A Revolutionary Call for Education Reform
By 2021, public high schools will end in 10th grade; free schooling will start at age 4; and birth certificates will come with $500 deposits attached, to be saved for college. This, at least, is the vision outlined this week in a report released this week by a panel of CEOs, school leaders, and former politicians. Only by rebuilding its education system, the panel argues, can the United States save high-skill jobs from escaping to rising stars like China and India--and from letting the prized American standard of living fly away with them. Not just any rebuilding will do.
The commission wants a "social revolution," says Vice Chair Marc Tucker. So, in addition to policies like universal preschool and no more 11th and 12th grades, the plan calls for an overhaul of school governance, finance, and compensation systems. In its vision, independent contractors, not school boards, would run the districts; money would be divvied up according to schools' demographic makeup, rather than spread evenly across schools; and teachers would get more money upfront but less later on in pension funds.
The revolutionary calls from a decidedly establishment group. Funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce includes two former education secretaries, two former labor secretaries, and education officials from Massachusetts, New York City, and California. Nevertheless, opposition surfaced as soon as the report was issued.The American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the National School Boards Association rushed out statements lambasting key ideas--like, for instance, the way the report "basically blows up the governance structure," explains Antonia Cortese, AFT's executive vice president.
But many others applauded the plan, including both Republican chairs of the House and Senate education committees as well as the Democrats who will take their spots come January.
"I applaud the commission's willingness to think 'outside the box,' " said Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy. Democratic Rep. George Miller, the incoming chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the report warrants "serious consideration" in the upcoming Congress.
The most important support may be on the state level. Commission members made clear yesterday they intend to follow up their recommendations with a concerted effort to make them happen, beginning with the release of 25,000 copies of the report, called "Tough Choices or Tough Times," to Amazon.com and major bookstores yesterday--and then implementation of the ideas in the plan in four or five trial states. Commission leaders are already in discussions with some states, said Charles Knapp, the commission's chairman. Knapp would not name specific states, but he did point out strong support from both New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who sat on the panel, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who endorsed the report in a Wall Street Journal editorial. Former Boston Public School Superintendent Thomas Payzant also sat on the commission, as did Massachusetts Commissioner of Education David Driscoll, California State University System Chancellor Charles Reed, and District of Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Clifford Janey.
The most revolutionary change might be the report's suggested changes to the way students move between high school, college, and the workforce. The report calls for an exam taken by every student at the end of 10th grade that would determine the student's next step through the system. Whether a student goes on to community college, a vocational school, or a two-year college prep program, he or she would have to pass a state test first.
"Now many students just slide through high school, because they know that all they have to do is get passes in their courses or a satisfactory score on an eighth- or ninth-grade-level literacy test to go to college, the report states. "With this system, they will know that they have to work hard in school to get anywhere."
Commissioners believe the changes would be financially possible, too. A central idea in the report is to make spending more efficient rather than spend more. For instance, eliminating the 11th- and 12th-grade years of high school would save schools $67 billion nationally, opening up more money to fund universal preschool and even free early childhood programs for low-income 3-year-olds.
But commission members admit that making the changes would require early "transition costs." They say the commission would help find that money for the initial testing states--pulling in philanthropic donations and seeking federal help as well. That may not come easily; a Department of Education spokesman who was contacted by U.S. News had not even heard of the report. But the Bush administration has sounded similar themes in the past, framing education reform in the same language of global competitiveness and advocating an extension of No Child Left Behind's accountability reforms into high schools when the bill comes up for reauthorization next year. Just this week, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings met with business leaders in Silicon Valley to talk about reshaping the education system to fit the needs of the workforce.
And commission members seem committed to following through on the plan. William Brock, a former senator and secretary of labor, put it this way: If the education system does not make significant changes, "then we might as well start shooting ourselves."