For brain surgery, would you prefer surgeons who graduated from medical schools that selected students according to diversity and inclusiveness, or instead, surgeons previously accepted to medical schools according to highest competency and examination scores?
What about air safety?
From 1995 until 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration worked with universities and colleges, verifying highest qualifying applicants would receive priority for accredited degree programs at Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) schools, according to lawyer William Perry Pendley of the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
The FAA gave preference to veterans and candidates securing references from CTI administrators awarding “well-qualified” placement on the Air Traffic Selection and Training exam (AT-SAT), a “proctored eight-hour computer-based” test, Pendley said in a MSLF news release.
In 2013, FAA Administer Michael Huerta, bent on a more diverse and inclusive workplace, began social engineering.
Huerta presented an analysis identifying women and minorities as underrepresented in the FAA.
The FAA invalidated and discarded scores of at least 2,000 trained, qualified veterans and CTI graduates, Pendley said.
According to Pendley, the FAA required these candidates to pass a nonvalidated and nonmonitored biographical questionnaire, retake the AT-SAT, then reapply at the end of the line.
Andrew Brigida, holding two Arizona State University aviation bachelor degrees and a 100 percent FAA’s ATC aptitude test score is one rejected candidate, Pendley said.
Currently, using biographical questionnaires, the FAA may hire half of applicants (many struggling with English competency and dropping out) according to race.
During last fall’s Convention of States simulation, state representatives passed an amendment restraining federal regulatory authority.
Such an amendment could limit agencies such as the FAA to their authorized purpose.
Susan Shotthafer,
Port Angeles
Shotthafer is a member of the Port Angeles School Board.