Fixing [U.S. underperforming schools] is itself a multi-faceted challenge. In some cases, money is the issue. Local financing of schools means that students in rich areas are lavished with resources, whereas schools in poor areas are often starved. On the other hand, money is not the whole story. High-tax jurisdictions, such as Washington DC, have among the highest rates of spending per pupil in the country, and among the worst test scores.

The keys – and here comes the political challenge – are accountability and competition. However you do it, through school vouchers if you want to be radical, or the faster expansion of self-governing charter schools if you do not, the crucial thing is to give parents alternatives to failing schools. This means firing the worst teachers and shutting the worst schools. Teachers’ unions have a death grip on the system and are having none of it. In many parts of the country, sacking a teacher, however incompetent, is next to impossible. Will Mr Obama dare to face down this powerful Democratic party constituency?

The Financial Times’ Clive Crook, who references the McKinsey report, which quantified the economic impact of our failing school system and ranked U.S. students’ academic achievement 18th out of 24 industrialized countries.