To no one's surprise the state Board of Education – to its everlasting discredit – has bailed out on the high school exit examination, postponing its consequences until the class of 2006. Although the unanimous decision was announced yesterday, it had become increasingly clear for months that the board was looking to take the easy way out.

State schools chief Jack O'Connell offered the escape plan by recommending the delay and canceling the test scheduled for this month. Ironically, it was O'Connell who carried the bill that created the exam four years ago. What seemed like a great idea to him when he was a senator became problematic when thousands of high school seniors faced the prospect of not getting diplomas after failing the exit test.

Better to defer the consequences, O'Connell and the board concluded, than to incur the wrath of parents, not to mention inevitable lawsuits.

But how is this backsliding better for school districts that have been stressing to students the importance of the exam? What about the well-being of the students themselves? Why should they take seriously the board's intention to implement the graduation requirement in 2006, after it has blinked for the class of 2004?

The board's bail out is akin to timorous parents telling their child for the umpteenth time to behave responsibly. High school students are very pragmatic. They will do whatever is expected of them to get by scholastically. The board, by talking tough and then backing off, is telling students that slacking off academically is still acceptable.

Many school districts are understandably dismayed by the board's about-face. San Diego Unified Superintendent Alan Bersin remains committed to holding the district's high school students accountable. Thus, he will ask the city school board to keep using the exit exam as a diagnostic tool to help students improve their math and English skills.

Bersin's frustration is shared by Sweetwater Union Superintendent Ed Brand, Oceanside Superintendent Ken Noonan and Poway Superintendent Don Phillips, who believe the erstwhile graduation requirement was motivating their students. Brand believes a delay will hurt if it takes the heat off students and educators. Noonan notes the postponement will perpetuate the pernicious practice of grade inflation. That practice is particularly evident at San Diego State University, where a large percentage of incoming freshmen with sparkling grade-point averages are nonetheless obliged to take remedial classes in English and math.

O'Connell and the state board cite the disproportionate number of poor and minority students who are unprepared to pass the exit exam. This begs the question: Will they be in any better academic shape three years from now? The answer will remain painfully obvious so long as state education officials keep flinching.