Reformed to Death?
2012-04-03 - by
Several Democratic readers responded to yesterday’s blog, “School Choice.” One wrote: “Our message should be, ‘Reform and Invest’.” Another said: “Schools need BOTH reform & investment. Any politician who preaches reform w/out resources is just using reform as a fig leaf.”
A third said Pat McCrory’s education plan “is things Perdue/Easley/Hunt already did or tried to do and were blocked by his friends in the legislature….The nuts and bolts are different but the moving parts are all the same. You’re right: the only substantive difference is the messaging, he frames it as schools are a problem….Other than that point-by-point they hit all the same notes (but) he isn’t talking about how he’s funding it.”
All of which raises the question: Do the schools really need another round of politics-driven “reform”? Why not just pay teachers more and trust them to do the job they know how to do?
That approach has a proven track record. When Governor Hunt put in the Primary Reading Program in the 1970s, reading scores went up. When the Basic Education Plan went in in the ‘80s, scores went up. When teacher pay went up in the ‘90s, SAT scores rose faster here than any other state and students’ national test scores went up faster than the national average.
Will we learn from that? Or just impose another round of reform that demoralizes teachers, frustrates taxpayers and grows the bureaucracy?
Reformed to Death?
2012-04-03/
Several Democratic readers responded to yesterday’s blog, “School Choice.” One wrote: “Our message should be, ‘Reform and Invest’.” Another said: “Schools need BOTH reform & investment. Any politician who preaches reform w/out resources is just using reform as a fig leaf.”
A third said Pat McCrory’s education plan “is things Perdue/Easley/Hunt already did or tried to do and were blocked by his friends in the legislature….The nuts and bolts are different but the moving parts are all the same. You’re right: the only substantive difference is the messaging, he frames it as schools are a problem….Other than that point-by-point they hit all the same notes (but) he isn’t talking about how he’s funding it.”
All of which raises the question: Do the schools really need another round of politics-driven “reform”? Why not just pay teachers more and trust them to do the job they know how to do?
That approach has a proven track record. When Governor Hunt put in the Primary Reading Program in the 1970s, reading scores went up. When the Basic Education Plan went in in the ‘80s, scores went up. When teacher pay went up in the ‘90s, SAT scores rose faster here than any other state and students’ national test scores went up faster than the national average.
Will we learn from that? Or just impose another round of reform that demoralizes teachers, frustrates taxpayers and grows the bureaucracy?