William Bainbridge: radical overhaul of education system and a violation of PROMISES made to educators of secure pension benefits

Panel has worthy recommendations
Columbus Dispatch, February 03, 2007
WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE

Growing numbers of government and business leaders believe the solution to poor performance of schools is systemic reorganization, because federal and state laws are not working.

In mid-December, a report by the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce warned that the nation’s standard of living will be in serious jeopardy without substantial changes. The bipartisan commission said the nation’s students are falling behind those in even some of the world’s poorest countries.

The commission included two former secretaries of labor, two former education secretaries, recently retired Boston Public Schools Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant and current New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Their report, "Tough Choices or Tough Times," called for a radical overhaul including:
• Universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds and all low-income 3-year-olds.

• State board exams for students at age 16 as a means of advancing to higher education.

• Ending high school for many students after 10 th grade. The elimination of the 11 th and 12 th grades could produce up to $67 billion in savings.

• Creating "personal competitiveness accounts" that would help pay for continuing education throughout a person’s work life.

• Rigorous assessment tests for all teachers.

• Paying beginning teachers about $45,000 per year.

• A master-teacher career step and higher salaries for teachers in exchange for changing secure pension benefits to plans such as 401(k)s.

• Higher pay for teachers who work with at-risk students, work longer hours or have high performance.

• Creating curricula that emphasize creativity and abstract concepts rather than rote learning and mastery of facts.

• Operating schools with far more autonomy — making them contract public schools run by teachers or others who are monitored by but not controlled by districts.

• Giving states control over school financing.

The commissioners pointed out that their suggestions will not work if only the least-controversial and least costly are cherry-picked by states.

Klein, who strongly endorsed the proposals, has been involved in many reform initiatives, including higher pay for math and science teachers, who are in short supply.

Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, however, urged "caution in calling for drastic changes."

One of the least hospitable receptions for the recommendations came from respected education researcher and writer Gerald W. Bracey, author of the Bracey reports for Phi Delta Kappan, a journal for professional educators. "There is a cottage industry in this country that generates reports devoted to keeping Americans anxious about the future and laying the responsibility for that future on the schools which are never working as they should be," he said. "The latest of these scare tactics . . . might be the dumbest, least democratic, least reality-based of them all."

He said the commissioners made an "erroneous assumption that high test scores were causally linked to thriving economies." He pointed out that "Japan’s (economic) bubble burst in 1990, and it is only now coming out of 15 years of recession and stagnation. Beginning in 1991, on the other hand, the U. S. enjoyed the longest sustained economic expansion in the nation’s history. Japan’s kids continued to ace tests, but that didn’t goose the Japanese economy."

Red flags also go up regarding eliminating secure pension benefits for those already employed. This would appear to be a violation of the promises made to many educators when they were hired. Likewise, the corruption documented by the government’s inspector general surrounding implementation of the No Child Left Behind law should make all taxpayers skeptical of what politicians, their contributors and friends can do with any system relying on privatesector contracts.

It is, however, time for systemic changes. Our children deserve an opportunity to compete on a global stage.

William L. Bainbridge is distinguished research professor at the University of Dayton and president and chief executive officer of School-Match, a Columbus-based educational auditing, research and data company. bainbridge@schoolmatch.com