In today’s San Francisco Chronicle, Eric Hanushek and Alfred Lindseth, authors of the new books SCHOOLHOUSES, COURTHOUSES, AND STATEHOUSES, discuss what’s really ailing California public schools, and a new way to think about funding.

Here is a sample of their article:

“The state could decentralize decision-making by stepping back from the myriad prescriptive regulations and by removing the strings on funding. This approach would ensure that money could be spent more productively. For example, the state could use existing stimulus funds to offer early retirement to expensive older teachers, thus reducing the wage bill when the stimulus funds disappear. It could also set up bonus pools for teachers who demonstrate that they are highly effective in the classroom. It could develop its data and analytical capacity so that it had some chance of ending ineffective programs and keeping effective ones. At the same time it could include student performance information in evaluating (and paying) teachers.

These are things that cost little or nothing but that hold some promise of improving the system. They are issues in other states also, but perhaps nowhere are the needs greater for improving the system – as opposed to just balancing the budget. What it takes is a commitment to improving student achievement as opposed to maintaining the ineffective system.”

Read the entire op-ed here.