Former Colorado Governor and superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Roy Romer, has long been supporting the establishment and development of charter schools and works closely with several nonprofit organizations in pursuit of better education. His projects associate him with two of the most high-profile pro-education institutions, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundations.

Romer believes that changing the system that runs education in the United States is an imperative. Romer’s disbelief in the traditional system of education stems from the fact that most students in the United States perform very poorly in math subjects and that the country is falling behind other nations. Romer has even declared to a point that the United States is a third world country in terms of math performance. If such trend continues, the United States will then, according to Romer, pay dearly for it.

Romer has designed a 12-Step Program that is geared towards educational reform. In this agenda, Romer discusses the areas that need drastic change such as accountability, quality of teachers and learning sources, and the use of modern technology to mention a few.

He has also pushed for increased accountability for poor academic performance on the student, the teacher, and even the system itself. Likewise, he has championed the need for a new curriculum and improving the content and information quality of textbooks. He believes that textbooks must have greater depth if the government is to better the grade of education offered in schools.

As for teachers, Romer says that teacher training institutions need to overhaul their system and test new approaches like on-the-job training programs.

The use of technology should be implemented in the classroom. Both teachers and students must have the adequate training to use technological facilities as they are fast becoming tools of learning and educating.

However, unlike other education advocates who urge the government to do the educational revamp, Romer pushes the business sector to participate as they can be the agent educational reform agenda needs to succeed and start the change.