Michael F.Bennet

Public Education and Our Economy

Public schools have empowered America to fulfill its promise to the next generation.  Yet our public schools are falling short.  1.2 million children drop out of high school every year. We rank 20th among industrialized nations for high school graduation rates.  Forty years ago we were first.  Seventy percent of our 8th graders can't read at grade level.

Our public schools are not only failing our children, they are failing our economy.  We need a public school system that creates business leaders and highly skilled workers to propel us forward in the global economy.   Our country's competitiveness and our ability to pull ourselves out of this economic crisis depend on fundamental transformation of the public education in this country.  

Now is the time to re-imagine our schools as magnets for talent, centers for communities, and incubators of innovation.  

If we think big about education, we can start to imagine school buildings as prototypes for energy efficiency, and classrooms as job training centers for the new energy economy -- preparing parents and students alike.  School-based health care can advance from one nurse stretched between multiple schools to clinics that are leaders in efficient health care.  School lunches can progress from packaged feedings in the cafeteria to lived lessons on nutrition and wellness.  Our schools can become what they should be -- institutions preparing children to lead in the 21st Century.

Attracting Talent
Nothing makes a greater difference in the life of a student than a great teacher.  As President Obama said, "In a global economy where the greatest job qualification isn't what you can do but what you know, our teachers are the key to our nation's success."

Supporting Effective Teacher

• Invest in proven training that equips teachers with the content knowledge and classroom management skills to be successful in helping their students.
• Restructure the way we pay teachers to reward their success and provide incentives for them to stay in the profession.
• Ensure ongoing, quality professional development that results in increased student achievement.

Recruiting new teacher

• Expand alternative pipelines for teacher recruitment.
• Attract talent from different sectors, ages and demographics.
• Replicate effective training for new teachers and insist on rigorous standards.

21st Century Standards
Consult with business and labor to inform efforts about what skills are most marketable.  

• Update standards that reflect 21st Century skill-building.
• Invite states to embrace voluntary national standards so the public can measure progress that students as a whole are making from year to year.
• Polish a performance measurement system so we know when reforms work.
• Give tests requiring students to think and produce, not just be good at test taking.

 
Centers for Communities
Look beyond standardized tests to parent/community engagement and student retention. 

• Start learning earlier, be broader in scope, and engage entire communities.
• Transform schools to centers where communities gather for skills and services.
• Utilize schools' unique ability to deliver health and support services.
• Integrate nutrition and physical health in schools

Incubators for Innovation
Schools should be on the cutting edge of using new technology for teaching and learning.

• I am an original cosponsor of the Secondary School Innovation Fund Act, a bill to award grants to implement innovative strategies to improve student achievement and prepare at-risk students for postsecondary workforce-driven education.
• Technology can connect students to resources, teachers to each other, and can be important in engaging rural, underserved school districts with one another.
• Use technology to disseminate effective practices, and share great lesson plans.

We must do better, we can do better, and in Denver we made progress.

• From 2005 to 2008, Denver kids improved in reading, math, writing and science.
• We closed failing schools and opened new ones.
• We implemented a groundbreaking teacher pay system that rewards teachers who improve their students' performance and provides incentives for teachers to go the neediest schools. We accomplished this change by working with the union.
• With the leadership of our Mayor and city council, voters expanded early childhood education. As a result, this year there are 1500 more 4 year olds in full day programs, a 300% increase. For the first time, more than 90% of our 5 year olds get a full day of school. Research shows there is no smarter investment.
• In 2008, we launched a School Performance Framework that measures student progress year to year throughout their career- rather than the meaningless measurement of one year's class against the next year's class.

Denver has made progress and there is still much work to do to change the odds for all of our students.  Other districts will see similar success if we support proven reform efforts.

Our job in the Senate should be to help the Administration spur innovation and identify and expand what works.  I am working with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, my colleagues, parents, teachers, students and the community to support innovative solutions.

We won't fix schools by spending more money on the same inadequate programs.  But we must commit to funding what works.  And we now have the largest investment in public education in history with which to do it.  The stimulus and the budget are working in tandem to increase access to early childhood education.  States and localities can use these resources to build on efforts to revamp standards and turn around failing schools, reduce high school dropout rates and increase college graduation rates.

We will know we have succeeded when we see not only more students graduating high school, but more of those graduates going on to complete college.  The achievement gap will shrink, and the United States once again will lead in academic achievement.