According to the California state board of education's definition of a "persistently dangerous" school, there are no persistently dangerous schools in the state. This might come as a surprise to the students in Banning High in the Los Angeles Unified School District where there were 28 battery cases, two assaults with a deadly weapon, a robbery, and three sex offenses reported during the 2001-02 school year, or to students in the many other troubled schools in the state. Gadfly, however, is not surprised. This week, to avoid failing large numbers of students, the state board of education also voted to postpone for two years the requirement that students must pass the state's high school exit exam to graduate. These are just two more examples of states setting the bar for academic, disciplinary, and other standards just low enough to avoid allowing students to transfer out of public schools, as required by No Child Left Behind. Unfortunately, the Golden State is not alone. Two weeks ago, New York voided results from its math exam because of appallingly low pass rates that would have cost thousands of students their high school diploma. And last month, Florida governor Jeb Bush signed a law permitting students who failed his state's graduation exam to receive a diploma if they passed college entrance or military exams or high school equivalency tests - a measure that he insists doesn't lower standards, even though it allows students to sidestep state graduation requirements that should have been enforced for the first time this year. Once again, politicians and policy makers are placing their own interests above what's best for kids to preserve the status quo.
"No schools in state overly dangerous," by Duke Helfand, Erika Hayasaki, and Cara Mia DiMassa, Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2003,
"School danger narrowly defined," by Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2003,
"California postpones exit exam," by Greg Winter, New York Times, July 10, 2003,
"Delay spurs standards debate," by Sarah Tully, Orange County Register, July 10, 2003,
"Law gives FCAT takers new chance," by Steve Bousquet, St. Petersburg Times, June 20, 2003,