from the associated press: Trend-starting Texas drops algebra II mandate

I hated Algebra II, but I took it, passed it and it was done and dusted. Never thought twice about it except for when other people were about to take it and wanted to scare them…

Anyway, the Texas Board of Education has decided that Alegebra II doesn’t matter as much as it used to. They say that skipping it will allow for flexibility in curriculum choices and help prepare students for higher paying jobs that don’t require it.
This only applies to those who are not in honors classes. This also does not mean that students won’t be taking it, as school districts can still mandate it.
Some say it’s dumbing down the curriculum and others say that it will better correlate with what is needed in the workforce.
Some also say that Algebra II is a powerful predictor of those who will go to college, and others say that forcing students to take it, is causing kids to drop out.
here is a quote that I believe speaks volumes:

“Officials in Washington state recently compared school districts with and without more strenuous requirements and found no correlation between graduation rates and higher standards”

The reason why this is important is because Texas (despite how it ranks) tends to set the trends for education across the country, the unfortunate part is that judging from recent history Texas is not interested in a quality education for all students.