A Stroll Through My Google News Alerts and Musings on the Passing Scene

• First things first, I'd like to congratulate Ms. Elise Viebeck on her piece on school vouchers in National Review Online. I recently wrote that her second to last piece on school vouchers was disappointing because she didn't focus on the most important element of the voucher debate -- its power to transform students' lives. Her latest focuses on that power. The title says it all, "Voucher Valedictorian."

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• In The BBC on the differences between McCain and Obama --"If we read with a magnifying glass the plans they have on Latin America, beyond the rhetoric, the great difference is free trade, but not much more," Roderic Ai Camp, an expert on Mexico's security issues at Claremont McKenna College in California, told the BBC. "It's all about perceptions."

Right because free trade is just such a small issue. It's only responsible for much of the human development in the world. Here's a little straight talk if we allow the Colombians to sell their goods openly maybe they won't be so likely to sell their drugs covertly. Some Socialists at Pitzer or elsewhere might have you believe that more trade would mean more so-called abuses like those at the Coca-Cola plant.

Here's another point while we're on it. Which Senator supported a comprehensive (admittedly imperfect) immigration guest worker program with a member of the opposition party, showing his commitment to bipartisanship? That's right, John McCain. With a little work, Senator McCain's proposal could do more good for all of Latin America and elsewhere than any half-baked, perverse-incentive-Peace Corps program could offer.

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• In The Los Angeles Times, Dean of Admissions Bruce Poch of Pomona College is upset by a recent decision by the College Board that will allow high school students to hide their scores from college deans. He's upset, but wrongly so.
  

Here's the essential paragraphs.

Bruce Poch, dean of admissions at Pomona College, slammed the decision. "It's a mistake. It's going to give kids more room to play games," he said. "It's going to privilege kids who are already in an advantaged position financially."

Pomona in recent years has seen greater numbers of applicants taking both the SAT and the ACT -- evidence of the latter's increase in popularity, which Poch said the College Board appeared to be trying to stall with its decision.

"There's no evidence that it's anything more than a marketing decision because they think they're going to give up a majority of that market to ACT takers," he said.

...As if college deans don't play games with admission statistics to inflate their rankings or social engineer their incoming class. Federal college subsidies driving up costs, anyone?

There are (at least) two problems with Dean Bruce Poch's statement that allowing students to choose which scores they submit is bad.

1) So what that poor kids cannot afford to take the SATs? College, by its very definition, isn't supposed to be representative of the country as a whole. Students who want to take the SAT can take it multiple times with a fee waiver. I know. I did just that. My family situation made it tough and I got fee waivers.

2) So what if the SATs are changing their policies to increase market share? If colleges didn't play games by receiving federal subsidies, they would do the same thing by increasing class sizes to meet their demand instead of creating artificial shortages by encouraging middle class students to apply only to reject them.

If a student wants to take the test a 1,000 times and puts up the money to do that, how is that any different from students that take SAT prep courses? At least the student has control over how he or she does (within a certain range) and can budget accordingly. Currently some decisions about who to admit are decided by a factor that no one can change -- race and "diversity."