[summer]

IMHO, removing them from government control would do the trick.

Well, I am NOT conviniced that this is the answer, because I have seen, up close, what happens when education becomes a business, as in private schools: for teachers, everything gets worse, in terms of salary and benefits.

Private school have two distinct advantages: (1) they do not have to take every students; and (2) they get rid of students very quickly.

Here is a joke told amongst public school teachers: Yes, we can immediately improve test scores, if you let us do what private schools do -- we pick and choose which students we take into our school.

[Principled]

Here is a joke told amongst public school teachers: Yes, we can immediately improve test scores, if you let us do what private schools do -- we pick and choose which students we take into our school.

It's not a joke. It's part of what must happen if public education is to survive without becoming even more of a joke.