North Carolina high school students would take computer science instead of Math 3 under a bill that passed through a House committee on Tuesday.
House Bill 415 would also adjust the UNC System's admissions requirements to replace Math 3 with computer science.
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After passing the House Education committee, it now heads to the House Rules committee.
Sponsors say high schools students don't need higher-level math for most future careers and that too many students aren't passing the Math 3 test as it is.
"Our bill is to give kids what they actually need," said Rep. David Willis, R-Union.
Critics are concerned the bill would lower standards compared to other states' universities.
"We are requiring the UNC System to lower its standards," said Rep. Julie von Haefen, D-Wake. "I don't think that's the path we should go down."
Willis disagreed with the characterization of "lowering standards."
"We're getting more realistic about the world we're living in," he said.
The bill would still require high school students to take and pass Math 1, Math 2 and a fourth math class that aligns with their post-secondary plans.
It would remove the requirement for students to take and pass Math 3, which covers advanced algebra and pre-calculus.
In 2023, a bill that eventually required all students to take a computer science course to graduate originally tried to make computer science a science credit. After pushback, the bill, which later become law, made computer science a required class in the "elective" category.
Separate from math, the bill would also require high school students to pass a U.S. history test before graduating. The test would be based on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization interview and test.