It shouldn't take a teachers' strike to remind us that cutting school nurses and social workers, substituting test-prep for afterschool enrichment, and making classes so large that teachers cannot have individual time with students, are the worst education policy choices we could make.

As Secretary Arne Duncan travels the country on his Back-to-School bus tour, he has refocused his attention on the community schools strategy as a vehicle for implementing a Broader Bolder Approach to Education.

For some reason, too many budget-writers seem to see afterschool and summer learning programs as add-ons, something that's nice to have when we can afford them, but not something we can pay for when times are tight. They're exactly wrong.

Two recent reports highlight the disturbing chasm between the irrefutable evidence of the need for more investment in children -- particularly low-income and minority children and young children -- and Congress' insistence on ignoring it.

We have never heard more policy rhetoric about developing, recruiting and retaining strong teachers. Ironically, our policies have also never done more to ensure that good teachers have little incentive to serve and stay in those schools.