Education revolution

L.A. Daily News 3/16/07

The set of reports released this week from Stanford University on fixing California's public education system had its heart in the right place. The problem was with its head.

The researchers of the exhaustive and extensive studies, funded by charitable foundations and commissioned by the governor and state Legislature, started with the wrong premise.

They set the ultimate goal of "fixing" the state's K-12 public schools system and taking it back to some mythical golden era. By their own conclusions, there's a long way to go: California students are far behind those of many other states in achievement, and it will cost more than a trillion dollars to catch up.

The studies push the debate forward but, in many ways, they do so in the wrong direction.

Money, even if combined with some basic reforms, won't fix what's been broken for so long. Institutionally, our schools need more than a financial Band-Aid. The strangling regulations and bureaucracy, the protection of incompetence and the expectation of mediocrity all need to be blown up.

Californians have shown time and again they are willing to invest heavily in schools, in their children, in the future of the state - even when the education establishment resists every real reform.

What's the value of continuing to prop up a system that has proved itself to be inherently flawed? We believe there is none. Indeed, there are many who would just as soon withdraw public support altogether.

But that would be wrong. A good public school education is the great equalizer of our society, the one way to ensure that every child has a chance for a good life.

What we need today, and need urgently, is an education revolution. We need dynamic and creative classrooms where the individual needs of children are met by teachers empowered - and rewarded - to do their best.

We need to re-imagine the state's approach to public education, not patch it up.

The next step is for a bipartisan committee on public education to examine the findings and make recommendations later this year. We encourage the committee to take the time to explore innovative solutions before it votes to funnel more into the education money pit.

Our school system is languishing in the 20th century, a time that increasingly doesn't resemble the present. It's the 21st century, and we need a real partnership of parents, teachers, students and political and educational leadership all committed to excellence.