Education Reform - from Someone Who Knows

Here is an article about Michelle Rhee's ideas for the next president on education reform...which if you take a long-term view of things like I try to (and politicians unfortunately avoid like the plague) makes sense.  I mostly agree with what she says -- particularly the stupidity of local control of schools. 

We have largely had local control of schools in the US - that's why things are in such a mess and why there is such a vast difference between graduating from high school in Mississippi or Alabama or Idaho and say...any other state. 

As a country we are getting killed in our public school system -- Bush's No Child Left Behind was the first significant attempt to bring some national order (and more importantly standards) to the US public school chaos.  Unfortunately it was very badly designed and horribly implemented (DC thought that this would not cost the states anything...silly them) - it was doomed to fail. 

I think there is a slightly different reason to question local control however than Ms. Rhee's -- although hers are more close to the metal in terms of practical matters and resistance from teacher's unions.  I think that one needs only to look at any international ranking of student performance to see the US is down around number 16 in the world (or even lower) and in some pretty shady company.

Looking at those countries with much higher student performance scores one thing stands out -- they almost all have strong, centrally managed national performance standards for schools, administrators, and yes, even teachers...as much as that might bug teacher's unions.

This is one area where the Republican party is 100% wrong -- more local control of schools will only perpetuate the US as a perennial catch-up country that imports everything it can from other countries where innovation and creativity is strong and valued over making a living off of other people's money, which seems to be the major thrust of US education.