Reform ABCs
"The issues are clear. The various studies portray a school system that is overly regulated and irrationally financed, with muddled lines of authority and conflicting incentives that discourage improvement.
Changing that status quo, however, would require the state to give local districts and schools more power to make decisions, rather than dictating policy from Sacramento. The state would also have to streamline an overgrown education code that puts a higher premium on administrative paperwork than good education practice. And any reform should restructure the state's complex and inefficient financing system, tying funding more closely to need and giving local districts greater budgeting flexibility.
Districts also need to be able to offer differential pay and incentives to good teachers, so that the schools with the biggest challenges do not end up with the worst instructors. And the near impossibility of firing ineffective teachers only obstructs educational improvement.
Given the state's budget mess, focusing reform on hauling down more money is understandable, if misguided. Money will not fix California schools, and it is no substitute for systemic change."
"The issues are clear. The various studies portray a school system that is overly regulated and irrationally financed, with muddled lines of authority and conflicting incentives that discourage improvement.
Changing that status quo, however, would require the state to give local districts and schools more power to make decisions, rather than dictating policy from Sacramento. The state would also have to streamline an overgrown education code that puts a higher premium on administrative paperwork than good education practice. And any reform should restructure the state's complex and inefficient financing system, tying funding more closely to need and giving local districts greater budgeting flexibility.
Districts also need to be able to offer differential pay and incentives to good teachers, so that the schools with the biggest challenges do not end up with the worst instructors. And the near impossibility of firing ineffective teachers only obstructs educational improvement.
Given the state's budget mess, focusing reform on hauling down more money is understandable, if misguided. Money will not fix California schools, and it is no substitute for systemic change."