Bribery has reached a new level at a North Carolina middle school. Since the chocolate fundraiser failed to produce last year the parent advisory council came up with a new idea. The new fundraiser  offers parents and students the chance to buy their way to better grades.

The school will be selling 20 test points to students for $20 dollars. Students can add 10 extra points to each of two tests of their choice. The points will help students move their scores from a "B" to an "A" or from a failing to a passing grade. The principal went along with the plan and remarked that "it's not enough of an impact to change a student's overall grades."

Education officials were not happy about the cash-for-grades exchange. They believe that this teaches students the wrong lesson and that anything can be bought. This devalues education and is undermining the hard work and dedication that these students need to learn in order to succeed in college. Students can be dismissed entirely from school for this type of behavior so why are they condoning it?

Even though this school thinks this is a great way to raise money, the fact of the matter is that it's wrong and dishonest. Public schools are already failing and some students are graduating without even knowing how to read or write. So being able to improve your grades with money just sends students the wrong message: that learning isn't important and money can fix anything.

This idea puts students on the wrong path. They don't learn the value of hard work and determination. Instead they learn that there's an easy road out. This not only affects those students that didn't do well on their tests, but also those that studied and worked hard.

For students that studied and did well on their tests they might lose that motivation because other students that didn't study are now able to get a similar grade to theirs. It affects all of the students and I'm surprised that there aren't more parents and school board members squabbling about the morality of the fundraiser.

In order to try and improve their test scores many states decided to try a tactic to raise their test scores. They decided to lower their standards and believe that students reading and math skills at their grade level will improve. The scores will increase and show that students are improving when they haven't truly mastered the skill.

What's peculiar is that the government is trying to raise the standards and challenge students more so that we can stay up with educational standards in other countries and states are trying to lower them. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that "We're lying to our children when we tell them they're proficient, but they're not achieving at a level that will prepare them for success once they graduate."

Individual states largely have control over their own education. However the government does have some say when it comes to the No Child Left Behind Act. Even though the act has caused some problems when schools have failed to perform, the intentions were good. Actions were taken but have failed to deliver.

Now schools are trying to boost scores by lowering their standards. This tactic is ridiculous and stupid. The point is to try and improve education and this will not improve education.  The scores are just  the way to analyze and mark improvement. So lowering scores is not going to accomplish anything but just make things worse.

Because of states actions, the federal government is trying to encourage states to accept a set of standards by offering millions of dollars. The money would come from the federal stimulus law which allocates money to Obama's educational reform. The reasoning behind this is that students currently do much worse on National Assessments than they do on state tests because of the different standards. So if states lower their standards there will be an even greater difference between test results.

Standards need to rise in order to help students compete with their international peers. Since 2005 more states have lowered their standards than raised them. Another problem children are facing is that states standards differ greatly; so children may be considered proficient in one state and not in another.

Education is really important in everyone's life. Children and adults both need a greater education. There is a saying the "D's earn degrees." This is unacceptable and students need to be learning and retaining more information because what they are learning in some cases is not adequate.

The federal government needs to take greater steps to improve education in the U.S. for children and adults, because Americans are being left in the dust and this is a problem that will influence their lives and future generations. Greater efforts need to be made in regard to education in America.

Everybody loves a contest, especially when it involves winning a case of ramen noodles. ClassesandCareers.com has launched a new blog called College Life particularly for college students and college students at heart. To kick things off properly, we are holding the Student Scavenger Contest 2009,which challenges students to present as many ideas on how to get free or cheap chow as possible. Whoever turns in the most ideas will win one $100 restaurant gift card, a $200 Walmart gift Card, and a case of ramen noodles.

We dreamed up this crazy challenge one day while reminiscing about all the wild things we did during school to get three square meals a day. I used to go to fast food joints at closing time and offer the manager all the change I had in exchange for all the stuff they hadn’t sold that day. For $4.27, I could get two days worth of Big Macs, McRibs, french fries, and Quarter Pounders with Cheese. Sad, yes. Desperate, absolutely. But it makes for a wonderful yarn later.

Another wonderful one I heard of was a gentleman who, finding his cupboard contained only a can of corn niblets and a tiny mound of dust bunnies, called his friends together for a potluck. He made sure to call the best cooks around. When the potluck came, he heated up his corn niblets, adding in a small lump of butter, which he borrowed from his roommate, for good measure. His friends brought lasagna, bratwurst sausages, and a heap of other delectables. All went home gorged and content. Some even left some leftovers with our protagonist. And our protagonist lived to fight another day. Truly, he was a Student Scavenger, inventive, sly, and a tad bit unprincipled.

So that’s what this contest is all about: commemorating all the crazy things we resort to in order to get some food when money is stretched. You can tweet your ideas or post them on Facebook as long as you link back to our blog. You can leave your ideas as a comment on our blog. You can even film yourself demonstrating your idea and post it on YouTube for a bonus. The most entries wins, with videos getting extra weight.

If you want to join the contest and earn the honor of being a genuine Student Scavenger, go to the contest page to get started.