School reform’s new generation

At the heart of the reformers’ view that we can get very different outcomes than we’re achieving is the demonstrable fact that teachers matter, big-time. Nothing has done more to harm the educational system than the failure to differentiate among teachers by rewarding excellence and imposing consequences for nonperformance. The long-standing holy trinity in education — life tenure, seniority and lock-step pay (followed by a lifetime pension) — encourages sticking around rather than doing well. You can expect that, in an effort to truly professionalize teaching, the assault on this established, dysfunctional structure will be vigorous.

The other thing these reformers are likely to push is much greater choice for families, especially those in low-income communities. A monopoly public provider that locks families into a single community school hasn’t worked and won’t work. Not surprisingly, middle-class and affluent families have always insisted on choice for their kids, meaning that, if they don’t like the neighborhood school, they go elsewhere, even moving to a different community or sending their kids to private school. For the poor, who can’t move or pay, it’s one and done, good or bad. These expanded choice programs are sure to include more charter schools, which are catching on among families in high-poverty communities and getting results at scale in cities such as New York and Houston. In fact, post-Katrina, New Orleans has become an all-choice, 70 percent charter-school district, and the progress has been exceptional.

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But these and other reformers can’t get the job done alone. The forces committed to protecting the current, failed system — the unions, bureaucrats and politicians — are well-financed, well-motivated and extremely adept at pushing back. After all, the existing system, with its lifetime job security, annual pay increases and very generous lifetime pension and health provisions, serves adult interests quite well. Parents, community and religious groups, philanthropists, and an engaged and mobilized public will have to make sure these reformers get the political support they will need to do what’s right by our kids.

This is a critical juncture. We are blessed with extraordinary leadership at the helm of many of our most challenged school districts and states. They need our strong, active and outspoken support. Let’s not miss the opportunity and subject another generation of children to educational neglect.

The writer, a former chancellor of New York public schools, is chief executive of News Corp.’s educational division.