21.   For example, he had called for money to be taken away from failing schools and used to educate those students in other schools, including private schools.

22.   Hayden said the board had chosen Mills in part because he had expressed a willingness to intervene aggressively in failing schools.

23.   He also said he thinks federal funding should be redirected from chronicly failing schools.

24.   He talked about how he had taken over failing schools and sent thousands of failing children to summer school, ending the practice of automatic promotion.

25.   If the additional federal help failed to improve failing schools, the districts would risk losing money, and schools would be overhauled.

26.   In city districts, the State Board of Regents can close and restructure as many failing schools as it deems necessary.

27.   In Massachusetts, failing schools might be taken over by the state Board of Education, which is headed by James Peyser.

28.   Interest in vouchers has often been based on a belief that they could solve the problem of failing urban schools.

29.   It defends failing schools on the grounds that vouchers might destroy them.

30.   It would allow students in chronically failing schools to use federal money for private tutoring or to transfer to other public schools, but not to private schools.