President Clinton favors "tough" national standards and testing of fourth graders in reading and eighth graders in math. Liberals are concerned about testing bias against minorities and conservatives object to federal control. But columnist Robert J. Samuelson says that apparently none of them favor setting high standards when it comes to those students for whom federal standards and tests make sense.

In fact, says Samuelson, Clinton is encouraging social promotion where it's most rampant: between high school and college.

• In fiscal year 1997, the federal government will provide an estimated $43 billion in college aid to 7.6 million students through grants and federally subsidized or guaranteed loans.

• Although high school diplomas and grade transcripts are unreliable, none of these students is required to take a competency test to qualify for financial aid.

• The President wants to increase "access" to college by expanding entitlements to aid, but isn't proposing testing because, as Acting Deputy Secretary of Education Marshall Smith says, "The outcry would be unbelievable."

Yet there is evidence that many college students aren't able to perform college-level work:

• Six of ten high school graduates go to college of some type; but half of those eventually drop out.

• In 1995, 78 percent of all two and four year colleges offered remedial courses.

• About 29 percent of freshmen took at least one remedial course in reading, writing or math.

Like sensible welfare reform, concludes Samuelson, college aid ought to require personal accountability. And before the federal government gets into the business of setting standards for local school districts, it ought to set some for its own programs.