U.S. Prosperity Will Demand Radical Action, 2 Groups Say

Education politics often makes strange bedfellows.

Exhibit A: A school-improvement platform issued jointly last week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation, and the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank headed by a former chief of staff with the Clinton administration.

Among the document's most controversial proposals is a call for states and school systems to "fairly and efficiently remove ineffective teachers." Teachers unions vigorously oppose any changes to the current system, which essentially grants many teachers tenure and makes it difficult for them to be fired.

The platform also urged the development of statewide data systems to help track student achievement and teacher effectiveness. It also called on schools to expand student learning time -- which encompasses classroom time, tutoring and after-school and experiential programs -- and called for states to adopt a common definition of graduation rates.

The business group and the think tank, which had been at loggerheads on a number of other issues, said they came together because U.S. schools are failing children and putting the nation's competitiveness in the global economy at risk.

"We are not making the grade when it comes to preparing students for their future," Tom Donohue, chamber president, said in a statement. "Without real leadership in education reform, our economic future and prosperity are at risk. If companies were run like many education systems, they wouldn't last a week."

John D. Podesta, the former Clinton administration official who is now president of the Center for American Progress, said it is especially important to improve education for "those students who historically have received lesser educational opportunities -- students of color, with special needs and/or from low-income families."

-- Amit R. Paley