Tinkering around the educational edges

I can't think of any domestic policy issue more important than education, though health gets closer all the time. Better jobs, better quality of life and better communities can't occur without great schools and people committed to their success.

America seems to be losing ground as you look at the commitment other countries are making to education and the importance that those cultures attach to it. We seem to be self-satisfied about how far we've come without really talking about how far we have to go. In an op-ed column today in the New York Times, writer Bob Herbert argues that tinkering around the edges won't cut it. We need transformational change in key aspects of education.

Herbert cites two examples: teacher quality and alternative schools. I agree with him about a focus on teacher quality, particularly attracting and retaining the best people to the profession, but I'd place parental involvement well ahead of alternative schools. Your "top two" might be different, and that's fine at this moment. The point is to have a discussion way beyond the tinkering level.

Block scheduling -- a trendy thing in American high schools these days -- comes to my mind as an example of something that seems big but is little more than tinkering. My parental experience with block scheduling in two different school districts is this: good teachers do well with it; weak teachers do worse. And that makes sense, because the classes are longer. It's a bandage that masks the larger issue of teacher quality and trades old problems for new ones.

Depending on what actually happens, Nov. 14 could either be a moderately interesting day or a really important day for the future of Northern Kentucky. It's when the "Champions for Education" summit will be held at the NKY Convention Center in Covington. Summit planners (I'm one of them) hope that this is the start of a conversation that points to a goal of having world-class schools in our region.

The summit is open to the public, and I hope you'll click here if you're at all interested in taking part.