The great tragedy of the education debate in America is that most people know at least the basics of how to turn around our urban school systems. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that underperforming teachers will not produce a new generation of rocket scientists. Or that you’re not setting up hard-working teachers for success when you don’t pay them on time or give the kids a functioning air conditioner when it’s 100 degrees inside and they are expected to focus on physics. It’s also no secret that some principals perform brilliantly while others lack the skills to make a school succeed.

Nonetheless, year after year, our schools have been run for the benefit of the adults in the system, not for the benefit of the kids.

Michelle Rhee and Adrian Fenty in the Wall Street Journal on on what they learned while trying to reform D.C.’s failing public schools.