When schools are not performing up to snuff as judged by federal standards, the answer is not to move the underperforming students to another school in the district.

This is the situation facing Oak Harbor School District with the announcement that two of the five elementary schools, Crescent Harbor and Olympic View, are deficient in meeting certain standards.

School officials explain that low scores were produced by lower income special education students who were tested in those schools. Last year, low income readers didn’t measure up in the testing. The back-to-back low scoring years means parents can demand that their children be bused elsewhere in the district to be educated. The district has to provide transportation and make sure there is room to accommodate any extra students.

This is a silly situation, as is predictable when lawmakers in Washington, D.C., try to tell local schools how to run their affairs. The feds are threatening to withhold money if the school district doesn’t comply.

It’s unlikely there will be a mass exodus of students from Crescent Harbor and Olympic View to the three other schools, but it could happen, throwing the district into turmoil as the new school year begins.

Federal authorities must have had big cities in mind when imposing this particular punishment. Students from the wrong side of the tracks could be bused to school on the right side, giving them access to better education. This doesn’t make a lot of sense in big cities, and is utter nonsense in smaller towns where there aren’t any tracks to be on the wrong side of.

Olympic View and Crescent Harbor students are just as smart as any others. We can theorize that because many are from transient military families, they may not be adjusted to their community yet, and therefore need extra help. The two schools may need additional resources in terms of tutoring, perhaps in after-school programs. Moving the students to another nearby school won’t help and is a waste of resources.

Oak Harbor School District officials are fully capable of recognizing and remedying this problem without federal orders. If the federal government has to be involved in local schools, that involvement should be entirely positive in terms of financial support with no strings attached. We’ll figure out how best to spend the money, and how best to educate our young people.