Another You Gotta Be Kidding Moment

Only in Berkeley . . . (sigh).

They are seriously considering eliminating Science Laboratory courses for High School Students in Berkeley. The first paragraph makes it sound tragic but necessary.

Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students.

If the money is not there for the courses then it's not there. It's called reality and we have to live with it even if the results are undesirable.

But there's more to it after you get past the first paragraph.

The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Paul Gibson, an alternate parent representative on the School Governance Council, said that information presented at council meetings suggests that the science labs were largely classes for white students. He said the decision to consider cutting the labs in order to redirect resources to underperforming students was virtually unanimous.

Except for the fact that roughly a quarter of the students in those classes are Black and Hispanic. Maybe they're not authentic members of the said minorities because they are achieving something substantial in the academic fields.

The way to correct the racial imbalance in achievement is not to bring the white students to a lower level but to improve the achievement level of the minority students. To intentionally hold anyone back because of their skin color is racism, and whites too can be the victim of discriminatory policies.

If only a few minority students succeed because of these classes, it would still probably be a greater number than the number of them that find success in athletics and music. By slamming this door on white students they slam it on everyone.