The case for or against mayoral control rests more on practical experience than on hard evidence.

A review of the research suggests that, on balance, mayoral control is sensible for troubled, urban school systems.

Mayoral control over Detroit public schools must meet a number of requirements in order to work.

The mayor of Washington, D.C., plans totake control of the city"s public schools. But results will depend on concrete actions to fix the schools, not on which bureaucracy has control.

Mayoral control of school districts is no quick fix or panacea. Butif pursued thoughtfully, it can invigorate school improvement.

The health news for the New York City is good — very good, in fact. And it must be especially gratifying to Bloomberg, given his longstanding personal commitment to public health. But it isn’t clear that the official narrative of New York’s health progress actually conforms with the health story for New York over the last decade.

In his new book, The Same Thing Over and Over (Harvard University Press, November 2010), AEI director of education policy studies Frederick M. Hess explains that American schools have not changed since the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, as a result, are ill-suited to meet today's challenges.

This book brings together the most thoughtful and original analyses of the promise and limitations of mayoral takeovers of schools.