Today, more than 50 years after Brown v. the Board of Education, 40 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and 25 years after A Nation at Risk, do we finally have the willpower to achieve equal opportunity in education? Do we have the courage to aim higher, and prepare every student for today's global economy?

I believe we do. Everywhere I go, I meet parents who are demanding change and hardworking educators who are wholeheartedly committed to achieving it. They need and deserve all the leverage we can give.

That's why today, I'm proposing new policy tools that will give families lifelines — and empower educators to create dramatic improvement. Many are actions that have gained broad support through conversations on how to strengthen No Child Left Behind. While I will continue working with legislators to renew this law, I also realize that students and families and teachers and schools need help now.

So, at the President's request, I'm moving forward to empower educators to take actions that families have been waiting for. The Detroit News has called for "bulldozers" to tear down barriers to reform. Today, I'm delivering policy bulldozers that will do just that.

Plaintiffs allege that State Farm committed actionable fraud in the handling of the plaintiffs' claim. Plaintiffs primarily rely on their contention that State Farm ordered two engineering reports from Forensic in an effort to dishonestly minimize its liability to the plaintiffs rather than for any legitimate reason. ...

Plaintiffs contend that State Farm, acting through Renfroe and Forensic, deliberately underestimated the amount of wind damage the insured property sustained in order to minimize its liability under the plaintiffs' homeowners policy. While this allegation, if sustained, would support a finding of bad faith, it is not sufficient to support an allegation of fraud. Fraud requires reasonable reliance on a misrepresentation, and the plaintiffs have not relied upon State Farm's evaluation of their claim. Indeed plaintiffs have brought this lawsuit in an effort to establish that State Farm has underestimated the wind damage to the insured property. Although plaintiffs may prevail on the merits of their claims for additional policy benefits and other extracontractual damages, including punitive damages if they establish bad faith on the part of State Farm or its agents, in the absence of any evidence that the plaintiffs relied upon State Farm's damage assessment I can see no basis for a claim of fraud.