The U.S. Senate will soon render its advice and consent to the nomination of Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan to be secretary of education. The word "education" is not mentioned in the Constitution, and the federal government has historically played a limited role in funding and regulating public education across the country. The federal government currently provides only 9 percent of the funding for K-12 public education in America. But federal spending is at an all-time high. The federal government currently spends $71 billion annually on K-12 education programs. Through programs like No Child Left Behind, which has seen funding increases of more than 40 percent during the Bush Administration, the federal government now exerts greater authority over public schools across the nation. Unfortunately, more than 40 years of increasing federal involvement in education has yielded little progress in improved student learning. History has shown the limits of what the federal government can and should do to improve education. The new Administration has a historic opportunity to transform the federal role in education and, in the process, support reform at the state and local level to ensure that all children have an opportunity to receive a quality education. To evaluate whether Secretary-designate Duncan will support this transformation, Senators should keep the following questions in mind as they consider his confirmation: (1) The Appropriate Federal Response to State Budget Challenges; (2) Reforming, Not Expanding, the Federal Role in Education; (3) Cutting Waste from the Department of Education's Budget; (4) Reforming Federal Early Childhood Education Programs; and (5) Supporting Parental Choice in Education. (Contains 10 footnotes.)