Yesterday the University of Colorado at Denver’s School of Public Affairs — along with the Piton Foundation, Donnell-Kay Foundation, and my own Independence Institute — co-hosted a conference centered around the theme of school district “portfolio management”. The event featured an array of presenters and respondents, none more prominent than the two national “rock stars” — CRPE’s Dr. Paul Hill and NACSA’s Greg Richmond.

I’m not even going to feign claims of understanding all the ins and outs of the issue, nor do I plan anytime soon to play a portfolio management expert on TV. But I did find some of yesterday’s conversation thought-provoking. Denver Public Schools clearly has taken some steps toward this new model of:

• Less hands-on school board governance
• Performance-based accountability
• Proactive effort to provide a menu of schools to meet the community’s diverse educational needs and demands
• Equitable treatment of traditional, charter, contract, and other innovative schools

But more than one person asked how to apply the portfolio management model to other districts: small and medium, suburban and rural. Though as far as I can tell it’s not a question that’s been researched in depth, Dr. Hill especially offered some thoughtful, constructive answers.

It’s clear that the political will is lacking to implement such a change outside the urban centers because a sense of crisis has not been reached. All too true of many reform efforts. With the economy still slumping and tax revenues restricting growth in government budgets, the approaching crisis may be in taxpayer confidence.

Robert Reichardt raised a significant question on the closing panel: Essentially, how should school governance look so communities feel like tax dollars are well spent? He and I agree the answer there lies in genuine and useful across-the-board transparency — a vast improvement from today’s compliance-oriented administrative system.

Now yes, it’s going to take more than reworking the existing role of local school boards to effect successful reform. Expanding the supply of quality instruction — both through personnel and technology — is vital. So is making funding less restrictive and more student-based.

Yet while we’re having those debates, a creeping crisis of confidence may demand (in more districts and communities than we think) that public education would be served better by a portfolio-based system than the existing bureaucracy. What levers of state policy can be used to help spread the bold vision of a more nimble education system, and put it into practice?

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