the Evil Line

Paul Tough likes Obama's education plan. Megan McArdle doesn't. The funny thing is, they both offer their own idea of what we should do about education, and they both say the same thing. Here's Tough:

Help persuade teachers to give up some job security in exchange for more pay. Help the school systems get rid of poor-performing teachers—not just a few of them, but a big swath, the whole bottom tier.

And here's McArdle:

Scarsdale knows that if it doesn't keep the schools successful, middle class parents will leave, taking their lavish tax dollars with them. Riverdale, too, knows that it needs to keep parents happy and test scores high. The New York City public school system, on the other hand, mostly has to get butts in seats, because that's how they get their money. It's not that the teachers don't want to teach kids; it's that they don't have to.

I agree with both of them.