‘Assault On Excellence’: Democrat Rep. Rips School District for Axing Honors Courses

The left’s all-out war on merit and academic excellence in the name of “equity” is getting so absurd that even some elected Democrats are speaking out against it.

California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna generated some buzz online recently when he tore into a school district for getting rid of honors biology classes. “It is absurd that Palo Alto School District just voted to remove honors biology for all students & already removed honors English,” Khanna wrote on X last week. “They call it de-laning. I call it an assault on excellence. I took many honors classes at Council Rock High in PA.”

Khanna isn’t alone in blasting the district for its decision. “I want to take a science class that challenges me and moves faster than a regular class, and I was really looking forward to honors biology,” incoming high schooler Katie Hu said in January, according to the Palo Alto Daily Post. Parent Melissa Anderson also criticized the district’s decision to cut “middle school math pathways and high school multivariable calculus” in recent years.

Nan Zhong, another parent of a Palo Alto high schooler and recent graduate, said watering down classes serves no one. “I really don’t think that’s progress because if we don’t teach kids anything and just give them an A, well, they got equity — but they get no knowledge and no skills to succeed,” the software engineer told the New York Post.

But “de-laning” (just the latest entry into the left’s dictionary of intentionally obscure euphemisms, alongside such terms as “birthing person,” “gender-affirming care,” and “reproductive rights”) only appears to be gaining steam in liberal circles.

Palo Alto made the decision to cut honors biology in January following advocacy from teachers who worried students would have hurt feelings if they were not included in advanced classes. The decision drew national interest lately due to Khanna’s viral post.

Palo Alto biology teacher Elizabeth Brimhall said honors classes could “lead to issues around students’ beliefs in themselves.” Her peer, Angela Merchant, called advanced classes “segregated grouping,” according to The Daily Caller. Another teacher said he was excited to teach the class because it is “truly about the learning, and not about a label for honors or for a grade.” (One wonders how, exactly, the school hopes to measure how much students have actually learned without grading.)

Other schools throughout the country have been “de-laning” for years, dropping honors classes in the name of “equity.”

Sequoia Union High School District, near San Francisco, “eliminated about half a dozen honors classes in recent years,” according to a 2023 report in The Wall Street Journal. Troy Public Schools in Michigan “canceled its honors English program for ninth graders” that same year, according to the Detroit Free Press. Barrington High School in Rhode Island also eliminated honors distinctions for English and social studies in 2021, calling it “deleveling” – although in that instance, school officials reversed course amid serious backlash from parents.

In all of these cases, students and parents have spoken out against the decision of school officials to eliminate advanced courses.

Troy Public Schools parent Krit Patel told the Detroit Free Press he loves his twin sons “equally,” but said, “They’re not academically on the same end of the spectrum.”

“I have a son that’s a special needs student and I have a son that’s in the honors class,” Patel said. “They are not equal. They should not be in the same class… Not all kids learn at the same speed and have the same ability.”

Barrington mom Ellen Schaffer made similar points in a Fox News interview, criticizing the school’s decision to eliminate some honors classes. “It’s hard for a lot of parents to accept that there’s maybe something greater at play that isn’t just what we can take at face value,” she said. “Really, if we want to work in the name of equity, we need to focus on equal opportunity.”

De-laning isn’t just bad education policy. It’s the logical conclusion of an ideology that confuses fairness with sameness. The left’s vision of “equity” isn’t about lifting people up; it’s about pulling everyone down to the lowest common denominator in the name of uniform outcomes. Leftism rejects the reality that individuals are born with different aptitudes, motivations, and capacities to achieve. Instead of celebrating and cultivating excellence, it treats it as a threat to be neutralized.

This philosophy is not how you build a thriving society. Imagine applying the same logic to sports, music, or entrepreneurship – benching the fastest runner, silencing the best musicians, or taxing innovation out of existence – all because talent and achievement might make someone else feel left behind.

True opportunity means creating room for everyone to rise, not shackling the high-flyers to an artificial ceiling. If a student is capable of learning at a more advanced pace, it’s educational malpractice to hold them back for the sake of appearances. Education should be about giving every student the tools they need to succeed, not pretending they will all end up at the same place.

At its core, de-laning lays bare the absurdity of the left’s equity crusade. In the name of helping everyone, it ends up helping no one.

AMAC Newsline contributor Matt Lamb is an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.