Today marks the first sitting of Governor Pataki’s Committee on Education Reform at Manhattan. The meeting, which is likely to be a short organizational one, could mark the first step on the journey to true education reform in New York City. As the commission gets on its way, decisions will have to be made from the outset regarding the extent to which it will follow the road map Mr. Pataki drew up when he brought together the former chairman of Nasdaq, Frank Zarb, and 15 other commissioners, including New York’s secretary of state, Randy Daniels. At the time of the announcement last month, Mr. Pataki said the commission would be charged with studying and making comprehensive recommendation regarding a number of issues.

Ascertaining the cost of providing all children the opportunity to acquire a sound basic education. As these columns have pointed out before, the Court of Appeals mandated in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. The State of New York that “The State need only ascertain the actual cost of providing a sound basic education in New York City.” Nowhere did the court order that New York has to deal with the highest bidder: the United Federation of Teachers-controlled Tweed Trust. Going with the monopoly system costs about $11,300 for each student. But if one were to shop around they would find that charter schools do the job better for roughly two-thirds the cost.

Furthermore, those who have followed the voucher debate, especially those familiar with the city’s Catholic school system, know how much less expensive and more effective these options can be than the public school monopoly. As a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of New York, Nora Murphy, laid out for The New York Sun in December, New York’s Catholic schools spend an average of $3,200 a pupil for kindergarten through eighth grade, and they spend an average of $5,800 a pupil for high schoolers. Their schools are famous for the soundness of their basic education. They easily beat the city’s public schools, where two-thirds of eighth-graders can’t pass a state math test.

Reforms to state and local laws, rules, regulations, collective bargaining agreements, policies, and practices. This is another broad mandate from the governor, aimed at fundamental problems in the state’s education system. A number of laws, rules, regulations, collective bargaining agreements, policies and practices jump to mind. First, how about revisiting the Blaine Amendment, which blights our state’s constitution. A relic of our nation’s anti-Catholic past, when citizens were panicked about state money funding Roman Catholic schools, the amendment serves as an impediment to a serious voucher movement in the state by stating: “Neither the state nor any subdivision thereof, shall use its property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination or inspection, of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught.” Theisis harsher stuff than the federal Constitution’s Establishment Clause, and may yet be found in conflict with the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

New York could also do well to get rid of the Wicks Law, which requires a burdensome bidding process before awarding government construction contracts. Competitive bidding is not something to be discarded, but the law is so unworkable that, for example, local government officials in New York City are stuck dealing with the School Construction Authority (which, because it is a government agency, doesn’t trigger the Wicks Law) while outside contractors could build schools for less.

New York City is of course also hampered by its collective bargaining agreement with the UFT. The situation is so bad that education expert Sol Stern, author of “Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice,” dubbed the UFT agreement the “we-don’t-do-windows” contract. Among the things teachers can’t be asked to do under the contract: walk children to a school bus, patrol the lunchrooms or the hallways or the yards, cover extra classes in an emergency, come in more than one day before classes begin at the start of the year, attend more than one staff meeting a month, and attend a staff meeting during lunch. The contract also governs the lengths of classes at every school, the amount of preparation time teachers get before classes, the process for teachers’ performance to be reviewed, and the process for teachers to be transferred from school to school. The seniority system is a particular hassle for principals unable to get rid of unfit senior teachers and forced to accept the incoming seniority transfers of unfit teachers from other schools.

Improved accountability systems. As our Wm. Hammond pointed out earlier this week, the Court of Appeals did not just order the state to come up with more money. The court also said “the new scheme should ensure a system of accountability.” Mr. Pataki may be subverting the court’s intention, but he seems to wish to use these words to pry concessions from the unions and others who have shielded themselves from accountability, and thus driven up the costs, and driven down the results, of our education system. Particularly, he seems to be working toward tenure reform, merit pay, and relief from state mandates.

Ultimately, the biggest impediment to reform in all of these areas — cost, regulation, and lack of accountability — is a lack of parental choice. It is no small matter, in that regard, that at least six of the 16 members of the commission are sympathetic to the principle of choice for parents who can’t afford private school and who are trapped in a failing public school system. As they sit down to do business, we’ll see if that sympathy turns into results.