Bloomberg.com: on Education

Mike Bloomberg: Help public schools with deductibility of local taxes

The tax bill [passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump in December 2017] does nothing to address these challenges. In fact, it makes each of them worse.

EDUCATION: The bill, by limiting the deduction for state and local taxes, will make it harder for the localities to raise money for education. The burden will fall heaviest on cities with poor students, making it harder for millions of children to escape from poverty--and leaving more and more businesses with fewer qualified job applicants.

Jeb Bush: Restore schools via standards for teachers instead of tenure

Bush won election in 1998 with a campaign for overhauling education, rewarding high-performing schools with added state funding. It was enacted into law, and is similar to a "No Child Left Behind" law that Pres. Bush pursued in Washington, requiring school testing and holding schools accountable for showing yearly progress.

Only a national commitment to educational progress can reverse a trend in which 1/3 of students drop out of high school, Bush said; "I would suggest to you that high standards is the first step," he said, calling for a national system of common student measurements and teacher evaluations based on professional skills, not union membership or tenure.