SAUNDERS: A judge stands up for ignorance

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 5/11/6 | Debra J. Saunders

[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...

[SmithL]

Instead of diplomas, give each failing student a "Certificate of Self-Esteem."

[trashcanbred]

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.

[Rummyfan]

The bigger question is: why are judges running our schools?

[Fruitbat]

Instead of diplomas, give each failing student a "Certificate of Self-Esteem."

LOL

Fruits of the '60s fruits. "All we need is love man!"

[NurdlyPeon]

What's the damn diff? These days, the judges are running everything. From making the budget to making social policy.

[Logical me]

Yeah, and the judge just doesn't realize that those who could not pass the exam will now enter the industry, and just imagine the problem employers will have. If I were an employer, I would try to get a copy or facsimile of this exam and before employing, give the exam. Instead of 5 times and a grade of 50, I would give it once. And I would require English as a language.

[Rummyfan]

These days, the judges are running everything.

Yes, that's the even bigger question! Who elected these black-robed Solons to run every aspect of our lives?

[Digger]

The bigger question is: why are judges running our schools?

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.

[SFC Chromey]

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.

[GSlob]

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.

[GSlob]

“Concerning the advancement of learning, I do subscribe to the opinion… that, for grammar schools, there are already too many… the great number of schools which are in your Highness’s realm doth cause a want, and likewise an overthrow [surfeit] – both of them inconvenient and one of them dangerous; for by means thereof they find want in the country and towns, both of servants for husbandry and of apprentices for trade; and on the other side there being more Scholars bred than the State can prefer and employ… it must needs fall out that many persons will be bred unfit for other vocations and unprofitable for that in which they were bred up, which will fill the realm full of indigent, idle and wanton people…”
Francis Bacon, 1611 letter to James I.
Old Francis certainly knew what he was talking about.

[SES1066]

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