Major Overhaul of U.S. Education System Proposed by High-Powered Panel

Washington

Teachers employed by states rather than districts. Schools no longer run by districts but by independent contractors. Teenagers who take exams at age 16 that permit them to enroll immediately in community or technical colleges. High-quality, early-childhood education made available to all 4-year-olds and all low-income 3-year-olds.

Those are just a few of the proposals for overhauling the U.S. education system contained in a new report, “Tough Choices or Tough Times,” released here today by a prominent panel whose members include state and local superintendents, former governors and mayors, business executives, and prior U.S. secretaries of education and labor.

The report, by the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, comes 16 years after an earlier study that also recommended changes in public education to meet the needs of a global economy. But while the 1990 report, “America’s Choice: High Skills or Low Wages!,” focused on competition from low-skill, low-wage workers around the globe, the new report argues that even highly skilled American workers now must compete against equally skilled, equally well-educated foreigners willing to work for a...