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Social Entrepreneurs Offer a Lesson on Education Innovation to Presidential Candidates


In the 8/31/08 edition of the Los Angeles Times, national education entrepreneurs, including our partner Ted Mitchell of NewSchools Venture Fund, laid out the imperative for the next president to support the work of education entrepreneurs in transforming the lives of low-income children. The piece argues for a major expansion of innovation funding and an entrepreneurial mindset in federal education policy. Such expanded efforts—in charter schools, human capital, and tools that improve education—will speed the pace of positive change for systems, for schools, and for children.

Among the calls to action for our next administration are:

1. Expand innovation incentives and free them from the earmarks and conditions that have blunted past initiatives. Adequate incentives, coupled with rigorous accountability, would remedy this.

2. Use influence over state and local policy to sweep away regulations that hamper innovative thinking, such as caps on the number of public charter schools allowed and excessive restrictions on how teachers are trained and credentialed.

3. Continue the strong push of two efforts already underway. One is the move toward a common set of standards for what students should be expected to know and be able to do. Then, to make shared standards work, a national data infrastructure must be built to assess educational progress.

This op-ed also featured the outstanding work of other Commongood Careers partners such as KIPP, Teach for America, and New Leaders for New Schools.

Read the full article.

In the News, Innovations in Education, Social Entrepreneurism

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