Cleveland spends about $14,000 per student. But the public schools still suck. Only 12 percent are rated by the state as "excellent." More than a third are classified as emergencies. And another third is on "watch" status. The failure of the schools correlates very powerfully with the poverty, violence, and general degradation of the city itself. And that's a representative pattern in cities across the country.

So what is to be done? Plenty--as long as autonomy, accountability, and innovation are the anchors. It's happening already. But not in a widespread way, because that doesn't suit the teachers' unions.

Watch and learn.