Why Did San Francisco Schools Stop Teaching Algebra in Middle School?

> Meanwhile, opponents insist that allowing wiz kids to branch off from their peers in middle school will have no implications for the racial or socioeconomic achievement gap.

It's sad, I agree, but I wonder how that can be an argument in favour of holding back mathematically curious children who are clearly "hungry for more"? Does this end up improving diversity down the line?

Aside from the obvious careers that benefit from knowledge of Algebra, could someone please list for me the real world use cases that would apply to the general populous? Yes, I use it and I have no doubt quite a few folks on HN use it, but we are the anti-pattern IMHO.