Eva Moskowitz speech

Eva Moskowitz gave an AMAZING speech at a breakfast panel this morning (the other speakers were NYC Chancellor of Education Joel Klein and amazing educational philanthropist Eli Broad).  She is one of the most powerful, articulate, passionate voices for genuine reform of public K-12 education in America, and she didn't pull any punches, letting the business community (which was most of the audience) and the teachers union (which had a table up front) have it.

We have to stop just tinkering. A fundamental level of innovation is the only prayer we have. The Chancellor could announce a new public private partnership every day and it will not move the needle more than a hair’s breadth. We don’t have twenty years to solve this problem. We have to merely stop hand wringing or cheering success at the margins. The business community - in all its might - must focus its energies on structural reform. Dire circumstances require dramatic actions.

-----------------------

Eva Moskowitz Remarks at Crain’s Breakfast

November 18, 2005

Thank you Crain’s, NYC Partnership for inviting me.

I also want to thank Eli Broad for his tremendous contribution nationally to education reform. There are few who are as strategic or as generous in their use of funds.

I also want to thank Chancellor Klein. His courage to think boldly and his stomach for getting up every morning and facing down the obstacles to educational reform require our deep appreciation. Finally, I want to thank you the business community. Your passion, your faith that NYC can do better for its children is essential to any reform effort and I applaud you for that.

Let me now turn to where we are and what I think we need to do to improve our city’s public schools. I come to these conclusions based on personal experience-I am both a graduate of the NYC school system and a public school parent myself. I am a former teacher and come from a family of teachers-my husband taught life science in our public schools. I also have spent the last seven years watching the school system closely as a Council Member, the past four as chair of the Education Committee. I’ve held over 100 hearings on instructional and operational topics ranging from math instruction to arts education to transportation to the lack of toilet paper in public school bathrooms. I’ve visited hundreds of schools and attended dozens of PTA meetings every month.

So here’s what I think we need to do:

First, we need to be honest. Honest about the magnitude and nature of the problem. In America, we have 15 million illiterate children. Half of all black and Latino children are illiterate. But while the social injustice of these stats is unbelievably compelling, make no mistake, this is not just a problem that afflicts the poor. Our highest achieving students are performing poorly. In science and math, nationally the US ranks 23 out of 29 industrialized countries. Here in NYC only 7 percent of our children take the physics Regents, and more than half fail it. We cannot compete in the global economy unless we have more children mastering the hard sciences. India and China will surely eat our lunch if they haven’t already.

Second, I don’t know how to say this delicately so I will say it bluntly.

You - the business community -- are a big part of the problem. While you have tutored, done principal for a day, funded educational programs, adopted schools-all of which are truly worthwhile endeavors- there is one area in which you have dramatically failed. You have failed to declare ware on the monopoly of public education and you have failed to explain to the public the benefits of competition. Your silence is inexcusable. Presumably, the market has made you wealthy and you understand why a competitive free market system works best to meet consumer needs. Why would you not share that knowledge with your fellow citizens?

Every other sector of American society has had to proceed under the terms of market forces. Heck, even the US Postal Service is no longer a monopoly. The presence of FedEx has made the US postal system better. Do we really expect the monopoly of public education to be customer oriented, find productivity savings, to innovate? We should not.

We must recognize that Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein are not going to solve our educational problems. I know we like them. Hey, I endorsed them. But knights in shining armor cannot get us out of the educational quagmire. The problem with the Soviet Union was not its citizenry, was not its employees, was not even its leaders. The problem was the system was inherently flawed. So, too, is an educational monopoly.

To be sure, forcefully embracing competition and educational entrepreneurship is unpleasant. It requires taking sides. This is not a genteel battle. And you will most likely lose initial skirmishes. I know from personal experience. The forces against competition are playing to win and they are much better at fighting reform than educating children.

What does this mean concretely? I’ll give you four examples:

First, you must take it upon yourself to make sure that the charter school cap is lifted. This is the single most direct route to increasing competition and improving the school system. The original charter school legislation came about in part because two businessmen in this City gave a total of $50,000 to legislators who supported this legislation. That was probably about the best spent $50,000 in the history of school reform.

Second, the only entities involved in teacher preparation are schools of education - with tepid results. Start the competition.

Third, you need to be on the front lines in the fight for transparency. I’m sure in your own business you are constantly using data about your own company as well as finding out about your competition. The school system is not using data to drive internal quality control or improvement. And their data won’t be made public without strong and consistent pressure.

Fourth, you must familiarize yourself with the collective bargaining agreements and ask yourself whether or not they promote teaching and learning. To help you, I am providing you with Cliff Notes of these voluminous documents. The first thing you will discover is that teachers are underpaid. The second thing you will discover is that you would never accept these inflexible provisions in your own company. You must not apply a double standard.

We have to stop just tinkering. A fundamental level of innovation is the only prayer we have. The Chancellor could announce a new public private partnership every day and it will not move the needle more than a hair’s breadth. We don’t have twenty years to solve this problem. We have to merely stop hand wringing or cheering success at the margins. The business community - in all its might - must focus its energies on structural reform. Dire circumstances require dramatic actions.