CRUNCH-TIME IN CALIFORNIA

Within the next few months, a staggering number of California high school seniors may see their worlds come crashing down. They are the guinea pigs in a tough new state experiment: the California High School Exit Exam. So many now are at risk of not graduating, it would take 60 high school campuses to seat them all. A practice that's gone on for decades will come to an end. Principals no longer will hand diplomas to students who can barely read, write and calculate. This spring, for the first time, seniors who can't pass the exam will not be allowed to graduate. They could be kids like Linda Nguyen, who started in Sacramento City Unified schools as a kindergartner and has earned a C average ever since. Or Kevin Muhammad, who hopes to attend college on a basketball scholarship. Or Juan Calderon, who left Mexico at age 4 and dreams of becoming a lawyer.

The seniors are among 182 at Hiram Johnson High School - and nearly 5,000 locally and 90,000 statewide - who still have not passed the test. The exam is in two parts - math and English language arts - and students must pass both sections. "I just want to get my education and make my parents proud of me," Linda said. "I'm just nervous about that test."

Despite their aspirations, many face tough odds. Linda is studying hard for the math test - but very little for the English section. Kevin has a 2-week-old baby and has contemplated dropping some classes so he can pick up more hours at his dish-washing job. Juan, though he has failed that part of the exam three times, is not taking a math course this year. Anxiety, apathy and confidence swirl on the Johnson campus. It's already time for seniors to take portraits and order their caps and gowns - even though more than one-third of the class has not passed the test they need to graduate.

The actions of state and local educators haven't made things easy. The school, as required by state law, offered extra help to seniors who have yet to pass the exam, but the law doesn't require them to attend. [Boo hoo!]

Classes, too, are not always aligned with students' needs. Johnson seniors, for example, can opt out of math if they've completed the required credits - even if they haven't passed that part of the exit exam. And teachers say that state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, an exam supporter, confused students further when he said in September that he would consider alternatives for those who haven't passed. They say students wonder if the exam will be postponed, as it was for the class of 2004, the group originally in line to first face the consequences.

Depending on each school's calendar, seniors get two or three more chances to pass before graduation day. Hiram Johnson seniors will try again Tuesday and Wednesday and then in March. "I want to walk the stage," Juan said. "You see it in the movies, you see it everywhere. I want to be just like them."

The state does not track individual student performance, so it can't accurately report how many seniors have passed the test. But a Bee survey of all high schools in Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado and Placer counties shows that 4,643 seniors have yet to pass the exam. One-third of them are concentrated in just 10 schools - most of them campuses that serve large numbers of low-income and nonwhite students. That means graduation ceremonies could be much smaller than usual next year at the region's neediest schools.

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PRIVATE SCHOOL GRADUATES DOMINATE BRITAIN AGAIN

The rubbishy State schools that socialism has produced now no longer give the poor a chance at a good education

This country is being overtaken by toffs. David Cameron is not the exception: he's the new rule. Privately educated children predominate in every sphere. It hasn't been like this since the Edwardian era. It's not just politics, although much of the Cabinet and shadow cabinet went to private schools. It's the arts, the media, the music industry and the sciences.

They may not wear school uniforms any longer, but they share distinct traits - they are self-confident, competitive, well read all-rounders. Tony Blair and David Cameron, from the best-known Scottish and English public schools, exemplify them. They are just as at home in jeans, changing nappies and drinking tea from mugs in Islington and Notting Hill, as they are leaning against their Agas, cooking breakfast for their children in the country.

The Cabinet is full of them, though ministers don't brag about it. Most forget to mention their schools in Who's Who. Tessa Jowell, who brought home the Olympics, went to the private St Margaret's School in Aberdeen. Charles Clarke pretends to be a man of the people, but went to Highgate School. Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, admits under duress that she went to Westminster. Ed Balls, Gordon Brown's protégé, went to the fee-paying Nottingham High School.

Margaret Thatcher presided over a cabinet of grammar school [selective State schools] boys including Cecil Parkinson and Michael Howard. Now half the shadow cabinet - including Oliver Letwin and George Osborne - went to private schools.

Those in the media are equally reticent about discussing their CVs, but most national newspaper editors and political commentators were privately educated. Andrew Marr went to Loretto, Tom Bradby went to Sherborne. Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, went to Stonyhurst and Michael Grade went to Stowe. Business is full of them. They excel at corporate life; BP and Marks & Spencer have privately educated chief executives. They are also entrepreneurs. Richard Branson is an early example of a public school boy (Stowe) who left to become a salesman. Julian Metcalfe of Pret a Manger started making sandwiches when he left Harrow. Charles Dunstone of the Carphone Warehouse did the same for phones after Uppingham. Johnnie Boden (Eton) fills his catalogues with dreamy photographs of private school holiday spots. The two best-known dotcom millionaires - Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox - went to Eton and Westminster respectively.

The music industry is addicted to them, even if they don't talk about it. James Blunt (real name Blount) is an old Harrovian, yet it didn't stop him becoming this year's biggest success with his song You're Beautiful. He is a modern traditionalist like Mr Cameron. He understands about verses, lyrics and choruses, but he also knows how to repackage them for 2005. He is also used to hard work. Dido (Westminster) has the same knack. Radiohead went to Abingdon School. Sherborne has produced Chris Martin of Coldplay, and Keane named themselves such after a tealady at Tonbridge.

Public school boys seem to attract the most famous women in the world. Guy Ritchie, who went to a series of public schools, is by no stretch of the imagination overawed by Madonna. Claudia Schiffer's husband went to Stowe. The artist Sam Taylor Wood and Phoebe Philo, chief designer for Chloe, have married Old Etonians - Jay Jopling and Max Wigram, both of whom are successful art dealers. Hugh Grant didn't bother hiding his accent, or Brylcreming his hair back like Mr Cameron. He still looks and acts like the best-looking boy at Latymer Upper School, the one all the Paulinas (St Paul's Girls School down the road) wanted to go out with. Emily Mortimer and Rachel Weisz were Paulinas. The old Harrovian Richard Curtis - Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually - defines his generation on film. They even dominate the sciences and the arts. Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, went to Godolphin & Latymer. Historians from Andrew Roberts to Tristram Hunt learnt their kings and queens at private schools.

This is outrageous. Private school pupils make up only seven per cent of the population (up under Labour), but their influence is out of control. This is not the fault of parents who slave away to pay the school fees, nor can it be blamed on private school alumni. At 13, Mr Cameron can't have been expected to rip off his tail coat and refuse to go to Eton. It's the Government's fault. The state system isn't good enough. It fails children on every level, not just the five million who never learn to read so don't even stand a chance of a decent career, but the pupils who never learn the self-confidence that comes from the good teaching and high standards expected at most private schools.

But it's not all Mr Blair's fault. The problems started when he was at Fettes. Grammar school boys could hold their own, they knew they had earned their places on merit alone. In the 1950s, the grammar school system meant that there were more state school pupils at Oxford and Cambridge than there are now when the numbers are being manipulated. But when Labour scrapped the grammar school, it turned the country back into a class-ridden society, where the children of the rich had a huge advantage. The comprehensives, if they had been properly streamed, might have worked, but instead they went for the lowest common denominator. No one was allowed to be challenged; no one could fail. Exam results were fudged and school discipline fell apart. Margaret Thatcher didn't do enough to stop it.

Mr Blair's crime was that he realised this. He sent his children to the selective Oratory School because he knew the comprehensives in north London were bog standard. Yet in eight years he has done little about it. His education White Paper today promises yet another new start with an emphasis on excellence, but he is more interested in busing children round the country in pursuit of that elusive goal of equality. If Labour really wants to boot out the toffs and give private schools a run for their money, it should bring back selection, not just for sport and drama, but also for academic excellence. My hunch is that it is going to take an Old Etonian to do it

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Arizona: Tax credit urged for teachers: "State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne wants to give all schoolteachers a $2,500 tax credit as a way to attract and keep qualified educators in Arizona. Horne is seeking support from the Arizona Legislature in its upcoming session to give both public- and private-school teachers the credit because he says salaries are lagging while the cost of housing is rising. The tax credit would also apply to school counselors, psychologists, librarians and nurses. The state currently does not give any tax credits based solely on occupation. If it became law, the credit would affect about 70,000 employees and cost the state an estimated $152 million."

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

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