Whittle calls the public school system the nation鈥檚 鈥渓ast great cottage industry,鈥� with its thousands of independent districts too small to address the broad steps needed to truly change schooling. To bring the scale and scope of Fortune 500 R&D efforts to bear on reworking the school environment, he envisions local systems partnering with large, Edisonesque private companies. (While supportive of individual charter schools, Whittle argues that they鈥檙e too small to sustain such changes over time.) Big-city systems could emulate Philadelphia, where Edison and several similar companies offer competing models, while smaller districts would likely affiliate with one such provider. Districts, he argues, would retain oversight, but their role would evolve into more of a 鈥渃all center,鈥� addressing specific problems and dismissing private providers should their schools falter.
Given his background, it鈥檚 no shock that Whittle takes a business-centric approach to reform. To those who romanticize education, his recurrent glowing references to the Wal-Marts of the world and the cubicle-like independent study areas that might someday fill schools may seem off-putting. So, too, will his call for teachers to adopt proven standardized practices and step up assessments 鈥渘ot for rules鈥� sake鈥� but because 鈥渁s important as arts and creativity are, science matters, too.鈥�
At the same time, Whittle appears serious about giving educators the resources they鈥檇 need to be successful in a brave new world. That includes the most-talked-about idea in his book: paying teachers as much as $130,000 a year, much of it in performance-linked bonuses, so that the profession 鈥渁ttracts not only those who care but also those who have plenty of other options.鈥� Such largesse, he argues, would be offset by increased independent study at all grade levels that, thanks to the liberal use of student tutors, would require far fewer teachers. (It鈥檚 an idea Whittle once proposed at Edison, only to be lambasted for advocating child labor.)
Money aside, he鈥檚 counting on technology, improved curriculums, and a global influx of for-profit educational providers鈥攂olstered by government funding for R&D efforts鈥攖o make his vision of schools work. 鈥淚f you assume that students can do a lot on their own, that students can manage some of the school, ... and that schools are no longer organized in tiny cottage-industry scale, then school could be a very different place,鈥� he writes.
Could any of this actually happen? In a hypothetical look back from the vantage point of the year 2030, Whittle includes a thinly veiled Edison among his fictional universe of private education players. Franklin Schools, he writes, once 鈥渉ad the schooling category pretty much to itself, and a swagger to match.鈥�
The same could be said of Whittle鈥檚 thinking here, though only time will tell if his predictions live up to his present-day intrepidity.
鈥擬ark Toner
