GOVERNMENT EDUCATION AT WORK

The focus this time is on California. Six students in Oakland have filed a lawsuit challenging the requirement that California high school students pass an exam showing that they have gained a minimum amount of knowledge on certain core subjects like math and science before they can receive a high school diploma. These state-educated students get about 10 chances to take the test, and they get free remedial courses every time they fail. That's not enough for the six students who just, frankly speaking, weren't bright enough to pass --- even after being spoon fed.

Yesterday we had students protesting outside of the courthouse where the suit was being considered. They held signs reading "Stop the Exit Exam. Testing is not Teaching."

Sorry .. but they're wrong. Testing is most certainly teaching. It's teaching you what you haven't learned.

Anyway ... one student .. with a ring through her nose, by the way ... spoke for the CNN cameras. Here is what she had to say:

"So we want to show our support and to show the judge that we will not stand in silence and allow our students to be failed and denied the opportunities to equal education."

Well now, isn't that special? They aren't going to "allow" these students to "be failed." Not that it would do any good, but someone ought to try to explain to Ms. Government-educated Ring-through-my-nose" that these students aren't "failed." They fail. There's a difference, though you might not expect a government schooled teenager to understand it, between failing and being failed. And as for this "opportunities to equal education" nonsense. Again, maybe someone can explain to her that equal opportunities to education do not necessarily mean equal results from education.

None of this matters though. My guess is that this judge will kill off the exit exam in California. After all, who do these legislators think they are? How can you demand of students that they actually show that they have learned the material?

Listener John responds to Ken Mehlman and the RNC's request for money...