THE LEFT AT ITS WORST – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  There are some stories that are so appalling that they must be reported, even though they are, at least for now, local.  Consider what is happening in the symbolically left-wing city of Berkeley, California, home to a goodly number of awful ideas:

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.

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.

Aside from the militantly anti-intellectual nature of the idea – not unusual in liberal precincts – this is a gratuitous insult to black and Hispanic students.  The school is, in effect, saying that the science labs are a bit too difficult for these kids.  No they're not, not with the proper encouragement and guidance.  Black and Hispanic kids "do" science all the time.  Please note:

Sincular-Mertens, who has taught science at BHS for 24 years, said the possible cuts will impact her black students as well. She says there are twelve African-American males in her AP classes and that her four environmental science classes are 17.5 percent African American and 13.9 percent Latino. "As teachers, we are greatly saddened at the thought of losing the opportunity to help all of our students master the skills they need to find satisfaction and success in their education," she told the board.

COMMENT:  You can be sure that it's white leftists who came up with this idea.  In the 1960s it was white leftists in New York, led by the extremist New York branch of the ACLU, who championed "community control of schools" and "open admissions" in city colleges.  Those measures came close to destroying the greatest urban school system in the United States and did destroy the "poor man's Harvard," City College of New York.  The college is now recovering thanks largely to a gutsy Hispanic leader, Herman Badillo, the nation's first Puerto Rican-born congressman, who led the battle to restore standards to the revered institution.

Berkeley does it again.  Don't be shocked if other "progressive" schools get the same idea.  After all, when you're destroying English and History, why not go all the way?

December 29, 2009