It never ceases to amaze me that the people elected to positions of authority fail to see the big picture. In its infinite wisdom of the State of North Carolina has passed mandatory testing in core curriculum subjects such as English and History. However, students in New Hanover County don’t have the textbooks required to study for these subject outside the school, in History they are being told to study from the internet, yet the required exam is based on material from the textbook. Year after year students are required to study for these exams but you cannot take your textbook home because schools simply don’t have enough. Yet we have the funds to send these yahoo’s to a National Convention to “learn” tools of excellence. If you want to make NHC schools excellent spend the funds where they are needed-textbooks, teacher pay to name a few.