“Local control” is the most sacred principle in American education, an idea so deeply ingrained in history and practice that its shortcomings are almost never articulated. Yet a look at the history of local control as the organizing principle of schooling suggests that an approach that made perfect sense in the 1700's is crippling American education today. Whatever its successes in the past, local control today assures four major problems: dramatic financial inequity; no overall way to assess student achievement; disincentives for research and development; and excessive politicization of schooling. As a result of these and related failings, most schools, far from relishing the supposed freedom granted by local control, feel trapped and disempowered.

The only way to demand more from schools while freeing educators and parents to find diverse ways for schools to perform better is to take a cue from other advanced countries and move toward a more nationalized system, especially when it comes to the standards we expect students to meet and the resources we allocate to help them do so.   

Please join us for a lively discussion and Q&A session on a new paper from the Center for American Progress by Senior Fellow Matt Miller.

Health-care reform is back on the national agenda, and for good reason. Health-care costs are skyrocketing, bankrupting budgets, businesses, and families. Access to health care has eroded as millions more join the ranks of uninsured and underinsured Americans. And skepticism has increased about our ability to cut through the complexity of the health-care system, the intransigence of interest group politics, and the inertia thwarting a solution to the health-care crisis.

In his book, Senator Daschle tackles why the health-care system is breaking down and how,  given his understanding of Washington, its politics and what makes it tick, it can be fixed.  Senator Daschle offers a pragmatic paradigm for health-care reform, modeled on the Federal Reserve system. A Federal Health Board would create a public framework for a largely private health-care delivery system. It would set the standards and structure for a health-care system that ensures accessible, affordable, and high-quality care. At a time when political tensions are high, this idea could bridge the divide to bring Americans the health-care system they deserve.

Across the United States a small number of public schools serving low-income children are making dramatic academic achievement gains. Little research has been done comparing school level practices in those schools to schools making incremental gains, and none have looked at the implications of those findings for the redefinition of the role of the urban school principal in the United States.

New Leaders for New Schools has been examining these issues in order to drive academic achievement in schools led by its principals and to share early learnings with interested policymakers and practitioners. New Leaders has selected and trained 440 urban school leaders serving 200,000 children in nine cities and is on track to provide 25 percent of the new principals needed for low-income urban public schools in the United States by 2014.

Please join the Center for American Progress for the release of a New Leaders report, special briefing, and panel discussion on what is being learned about patterns in low-income, urban public schools making dramatic gains in student achievement and implications for the responsibilities and role definition of the urban school principal. This event and report will offer preliminary findings and case studies on these topics and preview additional research that will take place in the months and years ahead.

The power to nominate judges to the Supreme Court and the federal courts of appeal gives our presidents the opportunity to make their influence felt long after they leave office. How have President Bush's nominations affected the direction and ideological makeup of the courts?

The Alliance for Justice and the Center for American Progress invite you to a panel discussion and a screening of "Supreme Injustices," a provocative short documentary produced by the Alliance for Justice on the first full term of the Roberts Court. Hosted by Emmy award-winner Bradley Whitford, "Supreme Injustices" introduces viewers to Lilly Ledbetter, an Alabama worker whose pay discrimination suit was rejected by a sharply divided Court, and profiles children and parents from the Louisville, Kentucky schools, whose efforts to promote integration were struck down by the Court.

Senator Jack Reed, a former Army paratrooper, has made 11 trips to Iraq, the most of any senator. At the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Sen. Reed will discuss his most recent trip to Iraq, which took place January 17-18, 2008. Senator Reed traveled across Iraq with Special Operations forces and visited the cities of Fallujah, Balad, Baqubah, Basra, and Baghdad, where he met with Generals Petraeus and Odierno as well as Ambassador Crocker.  There will be a question and answer period with the Senator following his speech.

After Senator Reed's speech there will be a lively discussion with author Charles Ferguson on his new book, No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos. The book is based on the investigative record from his Oscar-nominated documentary, "No End In Sight," which contains an unprecedented series of interviews with officials and others on the ground in Iraq immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein. It is a shocking story of wholesale incompetence, recklessness, and arrogance.

This event will represent the first in a series of events and analyses by the Center for American Progress examining the course of the war in Iraq and proposing the next steps for U.S. policy. We are now approaching the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on March 19, as well as the May 1 "Mission Accomplished" speech delivered by President Bush aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Five years down the road, we are still far from ending our involvement in Iraq. The series will include speeches by prominent policymakers and panel discussions on important aspects of Iraq policy and its impact on U.S. national security. The Center will also release updated analyses examining the current policy in Iraq and providing an alternative policy direction.

In her literary debut Party Crashing: How the Hip Hop Generation Declared Political Independence, author and political commentator Keli Goff explores the cultural and political divide between black Americans of the civil rights generation and their children and grandchildren, known collectively as the hip-hop generation. Covering a diverse array of issues from hip-hop, to gay marriage, and the growing Independent voter movement among younger black Americans, Party Crashing is an in-depth look at how generational differences are impacting the 2008 presidential election, and future elections. In addition to conversations with young black voters, Party Crashing also includes interviews with high-profile black Americans including: former Secretary of State Colin Powell, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, Rev. Al Sharpton and many others, along with exclusive survey research on the political attitudes of young black Americans. Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion with the author of this groundbreaking new book.

On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the Center for American Progress will host a panel discussion to assess the impact of the surge of over 30,000 American troops which took place in 2007. Panelists will analyze the impact of the surge on the security situation in Iraq, its effect on Iraq's political process, the indirect costs of the war, and where the United States should go from here.

They will also discuss the secondary and tertiary reasons behind the recent security improvement, including the Sunni awakening movement, the stand-down of the Mahdi Army by radical cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, and the internal and external displacement of over 5 million Iraqis. With the drawdown of the surge forces already underway, our panel will also consider the effect of the surge on overall U.S. security interests in the Middle East and the indirect costs of the war in Iraq.

In order to maintain over 160,000 troops in Iraq over the last year and a half, the Pentagon has had to introduce 15 month combat tours, instead of the usual 12 month tours. Among the topics the panelists will discuss are the current health of the Army and the toll taken on our servicemen and women and their families.  While the result of the surge has yet to be seen, the impact of the escalation on our military and on our men and women in uniform is already apparent.

The Center for American Progress will host a series of events and produce several analyses in the coming weeks examining the course of the war in Iraq and proposing the next steps for U.S. policy in Iraq. The series will include speeches by prominent policymakers and panel discussions on important aspects of Iraq policy and its effects on U.S. national security. The Center will also release updated analyses examining the current policy in Iraq and providing an alternative direction.

In 2002, before the war in Iraq began, White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey offered an "upper bound" estimate of the cost of the war in Iraq to be $100 to $200 billion. Nearly 4,000 American and between 100,000 and 600,000 Iraqi lives later, the direct cost of the Iraq war is approaching $1 trillion and the total cost may well exceed $3 trillion.

Panelists Linda Bilmes of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Steve Kosiak, Vice President at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, will discuss both the direct and indirect costs of the war in Iraq. At a time when the American economy is near recession, panelists will also discuss the impact of the war's record financial cost on the American economy.

Sixty-two-year-old Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is sleepwalking through his life. Having lost his passion for teaching and writing, he fills the void by unsuccessfully trying to learn to play classical piano. When his college sends him to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find a young couple has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere else to go. In the first of a series of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him.

Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on teaching the aging academic to play the African drum. The instrument's exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter's faltering spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz clubs and Central Park drum circles. As the friendship between the two men deepens, the differences in culture and temperament fall away.

After being stopped by police in the subway, Tarek is arrested as an undocumented citizen and held for deportation. As his situation turns desperate, Walter finds himself compelled to help his new friend with a passion he thought he had long ago lost. When Tarek's beautiful mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) arrives unexpectedly in search of her son, the professor's personal commitment develops into an unlikely romance. It's through these newfound connections with three virtual strangers that Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life.