“Eight is not enough!” was part of the Democrats’ mantra during last year’s governor’s race. It was in reference to the fact that Governor Pataki had praised a court ruling that found the state’s constitutional obligation to educate children ended at the eighth or ninth grade. That was a posture Mr. Pataki was obliged to adopt as he fought valiantly — but unsuccessfully — to discourage judges from seizing control of the school budget. Outside of court, Mr. Pataki said he recognized the state should provide a good high school education and more. But the news Friday from the governor’s Commission on Education Reform that it will consider lowering the more rigorous diploma requirements established in the past decade by the Board of Regents comes close to confirming the Democrats’ campaign rhetoric.

Commission officials say they are merely carrying out the duties prescribed by the court. The state is under orders to spend whatever it takes to provide a “meaningful high school education,” and the commission cannot hope to calculate that amount with out defining what such an education entails. Given that New York already spends more per pupil than any other state, and that many still do not meet the standards set by the Regents, it must have crossed someone’s mind that lowering the bar could save the taxpayers billions of dollars. Much as we share this concern for the public purse, the way to save money is to end the monopoly of the government-run education system by opening for more charter schools and giving parents tuition vouchers. Promoting the ignorance of future generations is not the answer.

Ironically, many of the people chanting at the governor last year also seem determined to undermine the Regents’ work. Large segments of the education establishment resent being held accountable for their failures, which become painfully obvious when their students cannot achieve a passing score on the required exams. It is their pressure, and not the governor’s, that caused the Regents last week to postpone raising the minimum score on those exams to 65% from 55%, a shift that was supposed to take effect next spring. So it is especially disheartening for the governor’s appointees even to raise the possibility of further retreat. Now that Mr. Pataki is no longer bound by legalese he can remind his appointees that indeed, eight is not enough.