The Hoover Institution at Stanford University has always seemed to me a conservative think tank, dominated by a 285-foot tower honoring a one-term president who was born in 1874. Students are drawn to Stanford not by Hoover but by the university’s involvement in the thrilling innovations of the 21st century.
The Hoover Institution scholars who research education, however, impress me. I can’t call them conservative. That adjective doesn’t apply to arguments over schools. They are unconventional thinkers, and sometimes troublemakers, as is apparent from an education policy analysis they just released.
Their paper, “The Unavoidable: Tomorrow’s Teacher Compensation,” paints the clearest picture I have seen of U.S. schools’ troubles and offers radical solutions. They want, for instance, to take some of the money going to teacher retirement funds and use it to raise salaries, particularly for the best teachers.
...