Things got downright testy at the state school board meeting on Tuesday. You know, the one where the board voted, 7-4, to keep the High School Assessment test as a requirement for graduating seniors in the class of 2009.

There were lamentations aplenty, about how the HSA is unfair to “special needs” students and immigrant students struggling to learn English. At one point a couple of board members, Blair Ewing and Dunbar Brooks, got into a “Who Loves Negroes the Most” debate.