To the next president of the United States, whoever you are, something has to be done about education in this country. You want to send our soldiers to Iraq? Fine, but make sure they can find it on a map first — more than 80 percent of Americans can’t, according to a 2002 poll by the National Geographic Society.

American children consistently rank at the bottom of lists of world rankings of public schools. But those lists don’t speak to the intelligence of American children; they speak to the inadequacy of American public schools.

And those problems have been compounded by No Child Left Behind, which has been nothing less than disastrous for American public education. Although it does mandate that all students meet basic reading and math levels, it ignores other subjects.

School districts all over the country, terrified of losing more funding in a time when state budgets are already strapped for cash, are doing the only thing they can when money is in jeopardy — making sure that their students will score well enough on the tests to put enough money in the school coffers to pay the winter heating bill.

Standardized tests have their uses, but the current federal laws are using testing to destroy learning. Too much hinges on test results, and schools that desperately need the federal funds have encouraged teachers to “teach to the test,” thus eliminating equally important facets of public education. What about science and social studies, geography, music and art?

High scores on standardized tests are good in the short run, but eliminating other subjects simply to boost those scores will only harm students. These children will someday be our national leaders. How can they be active, involved, informed citizens who are damn good test takers but can’t find their way through a dictionary?

Do something about public education in this country. Schools can be accountable without subjecting students to annual tests. If you want to do it through federal legislation, then abandon dependency on annual test scores and define crystal clear goals with high expectations and competent people to enforce them who will reward — or punish — as necessary.