Time for out-the-box thinking on education after years of failure

SACRAMENTO >> Do you ever get the sense that fixing our nation’s illfunctioning public-education system is like trying to retrofit a belching, century old coal-fired power plant into a modern, clean-energy facility? Moving forward sometimes starts with a bulldozer — and the realization that one occasionally needs to start from scratch.

I’ve been writing about education reform since the beginning of my journalism career and nothing ever really changes. Policy makers wrestle with the same critical concerns today — students who are ill prepared for a modern work force, low graduation rates, a dumbed-down curriculum and persistent inequities — that they did 30 years ago.

Education officials celebrate the errant bright spot. We hear about upticks in college acceptance rates. Bad news often follows, however, such as the growing need for college-level remedial courses. Educators always lament a lack of funding, even as spending levels soar.

More than 40% of the state’s general fund budget goes to K-14 education, and an election cycle doesn’t pass without a host of school bonds. Yet, if we’re being honest with ourselves, we realize that nothing gets any better. School districts use the new funds to build fancy facilities, give raises to their unionized workers and hire legions of new administrators.

It’s still nearly impossible to fire an incompetent teacher, or to reward the ones who are doing great. Even noteworthy reforms, such as California’s system of charter schools, only nibble around the edges. And it was only a matter of time before special interest groups helped elect a governor who has rolled back that alternative system whose relative success has proved embarrassing to the status quo.