OUR PERSPECTIVE

When the government took upon itself the obligation of educating America’s youth, it undertook a serious responsibility that demanded results.

In far too many communities across America, the government is woefully failing in that responsibility.

Dismal test scores, unsustainable spending, and the ardent defense of adults’ rights have all pushed the public education system to the brink of irrelevance.  And worse yet, it’s all having a direct impact on our future ability to compete in the world.

Little is being done about it.

Education Action Group Foundation believes the one-size-fits-all, assembly line public school system requires serious reform.

• Put the needs of students first.  What do students need in order to be successful?  A quality teacher in every classroom.  Up-to-date teaching methods and supplies.  "Quality-blind" layoff rules are an insult to effective teachers.
• Put the needs of adults second.  During contract time, the fight is invariably about pay, benefits and retirement, not “what policies need to change in order to increase student achievement.”
• Empower parents to choose the school option that best meets the needs of their children.
• State governments should enact reforms to give schools more control over their budgets and personnel decisions.

Some schools do put students first and adults second.  Charter schools, for example, provide a viable alternative to traditional public schools.  Many if not all also offer tailored learning plans for each student.

Sadly, teachers’ unions have been successful at defending the government monopoly of education in America, to the detriment of student and taxpayers.

Breaking the power of Big Labor in America’s schools would allow parents, administrators and teachers to be free to make decisions in the best interest of students.  Onerous labor contracts and work rules, designed to defend adults’ rights, hinder innovation and improvement.

"It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and

there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that

our school system doesn't improve: It more resembles the communist

economy than our own market economy."
-- Albert Shanker, former AFT president, The Wall Street Journal, October 2,1989

Education Action Group Foundation fights every day for a student-focused education system that is financially sustainable and will put us on a firm footing to compete globally in the future.