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Needless meddling

The school marms in the Capitol have tapped their rulers on the desk again. Drop below a C average, and you can forget the photography club.

This edict comes by way of the Florida Legislature, which found the time to break away from debates on left-lane driving and hunting-club liquor licenses to tell principals which students belong in which after-school clubs. Without such helpful advice from their legislators, presumably, those principals would be lost.

The bill says generally that students with less than a C average can no longer participate in any extracurricular activity. The mandate has applied only to athletics, an arena in which there was considerable evidence of abuse. But the directive in this case is probably intended more for campaign brochures. The students who get involved in the Chess Club or the Science Club or Students Against Driving Drunk are not usually suffering academically. In fact, service clubs and honor societies already require their members to maintain a certain grade-point average. Some schools and entire districts, including Hillsborough, set similar standards as well.

There is no need for the state to get involved. Gov. Jeb Bush should veto the bill.

[Last modified April 26, 2005, 01:05:18]