Improve schools by changing policies

Midge Turner, Las Vegas

Monday, April 4, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.

Regarding J. Patrick Coolican’s Friday column, “Pointed look at why our schools are failing”:

If it is impossible, given the state of Nevada’s economy, to spend more on education, it surely will be disastrous to spend less.

There are ways, though, to improve Nevada’s education without increasing funding: change policies that make it next to impossible to get rid of seriously underperforming teachers; make merit pay for teachers solely based on improved student performance; make administrators and principals accountable for successes and failures in their schools; and reduce, rather than increase, funding for charter schools where records show poor results.