Lesson Plan for Education Reform

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The average base salary would start at $45,000 (the median salary for teachers today), rise in increments, and could reach more than $100,000 at the top of their career ladder. The plan would offer more attractive front-end salaries and would reward performance. "That's the normal model that works at other organizations," says Klein.

Improving teacher quality by making the career path a more rewarding and competitive one is a critical early step, experts agree. "If you change the way teachers are trained, hired, and compensated, you can change the teaching workforce in five to six years," says Hoxby.

All-the-Time Learning

Early intervention is arguably one of the most critical steps in avoiding education problems down the road, many experts agree. The proposal redirects $18 billion in funding toward educating three- and four-year-olds. Child-Based Outcome Standards, adapted in a growing number of states since 2003 would help monitor how effectively such programs were running. Tucker says such early education programs help "deal with the problem earlier rather than doing triage later" when students reach high school.

Although programs like the federally funded Head Start now exist, there are still not enough children in pre-K programs nationwide," says Tucker (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/23/06, "Going Beyond Head Start"). The commission's last three recommendations examine adult education. "We are painting a picture of an economy which more and more is going to be turning over products and services faster and faster," says Tucker. With the quick turnover of technology and even entire industries in time, continuing education is also a critical piece of the puzzle. "We need people who are learning all the time," he says.

What about today's adults still in the work force 20 years from now? The commission recommends legislation giving adults free access to the education necessary to pass the first board exam administered to all 10th graders. The resources would be optional to adults, making their actual impact unpredictable.

Closer Links

A "GI Bill of Our Times," as the commission calls it, would also be established so that every child would receive a personal competitiveness account with $500 put in at birth and $100 deposited for every year after, until the age of 16. The money would earn tax-protected interest and could be added to by employers and individuals. The cost of adult education and the new GI Bill would amount to $31 billion a year, an investment the committee says would have a higher payoff for the individual and the economy than any other step the nation could take.

But the new GI Bill, argues Hoxby, is the least important of the committee's recommendations, mainly because it is not that novel an idea. The personal competitiveness accounts duplicate existing federal funding like the Lifelong Learning tax credit, the Hope tax credit for first-time college students, and 529 accounts that accumulate tax-free educational savings. "It's one of those things where the name sounds nice," says Hoxby. But an individual's accumulated $3,200 by the age of 16 would likely not make a sweeping difference. "No one is proposing we set aside $500,000 per kid," she says.

Creating regional economic development authorities is the last of the commission's recommendations. The step would mean merging economic development regions and workforce areas and linking them more closely with community college districts, says Ray Uhalde, deputy staff director for the new commission and director of NCEE's Workforce Development Program. "Far too many places are bound to the political jurisdiction, not taking into account the economic development," he says.

The 170-page report paints a picture of education reform where teachers and students find themselves in a competitive environment better fit for a competitive global economy. But Tucker is quick to emphasize that its 10 recommendations are just that—possible ways states could go about improving their schools, not quick-fix solutions. "What we have done over the last 30 to 40 years of education reform is try silver bullets," he says. "What we have not done is try to redesign a system that has been largely the same." This report may be the first major attempt in figuring out just how to get there.

Porter is a reporter with BusinessWeek in New York. Prior to this position, she worked for The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, D.C. Porter has a bachelor's degree in English from Brown University.