>Agree 100%. Set compulsory curriculum and minimum standards, then delegate (as opposed to abdicating) to locals.

Feds, Schmeds.

"Perhaps the most profound change in the American family over the past four decades," writes sociologist Paul Amato, "has been the decline in the share of children growing up in households with biological parents."[5] In 1960, 88 percent of all children lived with two parents, compared to 68 percent in 2007.[6] (See Chart 1.) In 1960, 5 percent of all children were born to unmarried mothers. That figure rose to 38.5 per­cent in 2006.[7] (See Chart 2.) Demographers have estimated that, overall, one child in two will spend some portion of his or her childhood in a single-parent family.[8]

Combine that with the mass abandonment of kids by contemporary parents - one or two - to day care facilities and you wind up with the cultural mess that is reflected in poor results in our school systems.

Every study I've seen has shown that besides IQ, the highest predictor of success in school is parental involvement. It's pretty obvious that a kid with two parents has twice the chance of getting that involvement than a kid with one.