By: Sara Randazzo, Wall Street Journal

California’s notoriously difficult bar exam has long been a point of pride among the state’s lawyers. Now it is prompting blowback. With passing rates hitting historic lows, the state’s law schools are pushing for a controversial change: lowering the score required to pass.

The educators argue that California holds graduates to an unreasonably high standard that no longer can be justified, especially as the price of law school skyrockets. Others say lowering the bar would pander to a recent cohort of law students with weak credentials, and that law schools should either raise their own standards or shut their doors.

The issue came to a head after the announcement that just 35% of takers passed the most recent California exam, given in February. Only 43% passed last July’s test, the lowest mark for the summer exam in more than three decades.

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