James asked how the President planned to help our schools.

His laundry list of solutions:

- Rebuild schools to be state-of-the-art
- Train new teachers (and re-train existing ones)
- Reform how we do business
- High standards
- Better assessment
- NCLB needs to be re-worked in a more effective way

And last, he said, was to engage parents, noting that all the money in the world wouldn’t help education in this country until parents step up to the plate.

Greening our schools, building new facilities where none are needed and bailing out the teaching industry are supposed to lead to educational success?

How much do higher standards and student achievement cost?

How about focusing on what works:

- Federal accountability
- Transparency
- Charter schools
- School choice
- Teacher quality

Got Mandate?