Education standards in California are rapidly becoming a parody of themselves. Six months ago, the state Board of Education bailed out on the high school exit exam for fear that many students would fail to earn their diplomas. Several days ago, the California State University system disclosed that most of its incoming freshmen still lack basic academic skills.

It doesn't require a college degree to discern what is going on here. Contrary to the hype about raising the academic bar in California, policy-makers are still catering to the lower common denominators. And this sorry situation will continue until the state summons the courage to set academic standards and then enforce them.

The very existence of a high school exit exam is a tacit admission that far too many graduates lack basic skills. That in itself is a stinging indictment of school systems that routinely practice grade inflation and social promotion. Many of these poorly prepared graduates then move on to the college level where they have to take remedial education courses.

This makes no sense.

Why should an institution of higher learning keep enrolling students who lack the basics at the same time it is scrambling to cover ever-increasing expenses? More to the point, why should CSU teach students what they should have learned in high school, particularly when these students come from the top one-third of their graduating classes?

The answer to both questions should be obvious to anyone save for those who believe that a college education is an entitlement. Which, of course, it certainly is not.

In 1995, the CSU Board of Trustees concluded as much and was poised to phase out by the end of 1999 all remedial education programs in English and math at the system's 22 campuses. Several months later, the board buckled under protests from students and faculty and extended the deadline by seven more years.

The timorous trustees promised to reduce the remediation rate of incoming freshmen to 10 percent by 2007. Today, there are 23 campuses, and the remediation rate remains about where it was. Systemwide, 58 percent of freshmen who enrolled in the fall of 2003 needed help in math, English or both. Meantime, cash-strapped CSU is shelling out more than $10 million per year on remedial education.

That so many students are arriving on CSU campuses unprepared for college shouldn't surprise, given that many of their grades were inflated.

CSU officials cite the need for enhanced outreach programs to help the public schools bring these kids up to speed academically, only to keep admitting them when they fall short. The public schools adapt themselves to a set of scholastic standards only to have the state school board cut and run on the exit exam.

Which begs the question: Why should the students take any of this seriously?