On January 7, Superintendent Tom Murphy gave his "State of the Schools" speech to the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce.

After the meeting I was asked by some of the readers to comment on his speech. Let me first say there is no one in the Federal Way area that works harder on schools than Tom Murphy.

It is just that I don't think that the district, or the community, have sensed the realities of education under No Child Left Behind and the Global Economy.

Before his speech the President of Highline College made a presentation that included a handout which indicated Federal Way sends the most students to Highline of any school district.

Here is the shocker, 28 percent of all students at Highline are in the "Basic Skills" program. I believe these are kids that do not have the basic skills to be in a true college environment.

This is the largest portion of students at Highline, and speaks loudly for the less than adequate preparation of our high school students, at least many of them.

I would like to take from Tom's speech; he was kind enough to send me a copy. I will paste portions of the speech on which I agree, or differ.

"I am truly humbled and proud to be part of this extraordinary community, a community of caring, giving citizens, a community of outstanding educators - many of whom are in this room today - a community of wonderful families, now and forever doing the best they can, each and every day, sending us their best child."

Here I believe is the most basic problem that we have in the Federal Way School District, and "cheerleading" doesn't seem to be helping. I have been attending school board meetings since at least 1995. I do not recall any portion of the community represented at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon ever coming to a school board meeting, or to me as a school board member, expressing concerns, or offering possible solutions, about the lack of achievement of our schools.

Having been involved in some school districts that continually make the quality indexes, I have found this to be most distressing.

Members of the Chamber, many who are leaders of the community, have not taken time to be involved in making the District what I believe it could be with their determination to take an active part in improving the achievement, and the future, of our children.

It is my opinion that the community leaders' lack of actual concern for the upbringing of youth in Federal Way has been a major obstacle to attracting well paying employers to Federal Way.

There seems to be little resolve here to "do what it takes" to be sure that the police blotter, and the achievement scores, reflect a well educated, responsible population of youth.

I have on occasion reviewed achievement scores with many of the civic leaders without being able to attract their concern. I have even talked to PTA leaders about the scores of their schools, which they did not know, without any success in getting them to get "beyond the bake sale."

Tom went on to discuss the recent election of Barrack Obama.

"Our next President is a living testimonial to "ALL means ALL," and his election is a clear beacon to ALL children that success knows no color!"

It would be well to remind the audience that President Obama is a product of some of the finest private schools and colleges in this nation.

Places where there was little tolerance for "slackers" and conduct and decorum are held to the highest levels.

His education is an outstanding example of what can be done when there is an extremely strong focus on achievement. I find it distressing that we have not learned this.

There are a few schools in this nation where these high standards are held for minority students with excellent success. In Federal Way our students are not held to these standards and, as was shown in a handout at the luncheon, we have only been able to raise our 10th grade math pass rate to just over 50 percent in 10 years.

For minorities the passage rate can be as low as 16 percent! Only 1 in 7 of our 9th graders will graduate from college in 10 years and approximately the same number will be involved with the judicial system. Where is our concern about our youth?

Tom they cited three programs for which Federal Way is a "pioneer" in this state.

All of these were brought to the school district by board members of the past. In the past year we have not seen any attempts at improvement led by board members.

Technology Access Foundation (TAF) is a partnership between the district and some very committed folks to improve the Black and Female understanding of how technology can improve a child's future.

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) was in 1,800 secondary schools in this nation before it was brought to the district by a board member. Federal Way has some of the first AVID schools in Washington

Cambridge International Examinations Program (Cambridge) was again brought to the district by a board member, and at the time of its inception in Federal Way, was the only such program west of the Appalachians!

These three programs were all an attempt, along with the Public Academy and the International Baccalaureate Program, to raise the standards of achievement of more kids in Federal Way.

Unfortunately there are still a large group, as shown at Highline, that are not involved in achievement at a level that makes them desirable candidates for great futures.

Then Tom cited the recent Business Week article on desirable school districts to bring up children. Bellevue was first in this state, followed by Shoreline and Federal Way.

In a previous article I attempted to figure out the criteria for this selection by analysis of the article without any conclusion that would suggest that being a "runner up" in this state was anything special.

Tom then stated: "However, as good and as promising as this work is there is always room for improvement. We must solve the mathematics dilemma and finally close the achievement gap in all areas. We did not meet the Federal standard for student performance on the WASL and so we are a District in Improvement. I find that an ironic distinction as continual improvement has been our focus for at least 10 years.

The data on the charts on your tables are only one of the demonstrations of the success of those continual improvement efforts."

The data suggests that we are now just over 50 percent successful in math, and as previously mentioned, less than 16 percent of some of our minorities can meet this standard.

Tom reminded the audience that "Education is the Paramount Priority" according to the state Constitution. President Obama says that "No amount of money can buy achievement." Isn't it time that education become a "priority" for parents and other adults in our community?

In conclusion, I would suggest that we need to take a more realistic view of how we raise children in Federal Way in homes, in schools, and on the streets. Let's stop "cheerleading" and look at the realities. Our children, and our future, deserve this.