Needed: Governor to Launch Radical Change in Schools

By MORTON KONDRACKE Newspaper Enterprise Association

What the Iraq Study Group said about the Iraq War situation — “grim and deteriorating” — has been echoed by another bipartisan commission, this one studying the state of American education.

It didn’t use those exact words, but the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce warned that unless U.S. schools are improved radically, the country’s standard of living will plunge over the next 20 years.

The commission, whose members included four former Cabinet officers, proposed a series of radical and most likely controversial changes designed to keep the United States from falling behind foreign competitors.

The reforms mainly require action at the state level, and one gutsy governor will be needed to start the process and serve as a model for the rest of the nation.

As this study and numerous other reports on competitiveness have warned, other countries — led by India and China — increasingly are offering the world’s employers highly skilled work forces at lower costs than American labor, causing jobs and investment to move offshore.

The only reason that employers would depend on Americans, the panel said, is “if we could offer something that the Chinese and Indians, and others, cannot.”

That has to be superior skills, know-how, technology and innovation, yet U.S. schools — the second costliest in the world per pupil — badly lag behind in performance on international tests.

Moreover, the panel said, while spending on U.S. schools has increased by 240 percent over the past 30 years (adjusting for inflation), national test scores in reading and math have improved only marginally.

The 26-member skills panel agreed unanimously on what its executive director called “a complete shakeup” in U.S. education.

The recommendations include ending high school for most students at age 16, after 10th grade. Students passing a state-run exam that meets national standards would move on to community colleges or job training. Others who pass would stay in high school for Advance Placement or International Baccalaureate work leading to admission to four-year colleges. Those who failed would return to high school until they passed.

The money saved by lopping off the last two years of high school – - $60 billion a year — would be used to double teacher salaries and fund pre-school for all 4-year-olds and all low-income 3-year-olds.

In order to attract teachers from the top third of college graduates, starting pay would average $45,000 a year — a level that is currently the mid-career national average — and then rise to $95,000, with possible increases up to $110,000 for teachers who work year-round or in demanding situations.

Possibly the most radical change would be a takeover by states of supervision and funding of schools, thus eliminating reliance on local property taxes, although community school boards would retain some management functions.

The commission, which included New York Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, former Cabinet Secretaries William Brock, Richard Riley, Ray Marshall and Rod Paige, and union and corporate representatives, also advocated creation of teacher-organized “contract schools” that would be run independently and judged on their ability to meet standards.

The panel also recommended a significant upgrading of testing standards at the state level so that 16-year-olds would have to possess world-class skills in order to graduate from high school.

Probably the most difficult group to convince about the need for change is the American citizenry, which has repeatedly told pollsters that American education in general is deficient but that the school system in their jurisdiction is successful.

On the other hand, there is widespread agreement that middle- class incomes are being squeezed by foreign competition. One answer to the problem — a bad one that won’t work — is an isolationist attempt to protect the United States from competition.

The better answer, and the only one that will work, is for the United States to lead the world in innovation and skills.

One state has to lead the way toward excellence. Which one will it be?

(c) 2006 Tulsa World. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.