Mr. Paddy Cosgrave:

In the United States under the previous President, George W. Bush, while many Europeans may not have agreed with all of his policies he introduced into federal law a stipulation that any federal funding for education or health would be provided only on the basis of evidence.

It meant that the state of Tennessee could apply for new blackboards or electronic whiteboards but, unless evidence could be provided that spending $400 million on the acquisition of smart whiteboards would benefit children in terms of their educational attainment then, as far as the federal government was concerned, it was simply giving money to a company because it sounded good. That is all that it means. One cannot have evidence for every case. Contentious ethical issues arise all the time, such as the provision of health care for women and children. It is not always immediately clear but, in many cases, there is a large amount of research available. It is all well and good to listen to the anecdotal ideas of a businessperson but there are perfect examples of far better ideas that have been tested and are known to work.