Education reform needs reform

Mayor Bloomberg of New York has failed in his bid to reform education.

My criteria is what the public thinks.  So now the reforms need reform.  A few years ago New York was the toast of America, closing the "achievement gap" and posting rising test scores.

Then, they changed the test. And boom.

That shows that the impressive results were the magic of teaching to the test.  That means understanding the test format, the time involved, the question format, etc.

But education is supposed to be about the content and comprehension.

Quite simply, we need market place reforms that involve parents are the major decision makers: which school for my child.

As a Democrat, I believe in equal opportunity.  This means giving poorer parents tax money to have more choices for their child.  After that, let parents control the process with their choices.

Worst case scenario, they would be the ones responsible for failure and not "the government".

Best case scenario, schools would respond to what parents want and demand, and the system improves.