Three cheers for Nick Kristof and that AMAZING NYT Op Ed!

For inspiration, presidential candidates might look at this bold three-part plan for improving American schools:

• End requirements for teacher certification.

• Make tenure more difficult to get so weak teachers can be weeded out after two or three years on the job.

• Award $15,000 annual bonuses to good teachers for as long as they teach at schools in low-income areas...

School reform could also play a major role in fighting poverty and spreading opportunity. One sound proposal is to pay substantial bonuses to get the most effective teachers into schools with low-income students. It’s simply unfair for America’s neediest students to be continually assigned to the weakest teachers, perhaps consigning them to another generation of poverty. Higher pay will help recruit and retain excellent teachers.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans have offered much leadership on education. Democrats have been too close to teachers’ unions to rock the boat, and Republicans don’t invest in education — so Mr. Bush’s No Child Left Behind effort has ended up as an underfinanced mess.

What we need now is for a presidential candidate to seize these ideas and run with them. Any takers?