Editorial

Survey puts reform spotlight on education

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A few weeks ago we used this space to ask whether Americans were ready to make the sacrifices needed to put the country back on a sound fiscal footing.

At issue was a proposal by leaders President Obama's bipartisan fiscal commission to make the cuts necessary to seriously take on the national deficit.

It was a good chance, we implied, to find out which leaders are serious about making responsible changes and which were dedicated to maintaining the status quo.

A similar question is raised by new poll that found that most people want bad teachers out of the classroom, but want to pay good teachers more.

Conducted by The Associated Press and Stanford University, the poll found that 78 percent think it should be easier for school administrators to fire poorly performing teachers, but 57 percent say good teachers are paid too little.

And it's not just the teachers. Seventy-one percent say it should be easier to fire principals at schools whose students are performing poorly.

Half of the people responding to the poll said teachers' salaries should be based on their students' performance on statewide tests and evaluations. About a quarter say pay should be determined solely by administrators and 20 percent say salaries should be based only on how well students do on statewide testing.

Thirty-five percent say a large number of bad teachers is a serious problem, and 45 percent say teachers' unions are to blame. More than half are critical of parents and federal, state and local education officials, and 55 percent say the inability to recruit and keep good teachers is a big problem.

But change isn't easy.

Just ask Michelle Rhee, a champion of school reform and the former chancellor of the Washington D. C. public school system.

No longer in that position -- her boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty was defeated in 2010, thanks, in part, to Rhee's controversies -- she was famous for closing schools and firing teachers and principals -- including the one in charge of her daughter's school.

Now she's on the cover of Newsweek and on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" promoting her new organization, "Students First," asking one million members to join her organization and trying to raise $1 billion toward reform.

According to her website, students in the United States rank 25th out of 30 countries in math, 23rd in science and 21st in reading.

How will she use the money?

Rhee plans to take on the teachers' unions, see that "great" teachers are hired and bad ones fired, create better school programs and make the American education system the best in the world.

Are we willing to make the changes to make that possible? Only time will tell, but if not, we have only ourselves to blame.

For more information:

http://surveys.ap.org

http://StudentsFirst.org

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