The decision by state officials to postpone California's high school exit exam until 2006 comes as no surprise. Given the state's financial crisis, ongoing legal challenges to the exams and high projected failure rates, such a postponement was inevitable. But it provides students with another lousy lesson on real life.

The exit exams began as a great idea. They were an attempt to make sure that high school diplomas in California actually meant something. This was such a good idea, in fact, that not long ago students of the Class of 2004 in Santa Rosa faced the prospects of having to pass two such tests -- one at the state level and one at the local level -- in order to graduate.

But as the deadline for passing the test drew closer, problems started to emerge, legal threats surfaced and conviction waned. Santa Rosa City Schools officials have since backed down from their plan to link the district's own exit exam with graduation, and now the state has done the same thing.

As we said, the delay is understandable -- in a gut-wrenching way. California was ill-prepared to deal with the prospect of having 92,000 students being denied graduation because they couldn't pass the exam. A state report released last month found that more than 80 percent of the Class of 2004 had passed the English part of the test but only 60 percent had passed the math section. The report projected that despite repeated opportunities to pass, about 20 percent of the Class of 2004 would fail the test.

Officials found that many students who failed hadn't been given the proper classes needed to pass. Many schools also lack the resources to ensure those students who are struggling to pass the tests have the tutorial help they need to succeed. These are fundamental flaws in the education system that need to be addressed.

The problem is that there is no winner in this decision to delay. In the process of developing and administering the test, the state now has a better understanding of how its education system is failing. And by delaying the graduations tests, the state is making the decision that tens of thousands of students will be receiving diplomas that they don't deserve.

There also is little evidence to suggest that the climate will be any better in 2006 than it is in 2003. This leaves us wondering whether the decision to delay is really part of a plan to keep the graduation tests alive or is part of an exit strategy on exit exams.