Greetings Nephew,

Sarah, who teaches health here at Purview High, passed by yesterday on her way home, very upset. Setting her papers down on the porch , she said the entire high school’s been put on the failed school list. No matter most seniors go to some sort of college – Purview Community or Middlebury or Boston. A couple even to MIT or Harvard. “No matter at all,” she complained.

 “The problem,” she says, “Is the Special Ed kids didn’t pass the Fed’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ tests. These kids got just enough failures to get the entire school failed. And,” she went on, “Purview is by no means alone. Hundreds of schools are in the same boat.”

 “Heavens, Sarah,” I said, tongue in cheek, “I bet they aren’t having this problem in Houston where Rod Paige came from. His stint as superintendent made Houston schools seem simply super, got him his job with Bush & Co. Bein’ Secretary of Education, maybe Rod figures school administrators should use his Houston accounting methods. That way Purview, like Houston, could evaporate its failures right off the books.”

 Picking up her papers to leave, Sarah grinned, “If I didn’t know you better, Maggie, I’d believe you’re trying to get Purview High a Presidential pat on the back for outstanding achievement.”

 Yours truly,
Great Aunt Maggie Pye