The Obama administration wants more money for No Child Left Behind. Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of
Education agrees, and he also wants to lengthen the school day and the school year. We've had eight years of NCLB, and some attempts at more time in school. But what will more of the same get us? Hard and compelling evidence shows that NCLB has done little to lower our school dropout rate, which has consistently been around the 30% mark nationally for years, and around the 50% mark in big cities. Researchers are calling our schools "dropout facilities." The results of more time in school are also not very promising. And recent evidence shows that even our better suburbans schools are falling behind many nations of the world.

The simple answer to the question is that more of the same will get us more of the same. If that's what we want, then we're spending a lot of money on a very low level success program.

Let me go out on the limb: Our schools CAN be transformed into learning communities that work well for everyone, in all locations. And it can be done at a much lower cost than what we are now throwing away and without spending additional money on experts or new off-the-shelf programs. How? Get rid of the outdated industrial command and control management system and replace it with the highly successful collaborative-democratic management system.

Because I am fully committed to this, I am willing to freely show anyone interested how to initiate the transformation and so much more.