In my last blog on this subject, I described a list of major structural problems with the way American education is governed.  These include the struggle for control of American education between the states and the federal government; the wide dispersion of authority for education among a large welter of state agencies; the very weak capacity of our state departments of education; the parochial character of local control and its pernicious effect on equity in school finance; and much more.  

I pointed out that the lack of a single agency at the state level with the responsibility, capacity and authority to create powerful, coherent and effective designs for the state education systems and to implement those designs puts the United States at an enormous disadvantage in the fierce global economic competition we are now experiencing.