Ninth graders in D.C. public schools will not be allowed to enroll in foreign language courses next year, the Examiner reported yesterday.

The rationale behind the decision, according to a spokesperson for Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, is to help students focus on classes they must take for graduation. Audits done by school leaders have shown that guidance counselors are frequently not properly scheduling students. Consequently, as students reach their junior or senior year, they have missed core classes and can’t graduate on time. Since foreign language courses are considered electives, they are being shelved until students hit 10th grade.

In a new report released this week by the nonprofit education group Achieve, Inc., the District of Columbia was recognized as part of a group of only 19 states that require students to complete a “college and career-ready curriculum” in order to earn a diploma, including four years of mathematics through at least Algebra II, and four years of English. A foreign language is not required.

Since only 58 percent of students in D.C. graduate high school at all, some might argue that the primary goal should be doing what it takes to help more students earn diplomas. But why aren’t foreign language courses considered core subjects in the first place? Many parents are upset that high-achieving students will miss out on opportunities because of the new policy, or that the benefits of foreign language study will be diminished by only being offered late in a student’s academic career. Wouldn’t a better solution be to place greater accountability on school counselors to properly schedule students?

“Are we surprised to find out that D.C. has incompetent counselors who can’t figure out how to prepare students for college, a global economy, and a U.S. with more immigrants than at any other time in history?” said Aaron Seligman, a former high school Spanish teacher at Friendship Collegiate Academy, a charter school in Northeast. “No other subject pushes logical thinking, communication, and provides a tangible skill set more than foreign languages. I guess the message the counselors are sending is ‘No se puede.’”