A third of our kids aren’t getting through High School. That’s beyond fine tuning and trial programs. We need radical reforms now, before we lose another generation.

First step is to empower parents with vouchers. That’s the only way we’ll be able to move quickly to develop alternative schools. I think the neighborhood public schools will be better for it as well. I see them as being more autonomous with most the power at the school level. The success of the neighborhood schools will be determined by how well they serve the neighborhood. That will require parent participation. Not an easy task, but I think we can make it worth their while to participate. No room to go into detail here, I’ll save it for a complete rant of it’s own.

So what about the taxpayers choice? Let them choose what school(s) they would like a portion of their tax dollars to go to. The default would be the neighborhood schools k-12 for residential property taxes, and to the Department of School Administration, Building and Maintenance for commercial property taxes.

I don’t vote for labels. I vote for ideas, vision, and leadership or none of the above.

But you know what? Those things cannot happen without increased funding. A full-time secondary school would require a 25% increase in salaries alone.

And public education system is always in long-term rehab. Reforms come and go every year as educators try to keep up with the changing face of society. Administrators and school boards are never given enough money to make the radical changes you suggest.

That’s why I vote for progressive civic leaders and stay far away from anyone who wants to be “conservative” about public education spending.