In recent decades, our education expectations have skyrocketed, with policymakers today insisting that all students need to master skills once thought the province of the elite. We need schools far more capable than the one-size-fits-all bureaucracies of an earlier era.

The defeat of incumbent D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty, one of the most effective school-reform champions seen yet, puts school chancellor Michelle Rhee at risk and illustrates just why reformers need to stop trying to stop playing the same old game and need to start changing the rules.

Massive financial scandals are widely viewed as a failure of central regulatory institutions--particularly the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In