Rendell to sign bill making graduation exams optional

By Martha Raffaele | Of The Associated Press Strong opposition has stalled a proposal that would require Pennsylvania high school students to pass a battery of tests before they can graduate. Instead, Gov. Ed Rendell's administration and state lawmakers settled on a compromise that would make the tests optional for now. Under a public school code bill that passed the Legislature last week, the State Board of Education's effort to create new rules establishing 10 subject-specific final exams for graduating high school students would be halted for the 2008-09 school year. Today, Rendell is expected to sign the bill, passed along with the state budget, which also outlines how an unprecedented $274 million state subsidy increase will be distributed among the state's 501 school districts. The budget calls for increasing annual... [read full story]