As we all know, the American education system is in a state of transition. If you find yourself snickering at the euphemism, you should be. If you read editorials on education, this so called transition has been going on since at least the 1960s, when millions of disadvantaged and underprivileged Americans demanded change. While most of those changes were positive, some conservative minded educators believe that the educational system that the United States had in place should have been left alone. Of course, the Federal Department of Education thinks otherwise.

Most of us who read National Education Week are intelligent enough to realize that change is inevitable, and no matter how hard people try to fight it, such resistance will only do more harm than good. So to claim that that public formal education just fine the way it was is a ludicrous assertion. Public education is just what its name implies; it is education for the public, which mean every American citizen has a right to it. Therefore, when the best education is not accessible to everyone, then that could be considered discrimination. How can anyone view that as better than things are now?

While American education is certainly in a tough spot, it is far better than it was during the segregated 1950s. A better question is whether it is really as bad is everyone says it is? If you really think about it, if every American were to graduate from high school with a 4.0, then go on to graduate from college with high honors, would things be any better? Would there be enough jobs for all of these brilliant young Americans to make a comfortable living and pay all of their college loans?

If you were to read a lot of the articles that appear in National Education Week, all of the talk of No Child Left Behind statistics is misguided. The reality is if the United States really wants to maintain educational standards, some children do need to be left behind. It is time to face the facts. Although every American is entitled to a quality education, not everyone possesses the abilities and attitudes to succeed in college and land a high paying job. After all, if nobody is around to do the little jobs, the nation would fall apart.

Regardless of what some people write about in National Education Week, American education does an adequate job in educating our kids. Each spring more intelligent, highly capable and motivated students graduate from college than there are jobs available. And every year, nearly 50 percent of college students drop out. Clearly, we need to do more for the kids on the lower end of achievement. The first thing educators can do is to be truthful, and not encourage them to develop unrealistic visions of the future.