Facts

Education policy is based on achievement. After all, if students aren't learning, why teach? Educators and lawmakers look at achievement from two angles: how well are American students doing overall – and how successfully are our schools shrinking the gap between minority and non-minority achievement and between lower and higher income groups).

Facts

While K-12 public education is primarily the responsibility of the states, the federal government chips in over $90 billion in assistance a year (about 8% of all funding). Through that power of the purse, the federal government can shape educational policy by offering or withholding funding. Its strongest influence on K-12 general education is through President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind Act. The Act stresses standardized testing and requires that schools make progress toward getting all students on grade level. Where the federal government has had an even more direct role is in pre-K and higher education. The federal government funds pre-school for poor children through Head Start and offers a majority of the financial aid higher education students receive. Here is a general overview of education in America.

How many Students?

Students enrolled in pre-school:

The Skinny

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What's up

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), today's version of the federal funding program for public schools, has been up for renewal since 2006. Seen as President Bush’s signature education policy, NCLB, which aims to insure all students are 100% proficient in reading, writing and math by 2014, has had mixed results when it comes to testing time. The law has also earned itself a legion of critics who say it sets demands too high and funding too low.