It used to be the case that if you wanted to go to college, you needed to take the SAT (formerly known as Scholastic Aptitude Test) to demonstrate your basic academic abilities. Many schools have now dropped such testing in the name of “equity.”

The state of Florida has just decided to allow a new test, the Classic Learning Test. In today’s Martin Center article, Grace Hall and Graham Hillard discuss this development.

They write, “Effective immediately, high-schoolers who wish to apply to the state’s public universities may ignore the College Board-owned SAT and take the relatively new Classic Learning Test, instead. The Martin Center and other education reformers generally support the SAT as a merit-based admissions tool. Nevertheless, as the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board suggested last week, Florida’s acceptance of a new SAT competitor begins to correct the fact that ‘the College Board has accumulated a worrisome amount of power.’”

Hall and Hillard also praise the Sunshine State for its fights with the College Board over politicized Advanced Placement courses.