New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman—purveyor of the “The World Is Flat” trope—bemoans the current indicators of the state of U.S. schools and praises U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s efforts to introduce performance pay and increased competition into the teaching profession. Duncan’s view, Friedman argues, “is not anti-teacher. It’s taking the profession much more seriously and elevating it to where should be.”
But he also notes that the burden shouldn’t only be on teachers: “The more we demand from teachers the more we have to demand from students and parents,” he writes.