‘In the first place, God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards.’

That Mark Twain quote sums up why national control of education probably would be a pretty damned good thing, as compared to our current, mythologically hagiographied local control of local school districts.

We’re the No. 1 spender on education of any country in the world, and although that’s in fair part because of our outstanding university system, we’re still No. 2 in K-12 spending, and what do we get? Not nearly as much as we should.

As for local school boards? We’re about the only major country in the world that doesn’t have at least a quasi-national school system.

Miller is off on one thing, though, in my opinion — the alleged power of teachers’ unions. That may be true in blue states in particular, and more urban areas in split states, at least, but in the small towns and suburbs of the heartland, it’s a different story.

Anyway, with that caveat, it’s a good analysis of how effed up, in many ways, local control leaves our schools.