April 20, 2003

BFP Correct About Education Quality

High academic standards, thorough testing and school choice are the tools needed to improve our education system in VT. The quality component has received a great deal of quiet attention for a number of years in Vermont and the academic standards have been defined around the question " What Every Child Should Know and Be Able To Do." Our content standards (Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities) are the result of a great deal of hard work by many teachers and others seriously interested in education. Now the accountability tools need to mature to support these standards: continuous, thorough testing and school choice.

Yet the cost side of the education must be constrained because we simply cannot afford the spiraling education costs even if all the quality goals were met . These are not incompatible choices.

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