This story appears in the December 14, 2014 issue of Forbes. Subscribe
Forbes commissioned the first-ever study to quantify the possible financial benefits of the 5 most-talked about big ideas that could again make U.S. public education tops in the world. The findings -- to the tune of $225 trillion, with a T - are here.
So is this doable? To find out, we convened a roundtable of top leaders from the four key constituent groups: the federal government (represented by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan), state government (New York Governor Andrew Cuomo), the teachers unions (American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten) and local school boards (D.C. public schools chancellor Kaya Henderson). Robin Hood Foundation founder Paul Tudor Jones served as moderator.
PAUL TUDOR JONES: We have, literally, the pillars of education in the U.S. with us today. Can you each tell us: Which of these five ideas do you think is the most important?
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS PRESIDENT RANDI WEINGARTEN: The five big ideas are really big ideas, and you need to do them together with a real focus on equity. If done in isolation, they don't get done, and they have to be well managed. For example, we aren't going to be able to do Common Core unless we also prepare teachers to do Common Core.
D.C. PUBLIC SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR KAYA HENDERSON: D.C. has gone from being one of the lowest-performing jurisdictions to one of the most rapidly improving, in part because we are doing every single one of those five big things. If I had to choose the two most important--frankly, the quality of the teaching force and the Common Core curriculum.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: Those five are critically important; they are all mutually enforcing, can't do one without the other. We should move full speed ahead and scale on all five. I spent a lot of time looking at the data. Who is making the most progress? In a country that is moving far too slow, we have a small set of places--D.C., Tennessee, Indiana under Governor Mitch Daniels and very interesting in Hawaii--moving much faster than the rest of the country. What they all have in common is political leaders who are willing to take on the orthodoxy of their own parties.
NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO: You can't really pick among the five. I think you need all five because they do work together. There's a holistic, comprehensive nature to all five. If I would add one that hasn't been mentioned--disparity in education. We have some public schools that are extraordinary, we have some that are terrible. We have two education systems, and it's not public-private, it's rich and poor.
I think the secretary's point is right. We now almost take for granted the slowness of our implementation. The five points are right; it's eat well and exercise--it's good advice. We're not moving quickly enough to actually make change, and we're okay with it, and that's even a greater problem.
JONES: Of these five ideas, what can you control, what can't you control?
WEINGARTEN: Between Kaya and myself the impact is, how do you actually grow reform locally? You can think globally and do certain things globally, but how do you actually make it work locally? Because that's where the rubber hits the roads.
HENDERSON: As a superintendent I have lots of control, right? I can undertake blended learning. I can manipulate my budget. But, you know, it was philanthropy that had a catalytic impact in pushing me to move blended learning across my district, with improving teacher quality--absolutely things that I could do by myself I was better when I did them with my union partners, funded with my government partners and supported by $67 million worth of philanthropy.
DUNCAN: THREE BUCKETS: high standards, great teachers, great principals. We found obviously that federal mandates don't work well. Where we've had the most success is around incentives. And lots of carrots. Not mandate, not have sticks, but put money out there where we can to reward excellence--and that's a hard sell on both sides in Congress. They'd much prefer straight formula funding. So we're always fighting to have just a little bit of money to put out there as carrots.
CUOMO: My first two years I had a lot of nice ideas, and I suggested nice ideas and policies, and everybody smiled and waved and did nothing. Year three, I learned the magic, which is condition the funding on meeting our programmatic "mandate." And then everyone became a believer, because they wanted the funding. I learned the same lesson when I was in the federal government. So we, by law, condition funding on certain measures. We try to get teacher evaluation done the first couple of years. The localities weren't performing. Year three, I said, "Unless you do it, you don't get additional funding from the state." Ninety-eight percent compliance.
JONES: What should a philanthropist do to help take these big ideas and to help move the U.S. from 24th to top 5?
WEINGARTEN: We're starting to learn what works. We've got to align it, we've got to implement it well, but we need to work together.
HENDERSON: Government is never going to fund innovation, except this guy [points to Duncan]. But government funds the things that it already does, right? And so for me to fund interesting things in my school budget, it won't get passed. The philanthropic sector allowed me to do my innovative work and structured it in such a way that I had three years to live off of that funding, but then I had to take responsibility for it.
Duncan: Early childhood education should not be a Democratic idea. That should be a bipartisan idea, and it's becoming a bipartisan idea. Having high standards shouldn't be Republican idea. We should all embrace that. Having a common way of measuring success is just so basic and fundamental to all of your businesses--that's a radical concept in education. We need to get to that point of having a high bar and having clear ways of measuring how everybody is stacking up against that bar. Under No Child Left Behind, about 20 states dummied-down their standards, they reduced their standards. Why? To make politicians of both parties look good. It was terrible for children. Not one person challenged those politicians. Until [philanthropic leaders] and the broader citizenry hold politicians accountable, we'll continue to be mired in mediocrity.
Cuomo: Two separate ideas. First, do something specific--create your own model, achieve success and market a model of success. Second, government is the game here. That is where the power is, that is where the policy is made and Paul Tudor Jones: Robin Hood, one great night, $100 million. We spent $22 billion on education in the state of New York. To influence that you have to be in the public arena. You have to be in the game.
This is a condensed version. The full discussion can be viewed at www.forbes.com/philanthropy/.
