Recently, US President George W Bush signed the "No Child Left Behind" Act, a law aimed at improving American public education. This has inspired me to submit for your ponderance the following questions on North American public education:

-Can the legislative will of one presidential administration improve and make more efficient American public education, or is this a task which lies in the hands of several future ones (a mess that has taken a short time to make takes a lot longer to clean up)?

-Which children benefit from this legislation, and which (if any) will get the short end of the stick?

Suffice to say I shall leave it all up to you to come at it with your own opinion.

Personally, I see North American public education (Canada and the US collectively) in a state of crisis. I am seeing some alarming trends in the administration, funding and delivery of public schooling on this continent. The first of these is the notion that schools can be run like corporations, adhering to the corporate rationale that cutting costs improves production and somehow quality. How will students benefit when teaching staff, learning assistance staff and other vital school programs fall victim to the downsizing utopia?

Another perturbing trend is the over-prescription of drugs to kids with learning disabilities, my own brother is a prime example. In many cases, we have people without extensive clinical expertise in the area making this judgment call. These drugs may keep them quiet in class now, but they may also do devastating neurological or social damage later on. Studies have been coming out the last few years citing the dangers of over-prescribing Ritalin and other such medications. Although, when funding is slashed, it may be tempting to latch on to the next inticing quick fix that comes along.

And if these red flags were not enough, the retention of quality teachers is also a facet of the North American public system which lags behind. The salaries of some teachers in the United States are pitiful. For the work they do, they don't even get a sufficient fraction of compensation. Plus, with eliminations on class sizes in some jurisdictions, young teachers are having to contend with upwards of fifty to sixty kids in the course of one day. How can it not be that some children will lose out in the numbers game?

If no children are to be left behind in the most genuine sense, then President Bush and his cabinet of erstwhile advisors had better make sure that his new legislative brainchild anticipates and seeks to nip the above mini-crises among so many others in the bud.