One of the sad truths about public education is that it needs money to thrive, and there never seems to be quite enough to go around. There are too many wars to fight, too many people to incarcerate for non-violent drug-related offenses, and too few elected officials with the courage to raise taxes. But while education is certainly underfunded, I think it would be a mistake to say that this is the only problem with American education. Real reform is needed, and this must go beyond financial investment.

First, states that do not value public education must nevertheless commit to funding it in a predictable and consistent manner. We hear that we must extend the Bush tax cuts to reduce the uncertainty faced by massive corporations. Fine. How about applying the same approach to our nation's schools?

Schools have so little money with which to work in the first place that fluctuating state budgets wreak havoc on the system and make real reform virtually impossible. Again, more money is not going to be sufficient. However, it will be necessary, and we must set up a system of predictability. In short, we need a system where the funding for public education will be assured regardless of economic fluctuations.

Second, meaningful reform must involve reshaping education so that it is about more than just memorizing facts. Educators must work to help students learn how to think critically. Sadly, this is not even happening to the degree it should at our public universities. It needs to start earlier and be given higher priority.

A well educated student must be more than someone who has earned good grades. He or she must be able to think on his or her feet and cope well with a variety of problems. We need to make sure that we are preparing students for an uncertain future where we cannot possibly anticipate all the demands. Instead of trying to teach them as much information as we can cram into their heads, we needs to focus on helping them function more effectively in a variety of fields, many of which may not even exist yet.

Third, we must implement and adhere to a viable system of accountability. By localizing most of our educational decisions, we have all but ensured inequality. We need national curriculum standards to make sure that locally-sanctioned garbage is not being taught in our schools. We need to reward excellent teachers and work to eliminate poor ones. We also need to protect the good ones from crazy parents. And like it or not, we need to hold students accountable too.

The issue of student accountability may be the most provocative issue of all because it involves grading based on how a student performs. All students should have equal access to quality education, but this in no way suggests that they should perform the same. They won't. Some will fail. They should receive failing grades and all the consequences that come with them. Coddling our children by emphasizing their self-esteem and shielding them from the natural consequences of their behavior has been a disaster. We have ended up with seniors in college who cannot write a one-page paper in which they clearly express themselves. This is not acceptable.

Student accountability must begin early in the educational process. Teachers cannot be permitted to pass poorly performing students along merely because they are tired of dealing with them. At the same time, teachers should not be punished because some of their students perform poorly. We must all get our heads out of the clouds and accept the fact that many students are not going to succeed in school. Perhaps they can be successful in other areas, and we just might do them a great service by helping them find these other areas.

Lastly, educational reform can and should be politically bipartisan. At the same time, the guiding principle must be one of efficacy (i.e., what works) rather than compromise for the sake of compromise. Progressives have some great ideas and are right to demand adequate funding for public education. However, we often miss the boat when it comes to the importance of accountability. Conservatives can and should be able to make valuable contributions here. Just because No Child Left Behind was a disaster does not mean that some of the ideas behind it were not worthwhile.

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