Harness the power of school choice
It is easy to find examples of dynamic innovation in the United States: the light bulb, the Model T, Broadway musicals, Disney, jazz, the polio vaccine, the personal computer, the Internet, Starbucks, ebay, Netflix, Google, the Human Genome Project, the ipod, Facebook — and the list goes on.
It is much harder to point to examples like these in K-12 public education.
For decades, teaching and learning have changed little and student outcomes have hardly budged. Since 1960, we have tripled our investment in the education status quo in real dollars, but we have received little in terms of results.
Today, even as students in Asia and Europe are making rapid academic gains and surpassing American students in core subjects, only a third of U.S. students are proficient in math, reading and science, and only a quarter of our high school graduates are considered college ready.
Why is innovation lacking in U.S. education?
I believe America is missing an ingredient that is key to education innovation: choice.
The Council on Foreign Relations Task Force report that came out this week, which I co-chaired, notes that choice and competition have the power to spur the innovations we need in our public schools. This is essential if we are going to help our students achieve the American dream in an ever competitive environment and if we are going to protect our nation’s cohesiveness, prosperity and ability to lead.
In an ideal world, every neighborhood’s school would already provide a world-class education to all students, but that is sadly not the world in which we live. Just hoping that these schools improve — or investing more in the status quo — is not a strategy that will create the needed change.
Today, the only families that can opt out of a failing school are families with financial means. This leaves poor children trapped in failing schools. This is the worst form of inequality.
Public school choice, charter schools and vouchers like the D.C. Opportunity Scholarships help to level the playing field for families and encourage educators to think creatively about how to best serve students and families. Coupled with necessary resources, well-prepared educators, and strong curricula, I believe that choice has the power to improve the overall quality of education we are providing to our students.
When we offer choice, the results speak for themselves. Under Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership, as chancellor, I ensured that we gave people meaningful choice in Harlem. As a result there are now some 25 different charter schools there. Parents engage in the process in an entirely different way, and you start to see the kind of innovation and differentiation necessary in our schools.
School choice has historically led to harsh debates in this country. The task force — which included leaders from education, organized labor, business, the military and academia — chose not to recommend a single, “correct” way for districts to provide choice. However, the group strongly urged each state to devise and implement a strategy that provides American families with the alternatives they need and deserve.
It is too early to determine the full effect of school choice in systemic reform, but choice and competition have a salutary effect in almost every other aspect of American life, including our wellregarded higher education system and our businesses — and I am confident that it will have a similar impact on education.
Education must not be sheltered from competition and innovation