Guest Column - Rep. Jan Jones:

So-Called Reforms Won't Help Johnny Read ... Real Reform Will

By Rep. Jan Jones

(12/26/07) Talk about public education reform is like a cheap dress. Adding lace around the hem and pressing with starch won’t turn it into couture.

Likewise, gussying up public education won’t make Mary and Johnny learn. Real change will.

Nationally, Georgia ranks near the bottom of the heap in SAT rankings, standardized test scores, and with its 73 percent graduation rate.

Governor Sonny Perdue and State School Superintendent Kathy Cox deserve solid credit for increasing the graduation rate by 10% since taking office five years ago. That’s significant - and reflects higher standards, stronger curriculum, targeted initiatives and hard work by educators.

On the other hand, Georgia had nowhere to go but up - and the next 10 percentage points in the graduation rate will be even harder to come by.

More-of-the-same suggestions, usually wrapped in acronyms, only make us feel like we are bringing about change. Spend more. Expect more. Test more. Whatever it is, do more of it.

Some push for smaller classes. The superintendents’ association pushes back for flexibility with class sizes – and additional tax dollars with fewer strings attached.

And through it all, the school board association presses the state - and parents – to keep their mitts off education. After all, it defines “local control” as, well, school board control.

But to fix education, Georgia has to venture off the soft sofa of an entrenched public education system and into the uncomfortable.

Visualize a monopoly-like industry resisting today’s fierce global competition by demanding more subsidies and protections and offering to deliver more of the same. That describes public education “reform” today.

Change is not an option with an increasingly challenging student population to educate and fewer well-paying blue collar jobs awaiting drop-outs.

More Georgia students are growing up poor, substantially due to high birth rates among under-educated, unwed mothers. More students are illegal, transient and lack English proficiency.

No excuses here, though. Georgia must educate the students that walk through today’s school house doors, not the Leave-It-To-Beaver children we might imagine.

And in far too many schools, the job’s not getting done. Forty Georgia high schools graduate 50 percent or fewer students.

Injecting more tax dollars alone won’t move the achievement needle. In fact, Georgia ranks first among a dozen southeastern states in teacher pay. We spend more per student on public education and as a percentage of our state budget than many states.

How can we do public education differently to transform individual lives and spur economic development? Here’s a legislative to-do list.

1. Recognize teachers count most in increasing student achievement. Award generous merit pay to teachers for classroom performance. Respect the many superior teachers by ending Soviet-style equal pay increases.

End future teacher stipends for out-of-field masters and doctoral degrees, some generated by internet diploma mills. Unrelated postgraduate degrees can add as much as $18,000 to a teacher’s salary. No correlation to student achievement justifies this multi-million dollar taxpayer expense.

Instead, spend precious tax dollars on salary boosts to address desperate teaching needs. For example, pay more to highly qualified math and science teachers – and to attract experienced teachers to battle-zone schools.

Guess how many physics teachers graduated from Georgia college education programs last year? Three. Yet new high school graduation requirements include one physics or physical science class. And what if your aspiring Georgia Tech youngster cannot take Advanced Placement Physics because no qualified teacher shows up?

2. Again, recognize teachers count most. Provide greater transparency of results by publishing standardized test scores by teacher.

The Gainesville City School System already publishes every single classroom’s performance on quarterly subject assessments. Principals, teachers and parents use the information to improve student performance, shore up teaching deficits and capitalize on strengths.

3. Give principals greater latitude in decision-making and budgeting so they can adapt schools to their students and communities. Tie increased flexibility to higher student achievement goals.

4. Offer parents options in how and where their children are educated by increasing the number of high-quality public schools of choice – charter schools. As for accountability, charter schools shut down if they do not attract students and reach achievement goals spelled out in their contracts. One-size-fits-hardly-anyone public education has outlived its relevancy.

Some states, school systems and other industrialized countries have embraced these and other initiatives with encouraging results. Uncomfortable to the entrenched status quo, yes. Untried and unproven, no.

More of the same so-called reforms won’t help Mary and Johnny learn. Real change will.

Rep. Jan Jones represents the 46th House District. She is vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee for education.