National Standards — Taking Names and Answering Questions  Mike
Petrilli seems concerned that I haven’t answered his questions
about how to address certain problems without resorting to
federally-imposed national standards.  I thought I had.  I said:
“The answer is not to have bigger, more centralized regulations.
 The answer is to maintain the proper incentives by empowering
market forces, which also serve to keep the regulatory framework
honest.”  I also thought I answered his questions when I said:
Even though it is messy and imperfect, we need to decentralize
power in education rather than centralize it.  We need to do so
for the same reason the Constitution decentralizes power — to
prevent abuses and tyranny that inevitably arise when power is
unchecked and concentrated.  We need to decentralize power in
education to allow market mechanisms to operate.  We need to
decentralize power to recognize the legitimate diversity of
needs and approaches that exist in our educational system.
Benevolent dictatorsh