With public schools facing extreme pressure from two sides – improving quality and spending less – can the country’s educational system as constituted survive, let alone get better?
Central Falls High School is one of Rhode Island’s poorest performing schools. To overcome that disadvantage, district superintendent Frances Gallo asked teachers to work longer days, to have lunch with students now-and-then and to devote two weeks during the summer (with pay) to increase their skills, but the union said, “No.” Gallo responded by firing all 77 of Central Falls’ teachers, its principal and all related administrators. Meanwhile, the school board for Kansas City (MO) schools, facing a projected $50 million budget deficit, voted to close 29 of the system’s 61 schools at the end of this school year. (The Week, 3/19/10)
Is local control of schools being challenged? Will schools consider new methods like the following?
According to a National Bureau of Economic Research study, Texas high-school students who earned cash for passing Advanced Placement exams showed better overall GPAs and an increased likelihood of graduating. The cost of administering the program averaged $200 a student. (Newsweek, 3/8/10)
The No Child Left Behind program has cost the government $14 billion thus far. Will studies like the one above inform the policy debate as the Obama administration begins to address the education system? In the future, could some of the money slated for No Child Left Behind go to paying students for performance?
Ken Hey and Eric Zavolinsky
