NCLB: How Congress failed math

I read with great interest The Sun's coverage of Maryland obtaining a waiver from the No Child Left Behind federal law ("Leaving NCLB behind," May 31). In fact, it seems 36 states are going this route. This is a big reprieve to Maryland after spending millions of tax dollars on administrative programs with minimal results, not to mention a huge increase in administrative personnel to implement these new programs.

This law is flawed, as are the people who instituted it. If you read the name No Child Left Behind it says that this program is not going to allow one child to fail. That equates to 100 percent which is another nomenclature for perfect. Now we all know there is nothing perfect on Earth, certainly not in theU.S. Congresswhich conjured up this abomination.

Anyone with a minimal mathematical acumen knows that the absolute best that is normally achievable in real life is 95 percent. Virtually all U.S. and world standards that are used for weighing, measuring, calibrating, etc. point toward performing to this percentile. The bottom line here is the Congress has very little mathematical acumen so the law still stands unchanged after 10 years of failure.

David W. Crosby, Catonsville