The federal government, by doling out cash with strings attached, to school districts that, on paper, are under local control, has managed to inflict conformity to an incoherent ideology nationwide. Local school boards should observe and emulate the ways that private schools manage to provide superior education for a fraction of the per-student expenditures of public schools. Then they could confidently turn down the federal cash and provide what the kids need - reading, writing and arithmetic (also more hands-on skills, kids of the computer era are reaching adulthood with a worrying lack of fine motor skills necessary for many important jobs, such as surgeons).