Today is the first day of school for my children. This is usually a happy time for my wife and I, especially my wife, since the kids are out of the house and she can have some time to herself. But this year I am not so happy about this school year for my daughter. I am extremely worried about the level of education she is going to receive.

My daughter is starting the 4th grade. Where we live 4th and 5th grade is considered intermediate and is separate from elementary. So my daughter is going to a new school. One day we drove by the school to see where it was located. The school is fairly new, only seven years old and looks very nice. Last night was open house and my wife and daughter attended it. My wife was not happy when she walked in the house.

I'm only going to cover a few of the more troubling aspects of this school. The first troubling thing is the principal stated that the school did poorly in their standardized testing last year (and previous years according to some research I did) and parents have the option to enroll their children in three other schools instead. According to my wife the principal didn't go into detail about how they are going to fix it other than saying they will be doing prep work for these tests because apparently passing these tests is more important than giving the children a well rounded education.

On to number two. The school will not be issuing text books to the students to take home because they are too heavy for the children to carry. This has been a concern for a few years now. I think it is stupid. Most children are bused in and won't be lugging a heavy backpack for miles on end. So what exactly is the big deal? I am not entirely sure. But the kicker to this is my daughter's teacher actually said the textbooks are too wordy. Yes, she said they are too wordy. Apparently the children attending the 4th grade are too dumb to read and understand a text book. I know for a fact my daughter doesn't have a problem with reading comprehension and she attended the same school district last year.

Number three. In my daughter's classroom they had a small collection of books. This is a good thing. Kids should be encouraged to read but the bad thing about this is they are 1st grade level books. My daughter reads well above her grade level and loves to read. So she is going to be forced to re-read books she read three years ago. Good thing we try and take her to the library regularly so she can read books that challenge her.

Number four. Most schools have computer labs for the children to use. I am all for this as computer literacy is very important these days. The principal was proud to announce that they actually hired a person who was not already a teacher there to teach the teachers how to teach the students to use the computers. I could make a killing where I live as a consultant. I understand that not every one is a computer genius but if you are going to have a computer lab you need to have someone able to keep the computers running and to show the kids how to use them. The sad thing is most of the kids can probably teach them a thing or two.

There is more and I am sure as the school year drags on there will be more to rant and rave about. I would love to put my kids into private school but I just can't afford that and even if I do is there a guarantee my child will get a better education?

I blame this all on President Bush and his dumb ass No Child Left Behind Act. This has been one of the worst things for education in this country. I personally feel it is making our country dumber and it is making it harder for smarter kids to get ahead, especially if they are attending a school that routinely fails to meet the standards. According to the NCLB act if the school my child is attending is failing to meet the standards I have the option to allow my child to transfer to a better performing school. Of course this means she won't be able to take the bus and we will have to drive her. The school is also supposed to provide free tutoring and after school programs so kids who want to excel have the resources to do so.

So when I ask what happened to education standards, the easiest and simplest answer is Geroge W. Bush and the people who keep backing him on the NCLB.