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

Senator Whitehouse, Ranking Member Enzi, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to participate in this very important hearing on health care delivery system reform.

Secretary Arne Duncan, who argues that policymakers should use "data to drive reform," strongly believes that education policy should be "framed by evidence." We agree.

At the heart of the debate over renewing No Child Left Behind, the nation’s education reform act which is overdue for reauthorization, is the question: what is the role of the federal government in K-12 education? Though the law was initiated and signed by a Republican president, presidential candidates like Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, who once supported it, now talk about getting the federal government out of education. Democratic reformers, meanwhile, insist that the federal government has a role in telling states how to identify, punish and fix low-performing schools — despite little evidence that Washington has been good at any of these tasks.  Over the last decade, AEI Education has been exploring these concerns.

Where Obama went wrong on education – and what Romney needs to say

The authors point out that while volunteer tutoring and college scholarships are beneficial, this kind of involvement by business in public education will not power the changes needed to significantly transform the education system and increase student achievement.