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The stickler is that states are allowed to determine their own satisfactory performance level.

Again, you blame BUSH when you emphatically state where the problem comes from.

From what I understand this procedure is not new. It is just that the media and democrats and the teacher's union (can you say organized crime?) are attempting to get you to blame the downhill race in public education that has been going on for years and years on President Bush, even while he is attempting to get changes made that will help correct the inequities of the past.

Believe me, I am by no means a liberal, lol. I am an education major and I have seen the excessive damage this bill is producing for school systems.

1: The first problem I outlined is in the piece.

2: Another problem with the legislation is the use of sub-groups. A sub-group is a group of students in a school that number 12 or more. This can be LD, ADHD, Black, White, ESL, Latino, Asian, IEP, etc... If one subgroup fails, no matter the performance of the school as a whole, the entire school fails the exam. This means that a group of ESL (English as a Second Language) kids, who can barely read English, takes the test and fails, the school fails. Another example: LD kids (Learning Disabled) from no fault of their own are forced to take the exam. They have no hopes of passing--in fact, in many cases, they are told to do their best to mark inside the circles. They fail--school fails.

3: The Imperial Federal Government takes over if a school fails to show improvement in one or more sub-groups two years in a row. So, the government will take away the state's authority over the education of its citizens.