The average American school spends 10,000 a year per student, where does this money go? Much of it goes to the wonderful facilities we’ve come to expect, administrators and finally teaching staff. We throw all of this money at education and our children still fall short compared to their peers around the world. By the way, their peers around the world don’t have the benefit of the same technology, facilities or funds.

What if we started a new model for our schools? Let’s start a pilot in one MPS elementary, middle and high school; it would look something like this.

1. Raise the bar on the curriculum standards. We need to evaluate the curriculum against the world not our neighbors in the Midwest. Raise the bar and students will rise to the occasion.

2. Skinny down the administration. Effectively give this school financial autonomy from the MPS board. They will have their own budget, simple classrooms and obviously skilled and motivated teachers.

3. This is the big one. Tie the money to the student and disperse it to the educators based on the success of that student.

It’s not about technology, facilities and realistically even about money, it’s about challenging students to learn. We've made this "problem" far more complicated than it should be. Let's strip away the fluff, pay our teachers and raise the bar for our children.