A certain amount of irony accompanied Gov. Ronnie Musgrove’s signature on Friday. With two strokes of his pen, Musgrove signed into law bills that mandate the posting of &uot;In God We Trust&uot; in public school classrooms and allow school officials to more quickly remove disruptive teenagers from classrooms.

Both bills hint at the larger issue – refocusing education, making it more effective and using it to connect, and some argue even save, a generation of Americans.

But even Gov. Musgrove must know that neither bill will resolve the issues at hand.

While we hold fast to the belief that instilling values and morals in children at an early age is critical – even necessary – to their growth and development, paying tribute to our &uot;godly nation&uot; with the posting of our national motto in classrooms cannot on its own spark those values.

Nor will giving teachers the legal right to remove disruptive students from their classroom truly curb the swell of disrespect, disruptive behavior and even disconnected violence present in classrooms today.

But each bill is a step – born of frustration, perhaps, and admittedly tiny. And more important, each bill is an action. They represent an attempt by lawmakers and the governor to do something – anything, perhaps – to change an unacceptable norm.

Unfortunately for all of us, those efforts – including the unfunded mandate to post the motto in classrooms – are likely to yield more public debate over legalities than public discourse on redirecting our educational system and the generation of young Americans it serves.