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In an rare public rebuke, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna blasted the Palo Alto Unified School District in a social media post Monday, calling “absurd” the district’s months-old decision to remove Honors Biology.
District Superintendent Don Austin responded to his complaints at a board meeting Tuesday night, thanking the congressman for what he characterized as an “apology,” regarding the post, which he called “misguided.”
But Khanna told this publication that he did not, in fact, apologize and stood by his criticism.
“I had a call with Palo Alto Superintendent Austin at his request, and I admire his leadership,” Khanna, D-17th District, said in a statement. “I said while I disagree with the decision, I am sorry, on a human level, that he was put in the national spotlight and look forward to working with him. We have received many calls and emails expressing support for my speaking out and thanking me.”
The X, formerly Twitter, post has gone viral, Austin said at the meeting, drawing attention to the school district from people all over the country, especially Texas.
“It is absurd that Palo Alto School district just voted to remove honors biology for all students & already removed honors English,” Khanna wrote in the post. “They call it de-laning. I call it an assault on excellence. I took many honors classes at Council Rock High in PA.”
In a district that constantly draws parent criticism for not enough advancement and demands for mental health support in a district that is extremely advanced, Austin said the comments offended him.
“Were we upset? Yeah, absolutely,” Austin said at the meeting. “But instead of returning with that same way of communicating, we picked up the phone, we called.”
Austin and Khanna had a productive 20-minute conversation, he said, that resulted in an “apology.”
“We talked about a couple things where, I think, legislators, state and national, overstep and how that creates unintended consequences,” said Austin, who added that the congressman is interested in visiting the district.
As far as Austin is concerned, he said, the district is “done” with discussing the social media post.
But district parents were not, adding to Khanna’s complaints on Tuesday.
“Over the past decade PAUSD has removed many advanced academic options from delaning English, to cutting middle school math pathways and high school multivariable calculus, to most recently, voting to eliminate honors biology,” said parent Melissa Anderson, during public comment.
The contentious battle between “laning,” and “de-laning,” in the school district, refers to specific pathways students can choose to engage in, which determine how advanced their courses will be.
In January, after months of conversation, the school board did not vote on “de-laning,” but decided to merge its honors Biology and Biology courses.
The effort to combine the two began in 2018 after the district adopted a new state-mandated K-12 science framework, which would completely re-work the structure of biology courses.
Science teachers argued that the new framework eliminated the need for two biology classes, which made the distinctions less meaningful.
The new biology course would still be rigorous, said Elizabeth Brimhall, Palo Alto High School biology teacher at a January board meeting, and would serve as a launch pad to other honors courses.
Still, many parents were not convinced.
During the public comment period at Tuesday’s meeting, Anderson said that getting rid of honors courses effectively “dumbs down” schools.
Many students disagreed. Palo Alto High School student Talia Boneh reported that students feel stressed by the lane system during a student advisory presentation Tuesday night, and that some students enjoy “merging those lanes,” which can create more diverse environments.
“Some students expressed a concern that the fact that having an honors lane adds additional pressure on students to increase their course rigor,” Boneh said.
Other students still enjoy the lane system because it aligns them with likeminded peers, she said.
As battles between parents, district staff, and now, politicians, rage on, students say the “atmosphere” in Palo Alto can be a root cause of stress.
Students often report feeling overwhelmed by social expectations to advance in academics and college admissions, said Gunn High School junior Deven Sharma during the student advisory presentation.
“Students also felt pressure from parents, whether that’s parents forcing them to take a difficult course load or pushing them into a sport, or extracurricular, and students feel like they need to match their parents level of success,” Sharma said.
Great- another overpaid (County average salaries for superintendents are $200,000 to 300,000+), woke, snowflake public school superintendent that arrogantly complains about “criticism” for their decisions. Instead of striving for excellence, public schools strive for a mediocre egalitarianism. Onward we tread on the highway to the Idiocracy…
Yes, those who might be in an honors section can definitely relax a lot when their classmates are less competent. So that’s the point of this? It seems like that has to be so. Don’t want to hinder smart people from slacking off…. they need to relax and goof off.