No back burner for education

I'm only catching up to my national column reading today. I wanted to recommend this column by Nicholas Kristof, on why the new president should not put education on a back burner. He writes:

Quick, what's the source of American's greatness?...a fair amount of evidence suggests that the crucial factor is our school system--which, for most of our history, was the best in the world...The message for Mr. Obama is that improving schools must be on the front burner.