09:37 AM EDT on Monday, May 2, 2005

WHEN IT COMES TO PUBLIC EDUCATION in Rhode Island, the moment of truth has arrived.

For years, the taxpayers of the state have been among the most generous in America. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, our overall per-student spending was the ninth-highest in the country in 2001-02.

Our per-student spending just on teachers' compensation is now the highest in the nation -- about 9 percent higher than the national average. Rhode Island's average teacher salary, as a percentage of its average private-sector worker's salary, is the highest in the country, and has been since at least 1990.

Not only do we pay our teachers very well, but we also hire a lot of them. Our average elementary-school class size is the 19th best in America, and our secondary-class size is the 9th best. And we have a higher percentage of students in special education than any other state.

Moreover, all this spending is allocated relatively equally between communities. According to the Education Trust, in 2002 Rhode Island's extra spending on students living below the poverty line was the seventh-highest in the country. For example, in that year average per-student spending on students not in special education was $6,831 in Barrington, but $7,677 in Providence.

Unfortunately, this impressive overall level of spending in Rhode Island has not produced equally impressive results. On the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) tests (the only ones taken by students in every state), Rhode Island eighth graders ranked 34th in reading and 36th in math.

Some try to claim that our scores are low because we have a relatively higher proportion of poor people than other states. (Why this is the case is also an interesting question, but one the people making this argument usually don't want to discuss.)

Two studies have analyzed this issue, and adjusted state NAEP scores for differences in demographic variables (see "Improving Student Achievement: What State NAEP Test Scores Tell Us," by the RAND Corporation, and "The Teachability Index" by the Manhattan Institute). On this basis, both found that Rhode Island's scores ranked even lower (44th or 45th).

And it is not just students from poor families who underperform. Another set of data, from the National Center for Educational Statistics, showed that the 2003 NAEP math scores for Rhode Island 8th graders with at least one parent who graduated from college ranked only 37th in the country.

If lack of spending isn't the cause of Rhode Island's poor performance, what is? Common sense tells you that in the absence of challenging standards, testing and accountability, few organizations get top performance from their people.

Plenty of studies have found that schools are no exception to this rule. Unsurprisingly, other studies have found that Rhode Island ranks poorly in this area.

In January 2004, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation released a report that compared the states' educational standards, testing, and accountability policies. Their assessment was blunt: "No two ways about it: When it comes to standards-based accountability, Rhode Island is pretty much a mess." More recently, Education Week published a study that ranked Rhode Island 42nd on its standards and accountability policies.

Common sense also tells you that standards, testing and accountability policies should apply to teachers, too, just as they do to other professionals. Another Education Week study ranked Rhode Island's efforts to improve teacher quality 37th in the nation.

As I said, Rhode Island taxpayers and parents are fed up with this situation. Our total state and local tax burden is the fifth highest in the nation, and what do we get for it? In short, the moment of truth has finally arrived for Rhode Island's teachers.

Once and for all, they have to decide whether they really want to be professionals, in the true meaning of that term. Professionals do not refuse to have their performance evaluated, to be paid on merit, and to force incompetents out of their profession. Nor do professionals refuse to experiment with promising new techniques that have demonstrated the potential to improve Rhode Island's dismal educational results. How would you react if your child had a terminal disease, but your doctor said that she couldn't use a promising new drug because her union was against it?

So what can we do?

The Education Partnership, a coalition of businesses trying to improve Rhode Island's public schools, has just answered this question. It has produced an outstanding report, "Teacher Contracts: Restoring the Balance" (available at www.edpartnership.org). It is filled with sensible recommendations that seem very likely to save money while improving performance (e.g., a single statewide teacher health-insurance plan and salary scale, merit pay, and more management rights for principals).

As citizens, we need to read and discuss it, and urge our school committees, state senators and state representatives to implement its recommendations. As a first step, why not call the Education Partnership at (401) 331-5222 and have a representative come speak to your group?

Whatever you do, please don't just sit there and complain. We now live in an integrated world economy in which over half a billion well-educated Chinese and Indian children will do whatever it takes to improve their standards of living in the future.

If Rhode Island's teachers unions continue to block common-sense changes that could improve the performance of our schools, they are effectively condemning our children to declining living standards in the years ahead -- and declining incomes (out of which we expect them to pay for our rising Social Security benefits).

I don't want to face my children 20 years from now and have to explain why I stood by and did nothing to change a situation I could see was going to cause them great harm. The time for us to act is now.

Tom Coyne is co-founder of www.ripolicyanalysis.org.