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Several commentators have worried that many state plans to achieve universal student proficiency by 2014--a requirement of No Child Left Behind--resemble balloon mortgages. Soon after the law passed in 2002, many states required relatively small student gains in the first years, demanding most of the gains after 2008. The predictable result: More and more schools are falling short of their targets as the 2014 deadline looms. We're told to brace ourselves for the Fannie Mae of NCLB.

Yet the balloon mortgage analogy is imperfect. If you've bought an unaffordable house, it hardly matters when your payments come due. Either now or later, you won't have the capacity to pay. Not surprisingly, most foreclosures--and schools facing restructuring--are in low-income areas.

In a sense, federal law has compelled many schools to live beyond their means. This is not to argue that we should abandon the ideal of universal opportunity and proficiency. Rather, we as a nation should do much more to build schools' and communities' capacity to work towards that ideal.

A report by the Forum for Education and Accountability extends the financial metaphor. Democracy at Risk argues that the federal government should help "pay off the education debt." "Our nation faces a huge educational debt resulting from hundreds of years of unequal educational and economic opportunity," the authors write. The federal government should advance equity by ensuring adequate resources for the students who need them most.

No, this is not a "bailout." It is a plan to relieve the debt burden shared by schools, policymakers and the broader society.

Like the Forum report, the Learning First Alliance's recent statement on Transforming the Federal Role in America's Public Schools calls for federal support to guarantee every child equal access to an excellent public school. The feds should build schools' and communities' capacity to improve student learning. Robust accountability systems can work when schools are empowered to meet their goals.

The current financial crises does not give us license to back off from national commitments to school improvement. Our education debts are coming due.

Image credit: T-shirthumor.com.