Are there limits to federal involvement in K-12 education? What can the government really do well to improve schooling? Should it be involved at all? In this presidential election year, these and other educational hot topics are examined in Carrots, Sticks, and the Bully Pulpit: Lessons From a Half-Century of Federal Efforts to Improve America’s Schools

If Baton Rouge intends to keep its "rock star" moniker, it needs schools that are producing talent and are attractive to corporate honchos. The Baton Rouge business community can play a key role in helping to ensure that EBR is doing just that. Here are a few lessons drawn from a hard look at locales where business is helping to lead the way on K-12 schooling.

Congress and the Bush administration are wrestling with proposals to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). While debate has focused on the provisions regarding testing, teacher quality, and identifying schools in need of improvement, little attention has been paid to the law’s ambitious cascade of remedies and sanctions...

As school districts across the country struggle financially, Frederick M. Hess of AEI and Eric Osberg of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute offer new insight into how school leaders can not only survive the current economic storm, but also restructure their schools to save money and improve efficiency.

Aggressive leadership on the "business" of schooling isn't an end in itself, but it is essential if school leaders are going to have the resources they need to drive improvements in teaching and learning through the stormy seas ahead.

A self-serving city council has let the air out of Detroit's tires.

As recently as half a century ago, Americans across all classes showed only minor differences on the Founding virtues. When Americans resisted the idea of being thought part of an upper class or lower class, they were responding to a reality: there really was such a thing as a civic culture that embraced all of them. Today, that is no longer true.

Contributors to this book encourage legislators to act and embrace its muscular, hardy recommendations.