Is it possible for a bill to be bad both because it is too strict and because it isn't strict enough? Why, yes indeed, and Senate Bill 131, sponsored by Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, manages to do it.

SB 131 would mandate that all school districts require four years of math and three years of science for graduation, starting with students who enter ninth grade after July 1, 2009.

As we have said before, we believe that is too strict to be realistic. Consider results on the Colorado Student Assessment Program. The students who will be ninth-graders in 2009-2010 are in the sixth grade now, which means they took the fifth-grade math CSAP in the spring of 2006. How many of them scored proficient or advanced? Just under two-thirds. Are the others going to be prepared for four years of solid high school math?

We'd like to say something reassuring, but we are not optimistic. The bill does allow the state Board of Education to grant an extension of up to two years, but only if the districts can show they are on track to meet the requirement within that time.

Yes, it is desirable that students take as much math as they can handle, because it is key to many college majors and career choices. We hate to see students closing off those opportunities prematurely.

But rather than graduating better prepared for college, as intended, some will suffer the unintended consequence of not graduating at all if they simply cannot do the work.

The bill does allow districts to exempt students who have what's known as an individual education program, but that could be an incentive for parents to get their children classified as needing an IEP.

The way SB 131 isn't strict enough, on the other hand, is that it sets no limits on what the math and science courses ought to be. School boards are merely "encouraged" to work with community colleges, technical schools and the business community to determine suitable courses. That just invites public pressure to design courses students can pass rather than courses they need to do well in college or other postsecondary training. Penry even gave "business math" as an example of a course for students going directly into the job market, although "business math" is usually a euphemism for the math students should have learned in middle school.

If this bill should pass - it's through the Senate but is likely to have a much tougher ride in the House, particularly in the Education Committee - we predict the deadlines will be first extended and then quietly allowed to fade away. And if that doesn't happen, math education is likely to be diluted, an already thin corps of math teachers will be strained even further, and some students will give up altogether.

It would save everybody time and trouble if this bill simply died in a House committee.