Others, like Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, thinks NCLB needs an overhaul. It might provide some options for parents and students in urban settings, but in rural places, which would describe a good deal of Matheson's congressional district, it doesn't work. Say your child's school is failing under these standards. Is transporting the child to another school 40 miles away a realistic remedy? Or can rural schools, which face hiring challenges under the best of circumstances, be able to hire teachers with degrees in the subjects they teach? In theory, it's a good idea. It's just not how the real world works. People who teach in rural schools wear many hats. They have to. Would a student be better served by a math teacher who has a math degree? Of course. Should that exclude that teacher from teaching social studies or physical education, if needed?

Does that mean the education of a student who grows up in rural Utah is inherently worse than that of a child along the Wasatch Front? Small rural schools give kids something very large urban schools cannot: small class sizes and a sense of belonging. In a small high school, teachers and staff notice when a child is truant and/or failing. They will do their level best to intervene. In very large schools, kids can fall through the cracks. This does not mean the teachers, counselors or administrators care less. It's a numbers game.

A couple of years ago, at my daughter's parent-teacher conference at her junior high, I asked her science teacher how my daughter was behaving in class. She's a bit of a social butterfly, having inherited her mother's gift for the gab. He replied matter-of-factly: "We've only been in school three weeks. I'm not exactly sure who your daughter is." At first I took offense. Later I thought it was the most honest thing any teacher had ever told me at a parent-teacher conference.

If it were up to me, we'd junk NCLB this instant. But with an election campaign in full bore, troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and a mortgage lending crisis before us, I suspect NCLB will limp along with the lame duck president and be set aside by the incoming commander in chief. Hopefully that man or woman will listen when the states tell them that the states are perfectly capable of running their own education systems.

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Marjorie Cortez, who wonders how the federal government can get away with unfunded education mandates, is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com