The shock from the latest results of the AYP tests are still reverberating around the community.

We think that there is little excuse for the fact that so many of our schools failed the requirements needed to pass these mandated tests.

We hope that along with the recent budget cuts and this testing, that we have reached the bottom of our freefall in education in this county.

As we have stated before, we have confidence that our new superintendant, Dr. Gary Mathews, will provide the leadership to get out of this freefall, but he is going to need time.

Out of fairness, a great deal of the schools failed to pass muster because the test scores in the students with disabilities subgroup brought them down.

Over the past 40 years, what began as a dream and hope for parents with children who have true disabilities has now turned into a catch-all program where children with discipline and other class-disrupting problems are placed. The original intent was for portions of school funds to be used to provide workable programs so that the legitimately disabled children would be taught how to survive in the real world.

The children in the middle of our education system are the real backbone of our American society and they should be trained properly to compete in the modern world.

Testing of troubled children and children with disabilities should not be lumped into general testing of students.

That has to change in order for there to be real judgment on the progress of our schools.