Graduation at Sixteen

Every presidential candidate has a plan to fix our schools. Republicans say we need more standards and accountability. Democrats want to pay teachers more. The only thing the two sides have in common regarding education is they're both wrong. The reason why presidential candidates don't offer true solutions to our education crisis is because they lack the courage to be honest with the American public, or the teachers unions. Instead, they just repeat the same old myths about education and offer solutions that mask the real problems. Unless we expose these myths and face the truth, we will keep failing our children.

Myth 1: We need more testing.

No Child Left Behind mandates testing so "failing schools" can be identified and punished. Many politicians point to rising test scores and call that program a success. Of course scores will rise when teachers are forced to teach-to-the-test and dedicate their math and reading courses to teaching test-taking skills.

Principals constantly prep students for the tests by cutting not only art, gym, and music but also history and science. No wonder children are bored with school. We are shaping them into good test-takers — a bunch of pleasers who lack entrepreneurial instinct and creative passion. People complain all the time that children today spend too much time playing video games and not enough playing sports. We fear our children are becoming fat, soft, effete couch potatoes. Well, playing video games is just an extension of what our education system values: Acquire a set of skills that allow you to perform a rote task so you can get the highest score.

Myth 2: Teacher salaries should be based on tenure not performance.

We all know that money is a primary motivator. The other Democratic presidential candidates, however, adamantly resist rewarding great teachers with extra pay because they fear the teachers unions. Why should teachers with energy, excitement, and talent be paid the same as the ones who don't make an effort? What other profession in America protects the mediocre at the expense of the excellent?

Myth 3: Teachers and students need summer vacation.

Japanese students spend 240 days in the classroom. Most European countries mandate 220 days. But our students spend 180 days on average. It's no mystery why foreign students consistently beat ours in head-to-head academic competitions. We need to stop coddling our children and our teachers with extended summer vacations.

Myth 4: School vouchers violate the First Amendment.

It's ironic that politicians who claim their "faith beliefs" prevent them from supporting gay marriage also oppose school vouchers on the grounds of the separation between church and state. Let's be real — they don't want to upset the teachers unions.

Of course we need to devote more resources to fix our public schools, and I believe with the right political leadership we can. But, in the meantime, we should help out low-income parents who want to send their children to private schools. Why should poor children suffer from the incompetence of our political and educational leaders?

Myth 5: What worked in the past will work today.

Children are different than they were 30 years ago. They reach puberty much earlier and they're exposed to a lot early on that it doesn't make sense to maintain the traditional 12-year academic track. We need to start schooling children earlier and getting them into the workforce sooner. Parents should have the option of entering two-year-olds into school programs that offer reading instruction. Starting at 10 years old, students should remain in school until 5 o'clock with mandatory extracurricular activities and supervised individual study.

High school should start at 13 years and end at 16. All college-bound poor students should be given tuition assistance. Those who don't want to attend college should receive publicly funded technical training. Tax breaks should be given to companies that hire and train teenagers to perform technology-based jobs. The right way to fight outsourcing is not by erecting trade barriers but by preparing our youth to compete.

Thirty percent of our students drop out before they get their high school diploma. Half of all African-American dropouts wind up in prison. We not only waste money failing to educate millions of young people, we spend even more money locking many of them up. Let's redirect our funds to empower our young people to become productive, wage-earning, tax-paying members of society.

Myth 6: More money is the solution.

Money can solve some problems but only if it's spent on smart solutions. We waste millions of dollars feeding educational bureaucracies that churn out curriculum plans that never get implemented. We fund teacher education schools that push abstract theories which flop when they hit the reality of the classroom.

People who want to be teachers should skip education school and become teaching assistants. While working under the supervision of a teacher, they will learn what does and does not work. Teaching, like most professions, has to be learned on the job.

So why don't presidential candidates talk honestly about education? First, politicians are scared that if they say the wrong thing, they will be accused of "not supporting our children" or some such nonsense. Second, education policy is hard to reduce to a sound bite. Republicans have a good mantra — "standards and accountability." But when campaign slogans become governmental policies, they always fail. Finally, most presidential candidates don't care enough about education reform to risk political capital on it.

But out on the campaign trail, I've found voters are tired of being treated like children by politicians and the press. They yearn for genuine debates about real issues. I hope that sometime soon a debate moderator will force my colleagues and I to explain in detail our views on education. Only through honest discussion, can we make real, meaningful change.

Mr. Gravel was senator of Alaska between 1969 and 1981.