Ohio's governor is being assailed, and rightly so, for his education plan, with its preference for creating adult jobs over ensuring that students learn. If he's interested in ideas that are a bit more imaginative and reform-minded, he might look to Philadelphia.
There, Sup. Arlene Ackerman has unveiled a five year plan, which the Philadelphia Inquirer says??includes weighted student funding, closing down failing schools, recruiting to run new schools "organizations with proven track records... such as the Knowledge is Power Program," and importantly, emphases on accountability and on students over jobs. Writes the Inquirer:
Accountability has been a theme of Ackerman's superintendency. Too often, student progress is measured and adults are not held to performance goals, she said.
"If it doesn't work, don't keep it up," Ackerman said. "We shouldn't be spending money to make people feel good."
She acknowledged she had laid out a lofty vision. "We won't be able to do all of this, but we will do it one step at a time," she said.
It sounds like accomplishing even part of it would place Philadelphia on a faster track to success than the Buckeye State, if Strickland's ideas take root.
