Princeton officials want to ration the number of A’s earned by students in an attempt to curb grade inflation, according to an Associated Press article.

The move is a good one. Harvard University allowed more than 90 percent of its students to graduate with honors, according to the AP article. While some students and parents may feel they are owed good grades for paying thousands of dollars a year for the education, the truth is that good grades must be earned.

The measure proposed by Princeton would mandate that each department give A’s as no more than 35 percent of its grades. Theoretically, this could cause problems if more than 35 percent of students in a department are doing A-level work, but realistically, it is unlikely. In any case, the increased competition would raise the bar and produce better students overall.

Colleges would also gain status if this were implemented. High school students choosing colleges may prefer schools with less stringent grading policies, but if every college that had grade inflation problems adopted this policy, it would not be an issue. Of course, it’s unlikely that every college would take the initiative to do so, but it probably would become general knowledge which colleges did so.

Most employers don’t look at GPA in any case, but for those applying to graduate school, grades are very important. Admissions committees, however, would probably have a good handle on which universities were using grade inflation measures and which universities were not.

Excellent students would still be earning A’s with this system, and students would have a better idea of where they stand academically. While UW-Eau Claire does not appear to have problems with grade inflation, universities that do could improve themselves by taking measures to fix it.