Parents slam woke Massachusetts school district for axing advanced math classes to boost 'equity', after they attracted too many white and Asian students - with families now forced to hire private tutors instead

Cambridge Public Schools began phasing out advanced math courses in grades six through eight around 2017, when district officials noticed sharp racial disparities in the program.

Students who were being placed in the advanced math track were overwhelmingly white and Asian, while the lower-level courses were filled primarily with black and Latino students, the Boston Globe reported on Friday.

As a result of the change, and following further complications from the pandemic, none of the district's four middle schools offer Algebra I, which some parents say is actually exacerbating inequality by limiting advanced math to those who can afford private tutors.

'The students who are able to jump into a higher level math class [in high school] are students from better-resourced backgrounds,' Jacob Barandes, a district parent and a Harvard physicist, told the Globe.

'They're shortchanging a significant number of students, overwhelmingly students from less-resourced backgrounds, which is deeply inequitable.'