“Data science” classes don’t prepare students for college-level math, science or engineering courses, say University of California professors, reports Stephanie M. Lee in the Chronicle of Higher Education. They want a UC panel to revoke its decision to let applicants substitute data science for Algebra II.

“Giving high school students the idea that it is OK to skimp on their math education is very dangerous,” stated a March letter from Santa Barbara’s physics department, flanked by similar complaints from computer science and mechanical engineering. “Such students will have their career choices severely curtailed, at an early age, and perhaps without even realizing it.”

Letters have come from other UC campuses, a group of Black UC faculty members, and professors in the California State University system, Lee writes.