Hal,
National standards may not be the way to go, but what about federal charter schools. The federal government would grant charters to schools if the state or locality restricts the number of charter schools or outlaws them.
It would be easy in North Carolina, where we already have charters and funding comes from the state on a per-student basis, but there could be more practical problems in other states.
Help me out with the practical side, but something like this would be an appropriate use of federal power to create a market where none exists.
