It will also start the transition toward an all-charters or contract system, where every school controls critical resources, competes for students, and demonstrates performance. How to Start The first step is for Democrats to stop letting the public education establishment wrap the current arrangements in the flag of public education - and to stop opposing school reform ideas just because some Republicans like them. Democrats at all levels, including those in the cities, must work to improve education for all children, not to preserve historical accidents that do not work. The second step is for Democrats to allow widespread experimentation with school contracting, including charter programs that have no caps on the numbers of participating schools and that truly give schools the autonomy they need to be effective. States and localities should be committed to expanding these experiments if they work, and Democrats should also make sure all publicly funded schools get control of real dollars and can hire the best teachers available.
Teachers unions can live with such a system if they know there is no alternative.
Well-grounded standards can help propel education reform. However, we need to recognize the limits of standards. Without the other initiatives outlined above, standards will not give us good public schools. Moreover, standards defined via political bargaining among groups devoted to particular disciplines and subject matters can only perpetuate our confusion about what public education is and what it must accomplish.