Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, supplanting No Child Left Behind and placing responsibility for public school improvement squarely upon each of the 50 states. With the federal government's role in school accountability sharply diminished, it now falls to state and local governments to take decisive action. Even though most…

Proposals to reauthorize No Child Left Behind seek to ensure "equitable" access to effective teachers. The U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top fund rewards state plans for "ensuring equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals" and for "ambitious yet achievable annual targets to increase the…

Argues that human capital formation is the key to economic growth, that U.S. students are falling behind the rest of the World in math and science achievement because of the decline in the quality of their schooling, and that without better schools, other factors such as a quality higher education system may not sustain future U.S. economic…