My oldest son was stricken ill in the 10 grade and spent much of the year in the hospital. He had to repeat the 10th grade. In Nevada the state allocates only four years of funded high school education. My son was not permitted to enter the 12 grade to graduate because of this four year funding policy. I paid for him to complete his 12th year through a community college high school degree program. The state counted him as having completed high school (the four years he was allocated) despite the fact he was unceremoniously tossed out without graduating. By state standards he was counted as a success. By my standards, the Nevada school system claimed success for a failure. I don’t know how Nevada managed to excel to ranking 49th in the nation for quality of education.

My hat is off to Sheila Tobias for being an outspoken critic and for her work to prepare science and math teachers to enter the system. Our education system needs clear voices that understand education is a process involving teachers, fulfilled in their vocation and inspired to teach, not an institution that merely trains children from state and federally mandated program manuals then ejects them unprepared and uninspired to excel in the sciences. Perhaps Ms. Tobias will spend some additional time in Nevada? We could sure use her help here.