Fingering localized school funding as the cause of the persistent incompetence of many schools (as well as the source of great inequalities in per pupil spending), writer (and former White House aide) James Pinkerton proposes what he calls a grand compromise to address both these problems and please both Republicans and Democrats to boot: a Pell grant program for K-12 education. Every American K-12 student (regardless of family income) would be given $7,000 in federal dollars to spend at the school of his or her choice, guaranteeing more equal funding and more choice. While the idea is appealing, the price tag - $350 billion a year in new federal spending (or 3 percent of GDP) - probably makes the proposal more of a thought experiment than anything else.
"A Grand Compromise," by James Pinkerton, The Atlantic Monthly, January/February 2003