The Common Good...

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Some humble suggestions:

1. Pay teachers a competitive entry wage like other professions: treat them as professionals.
2. Set a national standard. In a global economy, it's not communist/evil/fascist/globalist/socialist: it's evidence of intelligence, otherwise, we expect our youth = future workers to start a sprint with leg irons tied to their ankles.
3. Use standardized test scores (with a national target, not 50 yardsticks) to measure where students are, not a "Sword of Damocles" that makes them think only on passing exams and merely graduating, not understanding subject matter.
4. Allow teachers to work internships at factories, businesses, laboratories over the summer. It will inform their instruction with "real-world" examples to draw from.
5. Partner with local technology businesses, law firms, non-profits for mentors that will visit and co-teach periodically throughout the school year, once or twice a semester. Some sources: National Association of Black Accountants, National Association of Hispanic Journalist, National Society of Black Engineers, National Society of Black Physicists, National Society of Hispanic Physicists, Society of Hispanic and Professional Engineers, Society of Women Engineers et al. This is just a short list.

"The common good" simply means "the good of the community." It is the difference between E pluribus unum being a quaint Latin phrase, or United States... as oxymoron.

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The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. George Washington, 1796 farewell address

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Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson recently wrote: "We face a choice between a society where people accept modest sacrifices for a common good or a more contentious society where groups selfishly protect their own benefits."

* * * * * Ironically: This is post number 911.
* * * * * MSNBC: Education Nation