Ending the ninth-grade honors program at West Seattle High School may meet the requirements of a federal grant, but we question the value to the children they are supposed to educate. We hope a review by new chief academic officer Carla Santorno will reverse this short-sighted decision.

The problem is that the grant requires that all students be lumped together. Instead of being grouped together for advanced classes, the "highly capable" freshmen next year will take all of their classes mixed with the rest of the student body. Honors students could attend regular classes and be given extra assignments. Or they might go to school earlier to take an additional class. Many parents dismissed that approach in a meeting last week with West Seattle High School leaders. (See story, Page One).

Parents of incoming middle school students feel "hoodwinked" because the move comes after it is too late for them to shift their offspring to other high schools.

The ninth-grade honors program at West Seattle High has been paid for by a federal Department of Education grant and one of its mandates is all levels of students must be in each class.

Many parents of bright children fear that teachers will be so busy dealing with the slower students they will ignore the more advanced students, figuring they can work on their own and get by. Often what happens is a bright student feels abandoned and ignored , opting to lose interest or begin to "act out" in order to relieve boredom and gain attention.

Besides the problem of the grant requirements, Principal Susan Ders/ says there isn't much support for the ninth-grade honors program among the faculty. "It's hard to promote honors sections to instructors who don't believe in the honors program," said a Ders/ assistant.

With the district facing major financial hurdles we worry that this move will condemn bright students to marginalization in a perhaps unwinnable fight to cut the gap between various classes of students. What we see is that all students will lose, forcing parents to opt for suburban schools or private institutions.

That bodes ill for all of us.