By John Seiler

Although we often criticize California government here at CalWatchDog.com, we also like to highlight the occasional good news. I just found something that’s worth mentioning, although a few months old.

The Fiscal Times lists the 11 American public universities with the worst graduation rates. Not one is in California. However, because all state universities, and all but a handful of private universities, get our federal tax money, Californians still are paying for this academic malfeasance.

The worst is the citadel of learning known as Southern University at New Orleans. Graduation rate: 4 percent. Flunk rate: 96 percent.

Why is this place still open? Suppose a car company made cars that crashed 96 percent of the time. How long would it stay in business?

Second worst is the University of the District of Columbia. Graduation rate: 7 percent. Flunk rate: 93 percent.

Appropriately, UDC is located in our nation’s capital, the center of the federal government that tells the rest of us to what do. Its Department of Education (De-Ed) wastes $70 billion annually of our tax dollars — or adds to the $1 trillion-plus annual deficits.

De-Ed meddles in state and local school policies and programs, dumbing down everything in sight. Since federal involvement of education accelerated after the phony Sputnik scare in 1957, test scores across the country have crashed almost every year. All of this violates the independence of the states under the 10th Amendment.

But there’s no question the feds control D.C. schools, because D.C. is a federal district specifically set up under the Constitution.

Let me emphasize: The feds can’t get more than a 7 percent graduation rate out of the university the Constitution lets them control. Yet the dictate policy to the thousands of state or private universities they control even though the Constitution prohibits them from doing so.