criminal or civil rights. A state and localities should not be allowed to mess things up. When we moved to Virginia in the early 70s there was one public high school in my county and several of private schools. This was the legacy of Brown. The county set things up this way so they wouldn't have to tax whites to educate blacks. Jim Crow was alive and well (That was a long time ago and I have no idea what it's like now)

People will likely disagree but I think there is some federal role in setting standards for teachers and curriculum and accrediting schools. We've all seen teachers on the news that we wouldn't want teaching our kids. I agree with Seattle's thought on teachers' unions. Maybe there should be a federal law that sets what can and cannot be bargained, tenure rules, etc.

In short, I don't trust some states and some cities and some school districts to do the right thing to educate their kids. Some of it is money but I think a lot of it is local politics and the politics within organizations. People here often complain about Richmond or other city councils. A small county school board is more like an HOA. How contentious do they become? I think often the smaller and more local a body like that (or a school board) becomes, the more you have those kinds of problems.

If we were to start with a blank sheet of paper we would not say that the best and most cost effective way to educate kids is to have 14,000 different neighborhood bodies comprised of citizens with no qualifications other than a campaign to get themselves elected running their own little fiefdom. Why do we think that's a good solution? I'm not saying that all education should be federal, only that there is tons of opportunity for localities to screw things up, either intentionally or unintentionally, and I think they take full advantage.