Schools across the state of Georgia recently received report cards of their own in the form of the state Department of Education’s annual Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports. AYP is Georgia’s way to measure students’ academic achievement under President Bush’s 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. The supposed goal of the Act is to ensure that no American child, regardless of the color of his or her skin, or their mental capacity, nor the size of his or her family’s bank account gets any less of an education than their peers anywhere else in the country.

The catch of No Child Left Behind is that while it and AYP both have a system for determining how schools fall short, it offers little direction in how to improve. Instead, its solutions include such things as "school choice" which allows a parent to pull their child from one school in the system and send them to another, thus avoiding the problem rather than correcting it.

There have been other, more appropriate ideas, such as reducing class size to enable students more one-on-one attention; however, this is an expensive process calling for more teachers and costly additions. And while Bush and Gov. Perdue both tout the importance of education, their check writing priorities seem to suggest otherwise.

Having been dismissed from the University of Georgia over a decade ago after just three quarters of less than stellar academic performance, I won’t pretend to have all the answers as to how we should fix the educational system in Georgia or the rest of the nation. I do however have some ideas to get us moving in the right direction and I offer them now, humbly, to our lawmakers.

No Child Left Behind is a novel idea, a warm and fuzzy concept - as is that line in the Declaration of Independence suggesting that every one of us is "created equal." The truth however, as most of this nation is well aware, is that there is very little equality for most of us out there, so let’s quit with the costly sham and get down to a more realistic approach that will actually benefit this country.

First of all, the concept of public education is a borderline Communist principle – taking money from the middle and upper class to educate everyone, including those at the bottom who put little to nothing in the kitty themselves and then fail to earn diplomas in the end.

Rather than No Child Left Behind, I propose a new act, based in realistic concepts that will benefit us all: white, black or in between, rich, poor or somewhere in the middle. I call it No Child Without A Purpose, and I believe its swift adoption will secure this country’s greatness well into the next century.

In Georgia, we currently require children to attend school until they’re 16 years of age regardless of their personal feelings in the matter. Why is this? Why should we continue to pour millions of dollars towards educating someone who has no desire to be educated? I say if a child doesn’t like the third grade, then why force him or her to be there.

Not only that, schools are failing to teach children responsibility by giving them too many opportunities to succeed. Fail a grade? Forget summer school or repeating it altogether, you’re done. Disciplinary problems? So long, thanks for trying. By giving these children the boot, they won’t be around to slow down the capable kids who want and desire to learn. We’ll also reduce class size as well as the tax burden by making the system responsible for fewer children.

Of course, now there’s the question of what to do with all these uneducated and bored children because, as they say, idle hands are the devil’s workshop.

So, and here lies the true genius of my plan, we not only repeal the truancy laws, but this country’s child labor laws as well so these kids can start earning their own way. While we’re at it, let’s get rid of the minimum wage so corporations can hire these children at the paltry sums worthy of their educational backgrounds.

Such an influx of cheap labor would do wonders for halting the steady flow of American jobs across foreign borders and seas. Industries could go back to the old practice of building "mill villages" where workers and their families lived within walking distance of the factory, except these could be barracks-style cabins that would house dozens of children at once. The whole thing would be like summer camp with eight (or 10 or even 12) hours of craft time each day.

Imagine what this would do for our nation’s economy. Lost American industries would clamor to come back and set up shop again, foreign businesses would be fast on their heels and the rest of us could enjoy guilt-free shopping at Wal-Mart.

Of course there have to be limits. We can’t have able-bodied teens dropping out of school and competing for their parents’ jobs. So I propose we take those academically challenged 14 to 18 year-olds and send them to a branch of military service for at least seven years.

Now some might call this a draft aimed at the uneducated, but I’d rather think of it as a career path down which true patriots may march in service to their country.

Recruitment has been tough lately and with the administration’s recent announcement that our military presence could be required in Iraq indefinitely, we could use the boost to our fighting forces. This would also give us the troop numbers to chase down any threat at any time, anyplace in the world. We could take on the Axis of Evil all at once and still have enough soldiers to give our borders ample protection at home.

I must admit, even I questioned my own plan when it first came to me; but it’s really just a matter of changing the way we think in this country.

China has always been in the hunt for gold medals in Olympic gymnastics because they recognize children with potential at an early age, remove them from their families and send them away for extensive training for the next eight to 10 years. This is basically the same principle, only in reverse.

We’ll acknowledge a student’s lack of potential and find better, more productive uses, rather than wasting precious resources attempting to educate that child or teaching him or her to think and reason for themselves. We’ll build a better America for us all by placing a greater purpose on the simple minds of our sons and daughters rather than leaving their futures to chance and choice.

(Ben Roberts is a writer and columnist for The News and Farmer/The Jefferson Reporter in Jefferson County, Georgia.

He can be reached at ben.roberts@thenewsandfarmer.com.)