From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Is it time to reform, education reform?

Hello again, I'm Orinolny, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

The daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

The No Child Left Behind Act was supposed to make every American kid proficient in reading and math by 2014. But after five years, that sounds like a pipe dream. Proficiency standards differ wildly from state to state. Some tests are being made easier so that scores will go up. Schools that have not improved are not being held accountable, and angry parents in many places have gone to court.

On to the point, is it time for national standards? Are test scores the best measures? What about

merit pay for teachers? We'll talk about those and other issues and update the fires in California.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John

D. and Catherine T. McArthur

Foundation. Hello again. Mormon, I'll only back with To the Point. President Bush wants Congress to

renew no child left behind, but after five years, there is little consensus left on education

reform. On To the point, how well is it working? What's needed to make it better? We'll hear a variety

of different points of view. First, this news update, fires continue to rage in seven Southern

California counties from Ventura to the Mexican border. With his microphone buffeted by

winds in Malibu, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger summarized the situation so far.

All across Southern California, we have seven counties with fires so far.

Tens of thousands of acres have burned.

Thousands of buildings have been threatened.

We have been evacuating residents in harm's way.

And extremely dangerous heavy winds and dry conditions make it very, very hard to get those

...