Hugh Bailey: It can work, if we're willing to try it - Connecticut Post: "Leading reformers have a choice. They could plant their flag on a complete overhaul, integrating districts and ending a system where town lines determine the quality of education. Years of evidence in Raleigh, N.C., for example, show the gains that can be achieved by poor children at no expense to the better-off in districts based on counties, not cities. A recent report by the Brookings Institution of more than 51,000 schools nationwide is the latest sign of the benefits of socioeconomic integration.
That kind of plan would be politically explosive, but so would any real solution to a deep-seated problem. Combine districts between poor cities and rich suburbs and convince the suburbanites that it's in everyone's best interest to improve inner-city education -- because it is. Instead, we get reform on the cheap, with all the disruption focused on the districts with the most trouble.
People would complain. Let them. Tell them why they're wrong. Convince them.
It might take years. This could be what reformers dedicate their time and effort toward, rather than picking fight after fight with teachers and their unions."
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