A restructuring for the schools

Imagine the resonance of Obama's words, spoken earlier this month about General Motors, tweaked slightly to apply to the nation's schools: "I decided then," Obama would say, "that if public education and its stakeholders were willing to sacrifice for their schools' survival and success; if they were willing to take the difficult but necessary steps to restructure, and make themselves stronger, leaner and more competitive, then the United States government would stand behind them."

One of the reasons Obama made Arne Duncan secretary of education is his experience closing and restructuring schools in Chicago. Obama and Duncan say they want to close and make over 5,000 schools in the next five years. As with Obama saying people were wrong when they thought a "surgical bankruptcy was impossible" for the auto industry, the task now turns to proving people wrong that it is impossible for the federal government to be, as Duncan says, "more targeted and more strategic" about chronically underperforming schools.

Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester said in a recent interview that the one thing the federal government - which historically provides relatively little money to public schools - can do is fund research into how to best staff schools so children want to read, write, and do math. That sounds simple, but federal support has been severely lacking.

Between stimulus money and budget proposals, Obama hopes to spend $5 billion on turnaround efforts for education that had only received $500 million a year. "It is not enough to beat up on schools," Chester said. "A lot of schools are making a good-faith effort and bootstrapping, but still have poor scores. How do you determine when to close and who to replace? We don't yet have a consistent track record on that."

It is imperative that Obama and Duncan establish a national track record. If they do, it will make the restructuring of GM and Chrysler look like a game of Matchbox toys. America's children await the day when Obama proclaims - just as with cars - that "I'm confident the steps I'm announcing today will mark the end of an old public school and the beginning of a new public school; a new public school that can produce the high-quality, curious, and world-class students of tomorrow; that can lead America to an intellectually independent future; and that is once more a symbol of America's success."

That would be a government restructuring we could all get behind.