and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields are part of the model minority myth, dehumanizing Asian Americans as being a monolith and diminishing their individual views,” the group said. “Schmidt’s comments not only minimize the concerns of Asian American parents as only wanting ‘bragging rights,’ but his racially biased opinion is then amplified via emails to university leaders declaring this damaging trope as a fact.”
Christina Mui, executive director of ACJ, said “lumping all Asian American parents and … their children together using a negative racial stereotype (of) being status conscious leads to the ‘othering’ of a whole community” that can lead to racist attacks.
Troy board president apologizes
In an email Thursday to the Free Press, Schmidt said he “publicly apologized for that statement, recognized that it was inappropriate. … In retrospect, that was an unfair statement, and I understand why some of these parents were upset by it.”
Schmidt apologized during a Sept. 17 board meeting at which a couple of Asian American activists in Oakland County complained about his email. He said he hopes to engage in dialogue with his critics to “repair the relationship,” but has not heard back after emailing them to set up a time to meet.
“I remain committed to recognizing and correcting my own biases,” Schmidt told the Free Press. “I want to assure all parents in our district that they are heard and valued by me, even if we may disagree about a particular action taken by the board.”
The debate reflects the complexity of local politics and education in a city with one of the highest percentages of immigrants among municipalities in Michigan. More than 29% of Troy’s residents are Asian American, with Indian Americans making up 15.4% and Chinese Americans 5.8%, according to the 2020 census.
But ending math honors and English honors classes, which were also removed earlier, does not just affect Asian American students, Hengguang Li, a Troy parent who is chair of the math department at Wayne State University, said last year to the board. Troy High School often has the highest, or among the highest, SAT scores among public schools in the state, according to data from the state Department of Education. Schmidt said in his letter that Chinese and Southern Asian “parents often have advanced degrees, are employed in STEM positions and place high value on their children’s mathematics education.”
School board race heats up
The complaints from Asian American activists are the latest development in an ongoing battle over math honors programs in its middle schools. Last year, a recall effort to remove some school board members who supported removing math honors failed, the Oakland Press reported. The debate has now become part of an intense campaign this fall for three seats on the district’s board in a nonpartisan race on the November ballot. A rival candidate who opposes Schmidt, Alex Karpowitsch, filed a FOIA request in January seeking emails from board members mentioning honors classes.
One of the emails obtained that was reviewed by the Free Press was dated May 9, 2023, and contained the remarks by Schmidt on Asian American parents. The email had the name of the recipient redacted; activists and Schmidt both confirmed the recipient was a university and sent to other universities. Karpowitsch said part of the reason he filed the FOIA request was to push back on Schmidt claiming that the objection to removing honors had little support. At a board meeting on May 16, 2023, a week after the email was sent, the board voted 6-1 to approve removing some math honors programs, with Anne the only dissenting vote.
Schmidt said he sent six emails last year to the chairs of the math departments of six universities — Michigan State University, University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, Purdue and Notre Dame — as part of an effort to learn from experts about math curriculum and how changes can lead to resistance from some parents.
Schmidt sent the emails “after several months of the board being battered by a small but very vocal and angry group of honors parents, who viewed the change as inappropriate,” he said in his statement to the Free Press. “They were concerned that the caliber of education would decline for their students if they were no longer segregated from other high-level math students. They did not agree with the research that demonstrated we had been tracking students too early. In fact, multiple national studies showed that later success in advanced math and STEM fields in college was best predicted by a student getting a deep, robust education in arithmetic and pre-algebra math concepts in middle school with a focus on learning how to apply techniques to real-world situations — and not by simply accelerating into advanced math sooner via a traditional ‘drill and kill’ computational emphasis.”
Facing some opposition, Schmidt turned to experts for advice.
“In desperation, I reached out to six university math departments, explaining the district’s rationale and plan as well as detailing these parents’ objections based on hours of meetings with them, and asked the professors to weigh in,” Schmidt said.
He said the University of Michigan and Purdue “provided written responses in support of our change” and that he spent an hour on Zoom with a Stanford professor, who “was completely supportive of our proposed change.” The other universities did not respond.
Schmidt and his supporters said the criticism may be partly rooted in campaign politics.
“All four challengers have used the honors shift as a wedge issue in their campaigns,” he said.
Schmidt is running on a slate along with another board member, Nicole Wilson. Board member Gary Hauff is also running for reelection. Karpowitsch is running on a slate with Audra Melton and Stephanie Zendler that supports the restoration of math honors; if they win, they could ally with Anne to vote to restore the honors classes. Ayesha Potts, the only Asian American candidate on the ballot, is running for a seat; Anne is currently the only Asian American on the board.
Karpowitsch criticized the emails, telling the Free Press he “thought it was incongruent with the interests of the community. I do not believe that the community feels that … honors courses are strictly for bragging rights. I do not feel that students and their parents are interested in taking these courses to go faster as opposed to deeper.”
In a statement to the Free Press, Potts also appeared to criticize Schmidt’s reference to “bragging rights,” saying she strongly supports “bringing honors courses back.”
“As an Asian American parent myself, I know that parents’ motivation for restoring honors is simply to provide opportunities for students to excel,” Potts said. “I have been deeply involved in education in Troy for almost twenty years and I know that this community just wants what is best for students.”
Suril Patel, of Sterling Heights, who is building a home in Troy, expressed concern at the Sept. 17 board meeting that Schmidt’s emails were making Asian American students look bad to universities.
“Your role as a board is not to judge us, and certainly not to disparage us to universities across the country,” said Patel, who supports Karpowitsch’s slate. “A lot of districts have no problem making sure that there are educational options and children are met where they are, whether they’re special ed, whether they’re advanced, with transparent monitoring of both growth and achievement, and they’ve done this without being racist. I am genuinely curious how such individuals were promoted to be president or even serve a community that” has a high percentage of Asian American students.
Troy superintendent said letter was ‘hurtful’
Machesky, the superintendent, said Thursday in an email “the comments made in Mr. Schmidt’s email are his own. They do not represent the Troy School District. Mr. Schmidt recognizes that his comments were hurtful to some, he has apologized and has offered to meet with anyone that he offended.”
Machesky, who supported the removing of math honors in middle schools, stressed that Troy schools still offer academically rigorous programs.
“We support every member of our learning community in their academic journey,” he said. “Our primary goal is to ensure that all students and their families feel prepared to make informed decisions about taking accelerated, honors, AP courses or testing out of a course when the time is right.”
Anne said in a statement that Schmidt’s views “do not represent the position of the Board of Education. He has acknowledged his mistake and offered a sincere apology to those affected. As a Board, we are deeply committed to valuing every student and ensuring that they receive a high-quality education that prepares them for future success.”
Schmidt said with the election coming up soon, the issue is now up to the voters.
“The middle school math controversy will ultimately be settled on November 5,” he said. “Regardless of whether I am able to retain my seat, I am still convinced this shift in the way we teach math was the right thing to do for our kids.”
Below is the email sent May 9, 2023, by Troy School District board president Karl Schmidt to the chair of a math department of a university. At the bottom of page 3 is a section mentioning Asian Americans that has drawn criticism.
Contact Niraj Warikoo:nwarikoo@freepress.com or X @nwarikoo