A friend sent me this article last week and I am just now getting around to it. Evidently, the Standard Achievement Test (SAT) is unfair and so a “fair test” must replace, or better yet eliminate testing altogether. Before even reading, I had pictures in my head of dullards finally having self-esteem because the test is easy enough that “everyone’s a winner!”

Oh there’s that, alright. But what’s more important than the feel-good ideas behind the group is who makes up the group pushing “Fair Test” itself. A little Bill Ayers, a little George Soros, a little Jesse Mernell (go look in the article to find out about this shining beacon of leftism) and you have a group giving college admissions advice to and gets an endorsement from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). From CNS News:

The incestuous nature between a blatantly political organization like Fair Test – which is funded in part by radical foundations – and a professional organization for admissions practitioners is disturbing. Either NACAC shares Fair Test’s political agenda or is negligent in ascertaining the credentials of experts they cite in reports. The same can also be said of media organizations that routinely quote Fair Test officials.

Such ties between a political group advocating the end of standardized testing and an academic professional organization overseeing college admissions are troubling. The relationship between those entrusted with making college admissions fair and those with a larger political goal merits investigation particularly in light of the conclusions of education researcher Jonathan Epstein, who has studied the impact of test-optional policies in college admissions.

Writing in May 2008 for the education consultancy Maguire Associates, Epstein reveals that test-optional policies at colleges and universities lead to artificially inflated average SAT scores among incoming freshmen, which, Epstein warns “may completely disorient prospective students and families.” Epstein concludes that such disorientation in the market, which is fueled in large part by Fair Test political activists, “is not in the best interest of any institution or higher education in general.”

This risk alone provides sufficient reason for media and academic organizations to reassess their reliance on Fair Test and other political organizations for meaningful input in the college admissions debate. Whether they will take this course of action remains to be seen.

Translation: Dumb kids who have no business in college get a pass and get in, only to fail. The SAT would screen these kids out, but in the interest of politically correct diversity, everyone deserves a chance.

The more disturbing trend overall is how leftist organizations now seems to influence and dominate education at every level. Future American citizens will be little more than indoctrinated, underperforming automatons ripe for the collective mentality. Conservatives need to fight back–not only by fighting outside of the system with home schooling and private Christian schools, but from within. It is our tax dollars, too. It matters how it’s spent.

Cross-posted at MelissaClouthier.com

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