Interesting and quick read from the New York Times. While I am not sure this is a prescription for 'rescue', Hess and Darling-Hammond present a nice case for what the federal government should and should not be expected to do. They argue for 4 domains that the federal government can do well for public education: 1) encourage transparency in school performance and spending (an obligatory tip of the hat to the one good thing that NCLB did); 2) enforce civil rights in public education (please send more DOJ folks to Massachusetts to investigate our ELL law); 3) support basic research (amen); 4) encourage innovation through K-12 public education funding (using Race to the Top as an example of a lacking attempt).
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