For more, see Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom.

Cato did a very good job here of communicating research results in a quick and digestible way that appeals to those with either visuals or auditory learning modalities.

School reformers generally agree that the most important education resource is the teacher. But one of the biggest obstacles to putting a good instructor in every classroom is a tenure system that forces principals to hire and retain teachers based on seniority instead of performance.

California grants tenure to teachers after merely two years in the classroom. New York, like most other states, makes teachers wait a grand total of three years before giving them a job for life. In most cases tenure is granted automatically unless administrators object, which is rare.

A recent report in the Los Angeles Times revealed that the LA school district, the nation’s second-largest after New York City’s, “routinely grants tenure to new teachers after cursory reviews—and sometimes none at all.” According to the Times, “the district’s evaluation of teachers does not take into account whether students are learning. Principals are not required to consider testing data, student work or grades.”

Read the rest: No (Tenured) Teacher Left Behind.

For suggestion on more choice, quality, and competition in education, see the Cato Institute’s school choice page.  This includes James Tooley‘s research on how parents in impoverished countries are forgoing “free” government-run education for schools that charge $1 per week.  John Stossel reports:

See the rest of John Stossel’s recent show on education.

Here’s a longer video about private schools in slums around the world out-performing government-run schools:

http://www.cato.org/jwmediaplayer44/player.swf

The president isn’t a benevolent father-protector, charged with the welfare of all creatures great and small — and educators do kids a great disservice if they help promote such a childish notion. Still less was he supposed to be the educator in chief, presiding over a centralized education bureaucracy, handing out Title X grants (with strings attached) and falsely promising that no child will be left behind. The framers thought of the president as a mere constitutional officer, whose main job is taking care that the laws are faithfully executed. Students — and presidents — could stand to learn a lot more about how far we’ve drifted from that ideal.

Read his whole op-ed, Hey, Mr. President, Leave Those Kids Alone, and check out more criticism side-by-side with Obama’s speech to kids in school.