Canada and schools

While we're talking about Canada, here's another relevant story: Governor Pawlenty went to Edmonton to take a look at the schools there. Here are a couple of stories about what is going on there.

I see some good and bad things in Edmonton schools. Good things: local control over budgeting and teacher placement. Bad things: funding of religious schools. The second article also takes a look at a couple of Pawlenty's ideas, namely merit pay for teachers and reducing hurdles for people interested in becoming teachers. Apparently, these have been tried in Edmonton and don't work. Let's hope that Pawlenty learns from this.

I think changes need to be made in public schools, and that teachers are going to have to compromise on issues like seniority and the steps-and-lanes pay method. But it's not a good idea to try things at random in the name of politics, especially things that have already failed.