You would probably be hard-pressed to tell me who a kind, 57-year-old woman named Joyce Irvine is. But I'm betting even an elementary-school kid, like those who will register for the upcoming school year next week, can connect the dots between Burlington, Vt., where Joyce was the principal at Wheeler Elementary School, and our Chattanooga, Tn., where we are now rolling in "Race To The Top" cash.

You'll remember that Tennessee and Delaware were the first two winners in a somewhat fierce and on-going "Battle Between the States" vying for $4 billion in federal funding for education. Tennessee was awarded $500 million in the first round and Delaware got $100 million. Yesterday 17 more states were named as finalists for the second round and, of course, huge chunks of the remaining $3.4 billion.

Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina were among those finalists, as well as the District of Columbia, but Vermont was not. That is why you need to know about Joyce Irvine, whose tragic story was portrayed about 10 days ago in the New York Times. You see, she was fired because her school had low test scores.

On Monday night this week, Joyce finally admitted to Vermont television station WCAX she feels she was unfairly punished after being fired only so Burlington could attract a $3 million grant in federal aid. "That's the understatement. I really and truly feel that I am kind of the scapegoat."

You see, no one anywhere will deny the extremely popular Irvine was tremendously talented and quite adept at doing her job. But Wheeler Elementary, where 37 of 39 fifth-graders last year were either "special-ed" kids or foreign refugees, had notoriously poor test results.

As a matter of fact, the government could care less that 97 percent of Wheeler Elementary's children come from poverty-level families. The guidelines for "Blueprint to Success" are stated in black and white and are harshly specific.

According to the federal rules, for a district to qualify, schools with very low test scores, like Wheeler, must do one of the following: close down; be replaced by a charter (Vermont does not have charters); remove the principal and half the staff; or remove the principal and transform the school.

Are you with me here? Are you seeing Howard School in Chattanooga's urban Southside, where great strides are being made despite test scores that still lag? Can you picture the anguish in Burlington where the school superintendent, Jeanne Collins, hailed principal Irvine as "a leader among her colleagues" and "a very good principal" but was forced to replace her over the summer?

"Let's face it," the ousted Irvine told the Vermont TV reporter, "it is a case of Joyce versus millions. You can buy a lot of help for children with that money."

The Times' article clearly showed how saddened the principal was to be caught in the quandary. “I loved being principal — I put my heart and soul into that school for six years,” she said after she was demoted to an administrative job with the Burlington system earlier this month.

The "super," Dr. Collins, said, “I didn’t want to lose her, she’s too good,” and said the test scores were the result of a testing system that is “totally inappropriate” for an elementary school where impoverished children come in speaking nearly 30 different foreign languages.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has been labeled as being quite liberal and is very supportive of the Obama administration, is among those who have sought to get Joyce Irvine back to Wheeler. “She should not have been removed. I’ve walked that school with her — she seemed to know the name and life history of every child,” he said.

“I applaud the Obama people for paying attention to low-income kids and caring,” said Senator Sanders, “but to label the school as failing and humiliate the principal and teachers is grossly unfair.”

Does that sound like the tate of Tennessee wrestling Howard School away from the grasp of the Hamilton County School System? And does it rankle you to see America's separate states each spend millions in order to wrestle the eyes of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan away from their needy neighbors?

Yes, it is a given we need to better education across America, but when you see a principal who worked 80 hours every week get tossed to the curb, when you base an entire year of achievement on one multiple-choice test, and when you pit one state against another we ain't exactly solving the equation.

royexum@aol.com