I was reminded of "The Blind Men and the Elephant" by an American poet, John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887). He based the poem on a fable told in India many years ago.

Five blind men approach an elephant. Each touches a different part and makes assumptions about what the elephant must be. One touches the side and assumes it to be a wall, another the tusk and assumes it to be a spear, while yet another touches the tail and assumes the elephant to be a rope. One of the last verses of the poem says: "And so these men of Indostan disputed loud and long, each in his own opinion exceeding stiff and strong, though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong."

Aleman and Martin make some mighty big assumptions without having the whole perspective.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) answer to everything is testing - of students and teachers. The main reason most teachers are opposed to high-stakes testing is that we know there are many ways to verify if students are learning. A one-time test score is only one way to measure.

The very students that Aleman and Martin advocate for are the most hurt by the NCLB testing emphasis. Yet they would have us believe that to dare to challenge the law and face the threat of loss of federal dollars is to shrug the state's duty to all children. Of particular note is that the federal government has mandated NCLB, without fully funding it. How can the feds demand and threaten without providing adequate funding?

HB1001, legislation sponsored by Rep. Margaret Dayton, was carefully drafted to avoid the loss of funds. It does not refuse to comply with NCLB, but says that we will use our own system of accountability, one we believe is superior to the NCLB requirements. Besides, if the worst possible outcome happened and Utah lost the $76 million in federal funding, the state coffers now have an $87 million dollar surplus. The state could make up the money if it needed to.

For these two advocates to label Rep. Dayton, State School Superintendent Patti Harrington and the state Legislature "racists" because they have the courage to stand up to bad federal policy is simply unfair and unwarranted.

Martin's description of the elephant is another myopic view. He wants us to believe there is collusion and intent to gloss over the fact that Utah has a serious achievement gap. The data provided from U-PASS, Utah's reform system, and NCLB is not new data. We have known the strengths and weakness of our system for many years.

The Legislature mandated an accountability system long before NCLB. Utah educators have been working to create a viable system for tracking progress. Many ethnic minority groups and people of color have been involved in the development and morphing of U-PASS.

In fact U-PASS provides data for us to track ELL (English language learners) students as individuals within the levels of acquisition of skills in great detail. It is a fact that all sub-groups including poverty and ethnicity, made progress in both math and language arts in 2002-2003.

Is there racism within the public education system? To this I will agree. Racism is with us and impacts decisions that are made. Is U-PASS racist and opposing NCLB racist? I think not.

Public education in Utah faces many challenges, especially in funding. State and legislative leaders acknowledge there is an achievement gap. The Legislature has mandated "competency-based education," but has not yet funded it.

The State Office of Education offered a comprehensive plan for early intervention, summer school programs and remedial assistance for all children in the system. Because the proposal is costly, the office suggested we begin in elementary schools. The goal is for all children to be at grade level as they pass through the education system. The funds have not been forthcoming.

First, we need leadership. Where are the leaders who can bring us together to have the "hard" conversations? Where are the leaders who will include teachers at the discussion table rather than on the menu? Where are the leaders to bring all the stakeholders together to develop a long-term plan to fund and develop good Utah schools into great ones?

In the next several years 66 percent of all practicing teachers in Utah will retire. How can we recruit more ethnic minority teachers? How can we recruit more men into the ranks of teaching? How can we fully fund education in Utah with the continued dramatic tsunami of children coming our way? How can we truly provide a system that is focused to meet the needs of all children? The Utah Education Association and its leaders and members will meet you at the elephant to have these difficult discussions. Together I believe we can create open, honest dialogue that has a more productive outcome.

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Kaye C. Chatterton was president of the Utah Education Association in 1977-78. She has taught in public schools for more than 30 years. She has been a staff member for the UEA for 15 years and currently serves as the director of teaching and learning.