Friday, February 25, 2005
Are you kidding me?
News in Brief number 2:
A revamped version of Berkeley High School’s controversial Academic Choice program gained approval from the Berkeley school board last week.
The revised program will have new diversity regulations requiring the ethnic makeup of the program’s participants to match that of the entire high school. The program must also have the support of the high school’s African American Studies Department.
Just to remind readers, Academic Choice is Berkeley High's controversial program. It's controversial because it offers advanced courses, so that students who want to use their high school time to prepare for the future have that option. But they no longer have that option, because, if I'm reading this correctly, if not enough black students want to be part of Academic Choice, then they'll have to turn away white students who are interested in order to maintain the ethnic makeup of the school.
Further, it needs the support of the African American Studies department. Dude, WTF? Why does this particular department get veto power? Let's also say that the African American Studies department needs the approval of the English department, just for fun. Since the current AAS dude supports the program, it seems likely this is just a "Okay, we'll put it in place, but if you ever change your mind, just let us know so we can fold really, really fast."
Boardmember Terry Doran, who abstained from voting on the program, said he was still uncertain about how the program would benefit all students, not just the most advanced.
Uh, not everything needs to benefit everybody. For instance, your AAS program probably doesn't benefit all students either. If you have any special services for the disabled, those don't benefit all students. You'd better get rid of them.
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