The learner must be put first in education. Education is more than schooling. If we are to produce workers with the knowledge and skills to be productive, responsible citizens and civically engaged, educators must work much more collaboratively with employers and the larger society. Elementary and secondary education must be reinvented, and national academic standards and assessments need to be implemented. The entire community as well as educators must address social deterrents to learning, such as drugs, violence, and lack of adequate family and community support for children and families.
Teachers are the key to educational improvement.
We must expand our societal commitment to teacher recruitment, training and compensation. New technologies and pedagogical requirements will demand alternative instructional management techniques. Growing ethnic and economic diversity must be addressed more effectively. To decentralize education, it is necessary to pursue deregulation and delegation of authority, so that schools can be more independent. It is important to abolish school districts and to liberalize the establishment of schools.