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I can agree that increases decentralization of the education system is theoretically a good thing but many, many school systems are not responsible enough to manage themselves or even be accountable to parents.

I hear you, but in my opinion it just isn't the role of the federal government to make that judgment. Nor do I believe its involvement is likely to increase that accountability.

I think it's necessarily a messy business. Some districts will thrive under great leadership while others will fail. It's unfortunate, but that's just the nature of things. Nothing the federal government does can change that inherent characteristic - we're a country of 275 million people.

NCLB was the first step toward educational accountability and unfortunately the only way I believe it could have been passed was in this form. Hopefully later down the road, the accountability can be given back to the state or local level, if they deserve it. Remember, most liberals run schools and do not think in market terms that assist decentralization of power to work.

Given the federal government's track record, I think it's unlikely that this program will do anything other than amass more power at the federal level. How many other federal initiatives have been turned over to states or municipalities?