& terminates string?

I am using PHP 4.3.1 and running Apache Server and MySQL. The following question is probably only related to PHP. Here is the problem: I am passing the following string from one form to another: "../create.php?dest=Employee/menu_handleemployee.php?action=update&ID=$ID" Here is the actual code: <form action="../create.php?dest=Employee/menu_handleemployee.php?action=update&ID =<?echo $ID;?>" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" name="form1EMPLOYEE"> When I view the source it comes out as expected: <form action="../create.php?dest=Employee/menu_handleemployee.php?action=update&ID =82" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" name="formEMPLOYEE"> But after it goes to the next page it turns into this: "../create.php?dest=Employee/menu_handleemployee.php?action=update" Everything up to and after the '&' disappears!! The goal of this code is to send the redirect address to the form that modifies my data. I want variable "dest" to be used to dynamically redirect the page. I have tried the following to fix the problem without avail: 1) I tried saving the variable in other ways such as text fields in the form itself. 2) I tried addslashes() (which works well with similar problems related to ', " etc.). 3) I tried adding \ before & 4) I danced around my computer and threatened to pull the plug. None of these worked! What is it about '&' that throws everything off with PHP variables? It doesn't seem to be a problem with HTML. This is exceedingly difficult to research online because '&' is excluded from most search engines automatically. -Matthew