Too often lost amid rhetoric about education reform is this simple fact: education is about one thing only—our children. If America's public education system—the pillar of our democracy—is to be revitalized, it must be refocused exclusively on the well-being of all students. While appropriately ambitious, the following ten-point agenda for education reform is realistic, achievable, and absolutely essential. It puts children first in education policy by insisting that America:

1. Operate from the premise that all children can learn and perform at high levels — and thus focus every action in our education system from school board decisions down to teaching in the classroom on helping all children perform at high levels.
   
2. Ensure that every child enters school ready to learn and ready to succeed — and that requires access to safe, nurturing, quality early child development experiences and pre-school education opportunities.
   
3. Set measurable and appropriate standards for success — and hold everyone—administrators, teachers, parents, and students, in that order—accountable for whether those standards are met.
   
4. Empower teachers and principals to make as many key education decisions as possible — reduce the size of educational bureaucracies and change their role from one of direction to one of support, because decisions made at the level closest to the students will best meet their needs.
   
5. Invest in quality teaching — by ensuring lifelong training and retraining, and by compensating teachers commensurate with their ability and essential role in our society.
   
6. Provide every child state-of-the-art tools — ranging from up-to-date textbooks (many schools districts still don't have enough) to Internet access.
   
7. Provide sufficient resources to make all of the above a reality — but use those resources wisely and efficiently.
   
8. Involve the entire community in this cause, ensuring that students receive the support and services they need to succeed in school — that requires a coordinated effort by health care providers, police, social service agencies, neighborhood groups, congregations, and the full range of voluntary organizations that work with children.
   
9. Engage the public in the school reform debate — only with full participation by those who elect education decision makers and pay taxes can child-centered reform succeed.
   
10. Address every one of the above elements now — In its entirety, this agenda will succeed. Addressed in pieces, it will not.

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