Posted 10:36 AM by Floyd

The State of California's new head of schools has cancelled the next administration of the high school exit exam. The article notes, "The state Board of Education is expected on July 9 to follow O'Connell's lead and delay for at least a year plans to withhold diplomas from students who fail the test."

Assisting in this decision were the usual sort of ethnic pressure groups who think minorities are inherently unable to succeed:

``We're happy that the class of 2004 -- the students who didn't get a quality education -- are not going to have their diplomas taken away,'' said Mike Chavez of Californians for Justice, which has fought the test.

Thanks in part to Chavez, everyone gets a high school diploma. Even if someone fails all eight attempts to score 55% on a test of tenth grade material, that student gets a diploma.

And thanks in part to Chavez, that diploma is a worthless piece of paper.

There are probably 10 or 20 million Californians who approve of exit exams -- but they are in favor of exams in a general, high-minded sense. It doesn't make a huge difference to their lives. There are maybe 100,000 or 200,000 Californians who disapprove of exit exams -- and for them, it's a vital issue of power or money or privilege. And it is that small pressure group that bends the will of California's school administration.

This is how governments behave. Supposedly governments provide public goods that the market cannot. Testing and credentialling high school students to ensure that a diploma has value is a public good. It is not being supplied. Remember this the next time someone babbles high-minded guff about how only the government can take care of some vital function.