If Life Has to Be Fair

The latest insanity from California:

A California judge struck down the state's controversial high school exit exam Friday, potentially clearing the way for thousands of seniors who have failed the test to graduate with their class next month.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Freedman issued a preliminary injunction against the mandatory testing requirement, ruling it places an unfair burden on poor and minority students who attend low-performing schools.

………

In issuing the injunction, Freedman said he was swayed by Gonzalez's argument that many impoverished and minority students — particularly those learning English as a second language — attend low-performing schools that do not prepare them adequately for the test.

If you are hospitalized with a fever and if it is unfair that you have a fever, does that mean the hospital should throw out the thermometers and send you home?

I recall an appropriate quote from Richard Mitchell (expanding a remark by H. G. Wells):

History, as H. G. Wells said, and that was way back then, "becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." And by "education" he didn't mean basic minimum competence or an indoctrination impervious to thoughtfulness. However, by "catastrophe" he meant catastrophe.

Just now, there seems to be only one runner on the track, and, unhampered by concerns with quality, undeterred by appeals to higher standards of academics, he isn't even looking over his shoulder.

This is one reason I'm dubious about No Child Left Behind. If leftist Democrats get in office, they might be able to impose a similar ruling across fifty states instead of just one.