Posted on 05/11/2006 7:54:38 AM PDT by SmithL
CALIFORNIA has spent some $50 million developing and administering the high school exit exam, as mandated by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gray Davis. This was to be the first year passage of the exam would be a high-school graduation requirement -- except that an Oakland judge seems poised to throw the requirement aside. The legislative vote, executive approval and millions of dollars spent to develop and administer the test apparently mean nothing, not when a judge thinks a reform is not fair.
I wish I were shocked at a last-minute judicial fiat that runs roughshod over a much-needed school reform -- much as, in a different age, a French aristocrat's coach might ram over peasants unfortunate enough to stand in the way. In this brave new world, if anyone tries to improve schools -- and you can't improve schools without raising standards -- no matter how weak those standards are, some court likely will step in to quash the reform lest it hurt someone.
As if ignorance doesn't hurt children.
Arturo González, the attorney who wants to overthrow the exit exam requirement, has argued that the test isn't fair because schools are not equal. Judge Robert Freedman of Alameda County Superior Court apparently agrees. The judge will issue a final ruling on Friday, but already has said he is inclined to grant an injunction to allow seniors to graduate even if they failed the eighth-grade level math test, the 10th-grade level English test or both.
It's sad but true: All California schools are not equal. The question is: What do you do about the inequity? Do you sanction the inequity by allowing students to graduate ignorant? Is that fair? Or do you require that all graduates be able to read a news story and know what it means...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Exit tests for the students would show which schools are doing bad. That is the last thing the teacher unions want you to know. Like every other socialist program the government has this one has rotted to its core and has become undependable.
The bigger question is: why are judges running our schools?
LOL
Fruits of the '60s fruits. "All we need is love man!"
Yes, that's the even bigger question! Who elected these black-robed Solons to run every aspect of our lives?
Because we let them. We let them with a willing CONgress take each of our rights away every day. Then we vote the same criminals back in office who are responsible for this.
The way I look at things, we have a ready made labor pool to take over the jobs that the illegals are doing, once we are able to get the illegals deported.
To bad the liberal/libertarians don't want that to happen.
Ignorance is one of the strongest elemental forces known in the universe, second in power only to idiocy and surpassing meanness. Given the high energy prices, and especially the energy situation in California, it makes eminent sense to harness the vast powers of ignorance to diminish our dependence on, among other things, foreign oil. Thus the judge in question demonstrated the qualities of a true statesman of at least gubernatorial, if not higher, caliber. If only there were more like him.
I wonder how this Judge feels about the Bar Exam? Would he want a MD who had failed those medical exams because he could only speak Spanish? /sarc
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