F-Edu-reform?

Kalman R. Hettleman wrote an interesting article in the Washington Post about the five myths in education reform:

1. We know how to fix public schools; we just lack the political will to finish the job.
2. Teachers know best how to teach kids; policymakers should leave them alone.
3. The federal government meddles too much in the affairs of local schools.
4. Teacher unions are the enemy.
5. There's no place in education for politics.

He refuted all of these very well.

I read another article by Dave Clinefelter of Rethinking Higher Education on college tuition. Dave's first data point is sobering - median family income has risen by 5% over the last decade, but college tuition has risen by 65%. He cites many reasons for this, but the big one is that State funding has fallen off dramatically, and the schools can't keep up.

A key factor in both cases is how much local vs. state vs. federal involvement there is or should be in education.

I think education should not be funded locally or at the state level - it should be all federal. If for no other reason than a state's local economy should not prevent any student from getting the best possible education. The second reason - a child should not be penalized for living in a state where the education leaders are ...not clear thinkers. Third, if students who graduate (whether to go into tertiary education or the workforce) are compared nationally, standards (curriculum, assessments, etc.) should be described nationally, and be consistent across the country - an even playing field. Finally, salaries for educators should (with regional cost-of-living accommodations) be equal across the country.

I'm not however saying that the Feds should tell teachers how to teach. Instead they should define the outcomes that schools are expected to create, and then develop standards that judge the quality of schools relative to each other based on the quality of their graduates. As I wrote before, I believe we must know what the goal is and that you are what you measure.

By the same token, I don't think that all teachers are prefect or even universally effective. I wrote about a number of teachers that don't seem to have their students' best interests at heart - I don't think that is acceptable either.

This is controversial, I know. Many believe that education is a local issue, should managed by those that can accommodate the unique requirements of their locale, and that it should be funded at the local level. I don't agree. This is too important to be random, to be left in the hands of those who are might take a whimsical approach to education, or bow to tough budgetary times. It is not acceptable for our schools, teachers and most critically, our students to be compromised.