Excerpts from former Gov. Jeb Bush at the Excellence in Action education summit in Washington:

It is a rare and remarkable opportunity when so many people, who span the spectrum of political perspectives, come together to search for solutions to improve the quality of education.

Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton are ``on tour'' to build support for education reform. Who would have ever predicted that duo?!

President Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have shown a strong commitment to improving education. In fact, we agree more than we disagree on the reforms that are needed. And they are putting money behind those reforms with the Race to the Top Program. The administration will award nearly $5 billion in grants to states to build data systems, improve assessments, recruit great teachers and principals, and turn around low performing schools.

All of these are important to our success, but building a data system that collects and stores data is fundamental to continually improving the quality of education. Frankly, if Wal-Mart can track a box of cereal from the manufacturer to the check-out line, schools should be able to track the academic growth of [each] student.

And every year of data that is collected and analyzed helps us make more informed decisions about what's working and what's not, so we can advance the next set of reforms.

The world we live in today is more interconnected, more interdependent and much more technologically advanced than the one we grew up in. The financial crisis of the last year has only underscored that fact. Yet, our school system remains, by and large, the same as when we were students.

Imagine if we started from scratch today to build an education system to meet the needs of the 21st century. In this era of technological innovation, would the school year be based on the agricultural calendar? I doubt it. In this knowledge-based economy, would success be measured by how long students sit at their desk rather than what they learn? I hope not.

In an age of customization, would we settle for a one-size-fits-all model that moves kids from grade to grade based on their age rather than their skill level? Hell no.

To really transform education, we need to embrace the fundamental concept that education should be custom-designed to maximize every child's God-given capacity to learn. We need to allow freedom, innovation and competition to reshape the education system around the goal of ensuring their success.

We would require more math and science because that is what the emerging job markets demand. We would require a second language or maybe even a third because the global demographics are changing and so should we.

We would make a high school diploma mean the student is ready for the rigors of college as well as the challenges of the workplace. And we wouldn't think twice about testing students to make sure they were measuring up to these higher expectations.

How could we possibly do this for 50 million students? We need to harness technology to tailor lessons to each child's learning style and ability. This concept was only a dream a generation ago. Now it can be accomplished.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@