We believe that getting state policy right can transform the way we educate Connecticut’s children. This does not mean trying to write every best practice into state law, but instead advancing three fundamental, self-reinforcing principles that work together to reward success, punish failure and raise the quality of everything in between:

• Greater Choices. Achievement gaps stem from a calcified education system resistant to the innovations of educators and the desires of parents. Expanded parental choice better aligns school options with diverse student needs and injects a grassroots level of accountability into the system. We believe that all types of public schools—traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools and technical schools—hold the potential to fulfill our obligation as a society to provide an excellent education to all students.

• Greater Accountability. Parental choice provides one important type of accountability, but it is not the only one necessary to ensure educational equality. Over the past twenty years we have made significant strides in developing and implementing state standards and student assessment systems rooted in these standards. Now we need to use the information collected through these systems to dramatically expand public awareness of school performance, ground teacher evaluations in student results, and close chronically failing schools.

• Greater Flexibility. No Child Left Behind increased accountability for America’s superintendents and principals, but it did not provide them with additional flexibility to meet this higher standard for results. In order for greater choices and greater accountability to translate into greater student achievement, America’s educators need to have far greater flexibility in how they run their districts and their schools. This flexibility means expanding alternative pathways to serving as a teacher and principal, providing principals with the ability to make all staffing decisions concerning their schools, and focusing funding on simple formulas tied to student needs without top-down mandates and restrictions.