A bill under consideration in NY State proposes to make cheating on the SAT a felony. Yes, a felony. It also proposes new test security measures potentially including retinal scanners, which would make the SAT more secure than… anything I have ever done. Ever. So why is this necessary? Well Tom Rudin, Senior VP with The College Board (the company that administers the SAT) will tell you:
“We’re not a law enforcement agency,” said Tom Rudin, The College Board’s senior vice president for advocacy, government relations and development. He said cheating schemes like the one reported in Long Island are extremely rare and only “a handful” of cases are referred to law enforcement, where the company usually didn’t get a “warm reception.”
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“In the end, it is the responsibility of local enforcement to take action,” he said. “Again, we are deeply committed to working with local law enforcement.”
Wait, I’m confused? Why is it the responsibility of local law enforcement to make sure the test is secure? The College Board is a for profit company. The only reason anyone takes the SAT is because colleges ask them to. If cheating is really so rampant, then colleges will decide that the test is meaningless, and won’t include it in their admissions decision making process. In which case, students won’t take it, and The College Board loses a lot of money.
The College Board profits off the SAT, plain and simple. The security of the test is critical to that profit. That makes test security the responsibility of The College Board, and not law enforcement. These guys just want to push the cost of test security onto the public, who is already paying dearly for the rent seeking practiced by The College Board.
Ken LaValle, the NY Senator behind this little gem, makes the case for the legislation:
“You can’t close your eyes,” LaValle told the testing company executives. He then made comparisons to allegations of years of sexual abuse of children by former assistant coaches at Penn State University and Syracuse University and to alleged cover-ups by school officials, saying transparency is needed in higher education.
“I would say to you that we’re in a new era,” LaValle said. “It happened at Penn State and happened at Syracuse, there are new rules … and if we need to use legislation to spell that out more clearly, we’ll do that.”
What? How in the hell does that make even a little bit of sense? Sen. Lee Zelden wants The College Board to have increased accountability, but this bill would do the exact opposite. If you want to hold them accountable, make them secure their own damn test.
This bill is dumb, unnecessary, and promises to hit children with felony charges so that a company that exists to extract rents can reduce their costs.
520 Chestnut 
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