Patrick Henry High School, under principal Michelle Irwin, plans to remove honors and advanced courses from their curriculum. She justifies that in doing so, she will improve racial equity among students and remove the perceived “stigma around regular courses". This simply cannot result in the anticipated effect, as removing accelerated courses will only limit educational opportunities for everyone, including marginalized students. If anything, this will widen the racial gap because students unable to afford the high cost of Advanced Placement (AP) exams will be forced into common core classes while privileged students enjoy the luxury to take as many as they desire. Kids now will have no choice but to either settle for a regular class that doesn’t uplift accelerated students to their highest potential, or commit to an incredibly rigorous course. 

The honors lessons that remain, for the most part, are elective areas of study; core subjects such as literature and social studies are only offered as “college-prep” or as AP classes. Additionally, the Patrick Henry curriculum will be at an incomprehensible disadvantage relative to comparable schools in the country- especially because this policy is not being implemented at other schools in the city. Therefore, students will not only have their current opportunities diminished, but also future possibilities as they pursue higher education. 

We address this petition to the superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, Dr. Lamont A. Jackson, to comprehensively express public opinion on this detrimental, performative policy and ask that Patrick Henry give its Patriots a platform that properly advocates for their voices to be heard.