Science classes on the block

Re “High school-level science takes a hit in budget proposal,” June 6

It is hard to believe in this age of constant scientific discoveries that the second year of high school science may be eliminated as a graduation requirement to “save” $250 million annually.

Young people have enough difficulty preparing for today’s high-tech jobs and understanding the world we live in; why handicap them in this way? Students from outside California with two years of science will have yet another edge in admission to our public universities.

The cost to our state economy will be great. This proposal is penny-wise and many pounds foolish. Phoebe Liebig Culver City

I don’t agree with Gov. Jerry Brown often, but in this case I do. Why force students to take science if they have no interest in it?

Eliminating the secondyear requirement will have no effect on the state’s scientific and technological leadership. If one does have an aspiration to enter a scientific field, one will go to a university.

I don’t see how any science requirement should be necessary for a high school diploma. Bob Fenton Rancho Cucamonga

Arecent Gallup poll revealed that 46% of Americans don’t believe in evolution; rather, they choose to believe that God created humans in the last few thousand years. Yet Brown is proposing to eliminate a second year of science classes as a graduation requirement.

Given the results of the poll, it seems that science classes need to be added to, not eliminated from, the high school curriculum.

Perhaps the state could make up the $250 million by eliminating the tax exemptions currently extended to religious groups. Cyndi Kitchen Redondo Beach