Most educators I've have the opportunity to speak to since George W. Bush took office agree that our President's optimistically named education law, No Child Left Behind, does not live up to its name. At all. What's worse is that the stats might be even more dismal than they seem. The New York Times found that the graduation rates many states report to the federal government are much higher than the figures the states use themselves. For instance, Mississippi officials reported an 87 percent graduation rate to the federal government, but the actual rate is more like 63 percent.

The reasons? For one, states just don't want to report the dismal stats and subsequently be looked upon has having failing school systems. And, as for NCLB., it mandates testing throughout a child's schooling, but does nothing to ensure that this leads to an actual diploma. In fact, NCLB's strict testing, coupled with the lack of any sort of graduation requirement, offers a "perverse" incentive to allow kids to drop out. When low-performing kids leave, the test scores rise. Experts say that many school administrators push these students to leave and get their GED's instead. Secretary of State Margaret Spellings said she is considering requiring all states to calculate grad rates using one federal formula, which will "finally put the issue to rest." The issue of accurately reporting how many students are dropping out of school, that is. But how to address the actual issue? I'm not expecting an answer.