Dear me, it's troubling to see people arguing for bigger government and more government regulation. Nearly everywhere we tried that (Soviet Union, Mao's China, much of S. America) it's failed. On occasion it succeeds (say, Norway) success is a transient thing based on an unusual factor (in Norway's case, oil).
Just as Kodak got complacent, much of America is becoming complacent as the government gets larger and larger, destroying more and more of the economy to feed itself. Education is an important issue--far too important, I claim, to have at least three levels of government (county, state, national) gorging at the the trough. And yet, there it is. (Canada's standardized test scores are a bit higher, but the overall situation isn't much better.)
By the time people figure it out, it'll be too late. Many of us won't live long enough to have to worry about it for ourselves. Just as well for me, but I wonder how much our descendants are going to enjoy the next global dynasty. There's only one religion growing in this world. It starts with an "I". I'm not sure who pointed it out first, but it ends with a "SLAM".