“Although President Obama has yet to achieve much on jobs, healthcare, or energy, he is on track to transform America’s education. He has pushed many states to reform education laws by dangling $4.35 billion in incentive grants. Now he wants to alter the No Child Left Behind law by rewarding schools that do well and revamping those schools that don’t. … This middle way is necessary in a country that treats public schools as a largely local concern and that is wary of one-size-fits-all federal solutions. It helps, too, that US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan once ran Chicago’s schools and saw firsthand how No Child went too far — and not far enough.” [editor’s note: This one bears watching; if a national standard for rating student (and teacher) achievement sets the bar reasonably, and then gets out of the way, it could be only a small hurdle foe states seeking to rise above it - SAT] (03/15/10)