Bill Clinton on how to save the public schools.

• Position: Excerpt from Pres. Clinton's speech on public education reform

In the March issue, we ran a story on the peril of the country's public schools that began by noting that the nation's leaders have consistently failed to make education a top priority. The piece specifically criticized President Clinton who, with his daughter safely enrolled in the private Sidwell Friends School, has "kept us waiting" on public education.

Since then, the President has risen in the polls and, newly confident, begun to consider what he might do in a second term. According to a report by Matthew Cooper in The New Republic, the point man for developing that vision is domestic policy advisor Bruce Reed. And Reed's most recent major project, with speech writer Michael Waldman, was Clinton's address before the education conference of governors and business leaders in Palisades, New York, on March 27.

Whatever text Waldman and Reed prepared, this speech was clearly the President's own. He referred back to various panels at the summit and to his own considerable experience in Arkansas. He showed not just that he is familiar with schools, but that he understands them. In the course of 35 minutes, he laid out a reform plan that was intelligent, comprehensive, and politically courageous.

If you're scratching your head wondering what speech we're referring to, that's because you didn't catch it on C-Span and depended on journalists to report it to you. All but a few of the major papers neglected to mention what was truly significant in the speech--Clinton's call to reduce the bureaucracy, recruit good principals and hold them accountable, and improve the ranks of teachers. Regarding this last measure, a favorite of reformers like us, the President endorsed "alternative certification"--allowing able people with knowledge of the subject to teach without going through education schools--and merit pay for teachers. Stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times omitted these issues entirely. Time and Newsweek didn't cover the speech at all.

Had they been paying attention--or known what to listen for--the reporters in Palisades would have also heard Clinton take on a core Democratic constituency. After praising teachers and pointing out that good ones are the key to successful schools, Clinton said that the process of removing teachers who are burned out or not performing up to standard ... has to be much faster and far less costly than it is." In essence, Clinton was calling for bad teachers to be fired. this is anathema to the teachers' unions--who seem to believe their job is to protect the marginals and incompetents, not the vast majority of teachers who are hardworking and effective. But Clinton is right on target. He is also right to want to include teachers' unions--and, of...