"New Vision for Schools Proposes Broad Role"

Randi Weingarten, the incoming president of the American Federation of Teachers, says she wants to replace President Bush’s focus on standardized testing with a vision of public schools as community centers that help poor students succeed by offering not only solid classroom lessons but also medical and other services.

This indeed, as the article title in the Times says, is a "broad vision." The concern here is that we are expecting too much from a system that has a much narrower paradigm. It again raises the issue (raised below) of accountability: who would be responsible for the decisions that stray from the mere educational to the medical and beyond? Would a centralized model (as seems to be happening in Los Angeles) or a de-centralized model (where local school boards would be "in charge") be appropriate?