From the 2008 election cycle you would never know that the most important issue today is the dismal state of our public education system. I feel comfortable making such a strong proclamation because none of John McCain’s or Barack Obama’s promise of “change” can last or transform when 30% of our young people perpetually fail to complete high school each year. More troubling is that over 50% of African American males are part of this group. We also ignore that a significant number of kids move through the system without learning to read. No economic policy matters if children cannot complete high school. Our national security is at risk if kids become illiterate soldiers.

By Butch Trusty

What is the role of the federal government in improving education? I have a brief proposal of where we need to go at all levels of government to continue to crack this problem. These are my ideas and my ideas alone based on research, data, and my experience in the urban education reform fight.

Let’s start with the 800-pound gorilla in education at the moment the No Child Left Behind policy– NCLB. Although far from a perfect law, George W. Bush’s signature domestic policy achievement has been a successful. Because of this law, for the first time, we know how poorly bureaucrats have served low-income and minority students. Moreover, because of NCLB, we are now, finally having conversations about how to address education inequities in a serious manner. The next president should move to reauthorized and strengthen the law. First, the US Department of Education should be authorized to create incentives to encourage states to voluntary adopt a uniform set of rigorous standards. These standards do not need to be developed or mandated by the feds, but the federal government can create conditions to ensure their adoption. National standards also have to include a uniform method for calculating graduation rates. It is unbelievable that in today’s global world that an education in Mississippi does not mean the same as in Massachusetts and both are inferior to that of many foreign nations. Second, the accountability provisions of the law should be changes to allow supplement education services to be offered before the school choice provisions are triggered.

On the subject of choice, we need real choice in the public school system. The feds should encourage and local districts should move to establish significant choice schemes. The easiest thing to do is to allow students and parents choice within the public school system (perhaps, even across districts). Weighted student funding, magnet and charter schools will help expand choice and innovation. However, there is no reason why we cannot find ways to also involve high-quality private and Catholic schools.

Let’s be honest, the major impediment to much of the reform we need is the power of the teachers’ unions. Coincidentally, research has shown that the quality of teachers is the biggest predictor of student achievement. Union rules ensure mediocrity and ensure that the worst teachers instruct the neediest kids. We should encourage and replicate the work of Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, and Joel Klein (among others) as they move to reward performance, improve training and recruitment, and shift the focus of the system from the needs of adults to the needs of children.

I believe the future success of the Republican Party will be dependent on a shift from our knee-jerk calls for small government to a well-intentioned push for limited and effective government. In the area of education, this might mean shifting from attempts to abolish the Education Department to an attempt to transform that relic into a high performing research and development engine. The federal government does not need to spend so much effort and money on social engineering and mandating programs in schools. Instead, the federal government should be the source for identifying, testing, and replicating research-based ideas that work. If this truly is the most important issue, then we need to arrange our activities to reflect that.