Community Colleges Sue to Block Entrance Test : Education: Federal law taking effect Jan. 1 will require those without a high school diploma to pass an exam.

California’s community colleges filed a lawsuit Thursday against enforcement of a federal law that will require all new students without a high school diploma or the equivalent to pass a test screening them for likely academic success at the two-year schools.

The 107 community colleges in California asked the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to temporarily block the rule, which is supposed to take effect Jan. 1 as part of a federal budget reduction package. The new law is supposed to help cut the default rate on federally backed loans to students who quickly flunk out of school and never repay the government.

California has long allowed students, regardless of their past education, to enroll at community colleges, and state officials fear that this open-door philosophy will be destroyed. The law threatens the colleges themselves with a loss of federal funds if minimum admission standards are not set for all students, not just those receiving the loans.

“We are asking for an immediate 10-day restraining order to get the people in Washington to be fully apprised of how serious the impact is of these regulations,” state Community Colleges Chancellor David Mertes said Thursday.

Mertes estimated that 126,000 students are about to enroll for the first time at California community colleges after the winter vacation and that 36,000 of them would have to be tested over the next few weeks because they don’t have high school diplomas or equivalency certificates. Mertes said such quick screening would be physically impossible and he has told colleges not to refuse admission to a student who does not have a high school diploma. Students already enrolled would not be affected.

Bill Moran, director of student assistance programs in the U.S. Department of Education, said Thursday that it was premature to respond to the lawsuit until government attorneys review it more closely. He said many other community colleges around the nation have expressed concern about the law but that only the California schools have challenged it in court.

Last week, the Education Department published a list of tests that could be used and invited colleges and private test-makers to submit additional ones for review. Moran said Thursday that California community colleges might consider adapting tests they now use for placement into various course levels.

Mertes agreed that those tests might be used in the future but not by Jan. 1. “Just to contact the students and tell them what is required is a major undertaking,” he said.

Meanwhile, the California congressional delegation may soon draft legislation that would limit the diploma-or-test rule to students receiving federal loans and scholarships, according to Mertes. But such a change, he said, “would present a major constitutional issue by creating two categories of admissions standards.”