"'Carrots, Sticks, and the Bully Pulpit’ is a crucial resource for lawmakers, policy makers, and anyone interested in improving the quality of education in America."
--Jeb Bush, chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education and former governor of Florida

"This thoughtful volume avoids ideological posturing and instead asks important questions about what the federal government can and cannot do well in supporting education."
--Jeffrey R. Henig, professor of political science and education, Teachers College, Columbia University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 2012

Are there limits to federal involvement in K-12 education? What can the government really do well to improve schooling? Should it be involved at all? In this presidential election year, these and other educational hot topics are examined in Carrots, Sticks, and the Bully Pulpit: Lessons From a Half-Century of Federal Efforts to Improve America’s Schools (Harvard Education Press, January 24, 2012), edited by Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Hess and Kelly have gathered an all-star list of education scholars and practitioners to examine which goals the federal government is well-suited to pursue and which are better left to other levels of government. Through empirical research—rather than rehashing familiar debates—the authors take a look at what a half-century of federal involvement in K-12 schooling has accomplished and analyze the impact and concrete lessons learned.

Explicitly drawn from political, policy and historical analyses, Carrots, Sticks, and the Bully Pulpit offers clear insights as to what the federal government is and is not equipped to do to improve K-12 education.

To order the book, please visit here.

Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly are available for interviews and can be contacted through Jenna Schuette Talbot at jenna.talbot@aei.org, (202.862.5809).

For additional media inquiries, please contact Jesse Blumenthal at jesse.blumenthal@aei.org, (202.862.4870).

Editors: Frederick M. Hess is director of education policy studies at AEI, and Andrew P. Kelly is an AEI education research fellow.

Contributors (in chapter order) include:

Maris A. Vinovskis (University of Michigan), "The Past Is Prologue? Federal Efforts to Promote Equity and Excellence"
Andrew Rudalevige (Dickinson College), "Government in a Box: Challenges of Policy Implementation in the American System"
Charles Barone (Democrats for Education Reform) and Elizabeth DeBray (University of Georgia), "Education Policy in Congress: Perspectives from the Inside and Out"
Joshua M. Dunn (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs), "Courting Education: Mitigating the Seven (Somewhat) Deadly Sins of Education Legislation"
Jane Hannaway (Urban Institute) and Mark Schneider (AEI), "The Federal Role in Research: Lessons from the Field"
Patrick McGuinn (Drew University), Larry Berger (Wireless Generation) and David Stevenson (Wireless Generation), "Incentives, Information, and Infrastructure: The Federal Role in Educational Innovation"
Paul Manna (College of William and Mary) and Jennifer Wallner (University of Ottawa), "Stepping-Stones to Success or a Bridge Too Far?: The Federal Role in Educational Accountability"
Michael Casserly (Council of Great City Schools), "Uncle Sam and the Nation’s Great City Schools: Reflections on a Rocky Relationship"
Jal Mehta (Harvard University) and Steven Teles (Johns Hopkins University), "Jurisdictional Politics: A New Federal Role in Education"
Chester E. Finn Jr. (Thomas B. Fordham Institute), "Agenda-Setters and Duds: A Bully Pulpit, Indeed"
Marshall S. Smith (Carnegie Foundation), "Rethinking ESEA: A Zero-Base Reauthorization"
Ronald F. Ferguson (Harvard University), "Modernizing Federal Influence on American Schools: Eight Key Proposals for Better Measurement, Management, and Leadership"


###