11.   But officials in the new Bush White House insisted vouchers are intended as a cudgel to force failing schools to shape up.

12.   But only Texas, New York and Oklahoma have ever closed or completely overhauled persistently failing schools, the report said.

13.   But the governance structure has also allowed scores of failing schools to continue to fail year after year in many districts.

14.   But there are areas of disagreement, as well, such as the Bush proposal to use vouchers for poor children in persistently failing schools.

15.   California has no policy to let parents know how one school compares with another, or a strategy to turn around failing schools.

16.   Certainly, giving parents the power to shun failing schools means that failing teachers will be shunned with them.

17.   Conservatives argued that vouchers provide an escape for disadvantaged students trapped in chronically failing schools.

18.   Desperate to find a remedy for failing schools, several states are considering voucher experiments that would offer low-income students private-school scholarships at public expense.

19.   During stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania, he is calling for failing schools to be closed and to be replaced with charter schools.

20.   Failing schools are to get more money, although if scores do not improve after six years the schools could be restaffed.