Across the United States, and certainly here in Mecklenburg County, there's general agreement that our system of public education is not adequately preparing all of our students to lead productive lives. Unfortunately, while we acknowledge poor performance outcomes, we can't seem to reach a consensus that addresses the root causes, or even agree about what those root causes might be.

Despite our best intentions and genuine concern for the future, we have implemented and recycled an endless series of marginal reforms that have succeeded mainly in evaporating our patience, eroding our trust in each other and poisoning our discourse. We've reached the point where we expect failure and cynically deny the chance for success. And it infects the younger generation.

We are better than this.

I am encouraged by Superintendent Peter Gorman's strategy to reconstitute our struggling high schools, and I eagerly await the announcement of his 100-day plan. I believe Dr. Gorman brings a spirit of hope balanced by an emphasis on accountability that can foster substantive change over time. But we shouldn't expect him to be a magician, or his plan to be a miracle potion.

The success of any plan will be measured, at least in part, by statistical improvement on standardized tests. But with a myriad of tests based on questionable standards of mastery, and reports that address every conceivable factor, the useful information tends to get buried amidst endless reams of data. And to be honest, it is hard to get excited about percentage points.

Therefore I propose a more simple, yet comprehensive goal for CMS and Mecklenburg County: Every student in our schools will read at an age-appropriate level by Christmas 2008.

Reading is the gateway to learning and opportunity in life. It is the great equalizer that will do more for equity and diversity in our community than will any program based on socialization. More than public buildings and infrastructure, a high literacy rate is the mark of a truly "world-class city."

On an operational level, students who read well are more likely to be involved in the classroom, more likely to do homework and more likely to see hope for breaking out of generational poverty, all of which can promote better behavior in our schools and neighborhoods. And isn't it time that we conceded that scores on end-of-course tests will never improve if a number of students can't read the test questions?

This is a bit of a nutty goal, out of step with conventional thinking about AYPs and all of the other alphabet measurements that litter the landscape. But we can do this -- and it can transform our community.

Teaching every student to read will take everyone's personal hands-on involvement far beyond the schoolhouse door. It will require loving our neighbors as ourselves, while expanding our understanding of who that neighbor is. It will require patience, endurance, teamwork and willingness to reach beyond the old paradigm where "volunteer" means "someone besides me." Meaningful, urgent reform is not a spectator sport.

To paraphrase the late professor Wallace Sayre, "The politics of education are so intense because the stakes are so low." I see this lofty goal as an opportunity to raise the stakes. I'm going to be a big noise about this, and I hope you'll join with me to provide our community with an enduring Christmas gift two years from now.