Today, Obama told members of the National Governor's Association that his administration plans to require states to adopt "college and career-readiness" standards to qualify for $14.5 billion in Title 1 funding, which supports school districts with a high percentage of low-income, high-minority students. Under No Child Left Behind, schools had to meet state standards, but these were adopted with little input from the federal government. Because NCLB penalized schools that failed to meet the self-imposed standards, many just lowered them.

At its annual meeting, the American Bar Association (ABA) called for an overhaul of the immigration court system. Currently, immigration courts operate under the aegis of the attorney general, which the ABA says leads to conflicts of interest. As Dana Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, told the Times, "There have been increasing concerns about the propriety of housing a neutral court in the law-enforcement arm of the government." The ABA has proposed setting up special courts to hear immigration cases -- like those that hear tax cases -- to avoid these conflicts.