The School Reform Credo

I am a School Reformer and this is what I believe:

Some time, about thirty years ago, the teacher force in America’s public schools were inundated with the most incompetent and unimaginative graduates of our colleges and universities, people who could not find work in the private sector. Slowly but surely, protected by powerful unions, they transformed our public schools into centers of cultural and educational stagnation, unable to help our country meet the challenge of international economic competition, while contributing to greater inequality at home.

Only by sweeping away large portions of this teaching force by removing their tenure rights and subjecting our public schools to the discipline of the market can we create a world class school system that serves all sections of our population. We must break the power of teachers unions, subject teachers to the kind of data driven evaluation that all employees in the private sector experience, and create alternatives to public schools through a combination of charter schools and school vouchers.

We must also unleash the genius of the business world into the system by subcontracting test development and evaluation to corporations with the resources to do these well and have all school employees wages and salaries targeted to performance the way virtually all business do.

If we do this, we will clear a way a huge log jam in the way of economic growth, while insuring greater economic opportunity to those currently trapped in poverty.

This is a glorious moment in the history of American education and I am so proud to be a part of it.

Mark Naison
With A Brooklyn Accent

Saturday, 16 March 2013