Join us to hear U.S. Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, discuss the Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act prior to their introduction in the U.S. House.

A coherent vision for federal education policy starts not by micromanaging schools, but by focusing on the four functions Washington alone can perform.

"Considering that Congress does not plan to zero out the federal role in education, we should be taking a closer look at what the federal government can and cannot do well in education. Congress must consider past successes and failures. An ESEA informed by what the federal government can do well--like promote transparency--will be most promising"

By removing barriers to innovation and reform and providing greater support for entrepreneurship, we can spur the critical and necessary new solutions to many of public education's greatest challenges.

Congress and education policymakers should clarify and streamline federal fiscal compliance requirements so schools can focus less on compliance and more on raising student achievement.

The challenge of "greenfield schooling" is to cultivate environments that invite entrepreneurial ideas and to provide an infrastructure that allows those ideas to succeed on a wide scale.

"Greenfield," a term that investors, engineers, and builders use to refer to an area where there are unobstructed, wide-open opportunities to invent or build challenge, represents a challenge to create a world more welcoming to dynamic, talented, and hard-working educators.

As we mourn his passing, we should renew Milton Friedman's call for freedom and for responsible, limited government--and we should apply his conservatism to meet today"s challenges.