And Jacob wrestled with a 'B' average...

One of the more distressing items to emerge from Governor Doyle's State of the State address was his “Wisconsin Covenant,” a suggestion that any Wisconsin student who can maintain a “B” average and stay out of trouble should get a plethora of merit-based scholarships to finance his or her way through a University of Wisconsin System school.

As The Badger Herald editorial board notes today:

Such a proposal must not be adopted without major adjustments. To ensure that merit-based aid is given only to those who have actually demonstrated extraordinary merit, the eligibility standard must increase to a grade-point average of at least 3.75.

The governor must also define the “stay out of trouble” clause — which was not further explained in the State of the State address — as a requirement that eligible students maintain a disciplinary record free of arrest, expulsion or repeated suspension.

This is a problem. A 3.00 GPA is woefully mediocre at best and the sure impetus to rabid grade inflation on a secondary level at worst. In debating this issue, a colleague of mine joked that a “B” is “the new 'C.'” And they are correct. This is hardly an ambitious goal for students to set and, indeed, actually sends the wholly backward message that such a GPA is so meritorious as to disincline high schoolers to work toward any higher mark.

With such a low academic goal and the common-sense provision of “stay out of trouble,” one must wonder if the governor is really seeking to award the state's most deserving students or to turn the entire UW System into a roughly socialist world of entitlements for residents.

Frankly, I'd expect more of a Harvard man.