State Sens. Patty Ritchie and Joe Griffo, Republicans of the north country, are unhappy with the state's decision to move its testing schedules, arguing that it will have a detrimental effect on school and family calendars.

The English and language arts exam for grades 3 through 8 were changed to April 17 and 18, when many schools around the state had planned spring break.

Mrs. Ritchie and Mr. Griffo put out some awesome news releases about this. Here's a line from Mrs. Ritchie's: "Upon learning of the new dates from several concerned school superintendents, Senator Ritchie on Monday directed her staff to contact the official responsible for the date change but, ironically, was told the official was on vacation and unavailable this week."

Ouch!

Mr. Griffo, meanwhile, went the clever route: He's giving the school system an "F" for its efforts.

"This is an absurd situation of state bureaucracy working without any regard for the people it supposedly serves," Mr. Griffo said in a news release.

In that spirit, here's an analogy: The Board of Regents is to test planning as Screech is to getting Lisa Turtle to fall in love with him.

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