While I appreciate and agree with much of what you say, the bottom line is that students are graduating from our schools without basic skills; math, reading, spelling, composition, etc. The schools have failed to fix the problem. It's time for a different solution. First we must get the federal government completely out of education. They have no Constitutional right to be involved, and their involvement has destroyed the educational systems in this country. Then we must find a way to measure what's being taught (not teach to the test) and hold those who are failing the children accountable. Until we do those things, education will continue to be a miserable failure, parents will continue to be misled by hyperbole and children will continue to graduate without the basic skills that an elementary student used to have.