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"This is a stupid post. NCLB has dictated that math be taught to special needs children that can't handle it. My ex-wife has told me what has been happening (she is a special education teacher). If the kids can't handle it, the test scores are down. If the test scores are down, the school suffers from the county education bureaucracy and people lose their jobs over a stupid, stupid one size fits all prescription."

I'm sorry but your assertion is not even close to being accurate. First off, you imply that teaching math to "special needs" students is nearly impossible, as if special needs people are all retards and incapable of learning.

I mean, what the heck are special needs students anyway? (I hate that term. To some of today's elites, the term special needs applies to any and all who are not perfect students and/or those with even the slightest of behavior problems.

Consider: Not all kids are easy-as-pie to teach, and sometimes teachers have to adapt, although it seems many in today's teacher unions are reluctant to do just that.

Furthermore, the claim that people lose their jobs if test scores go down is just plain wrong, if not hysterically ridiculous.

I mean, there is not even a "county education bureacracy" in my part of the country.

In fact, county govt. in Bucks County, Pennsylvania has very little to do with education, execpt maybe to provide a few tech schools here and there for kids who want to learn the trades rather than academics. (Local school boards answer mostly to state govt.)

Forgive my perceived beligerence, but the author of the original post was spot on when he/she implied that the Dems are cukoo for going hysterical over GWB's "No Child Left Behind" legislation, which in reality is a long overdue means of getting teachers to make some extra efforts in teaching rather than just giving up and blaming everything on the existance of "special needs" students.

With 501 school districts in Pennsylvania, it's a mess of Biblical proportion.

I spelled out clearly what I was saying and that it came from someone that I know's personal experience.

I spelled it out pretty Kerrying clearly IIRC.

"I mean, there is not even a "county education bureacracy" in my part of the country."

Maybe not in Bucks County. In Baltimore county there sure as heck is.