RALEIGH – Every passionate reader has a first literary love – that first book that captured your attention and inspired your desire to explore and understand.

For me, it was a true classic: A Child’s History of the World. First published in 1924, the book was the product of the innovative mind of Virgil Hillyer, the Harvard-trained headmaster of the Calvert School in Baltimore. After many years at the helm of the school, Hillyer realized that there were many children whose families couldn’t afford tuition but who would benefit from high-quality instruction. So he convinced Baltimore booksellers to sell his curriculum directly to families.

The publication and marketing of A Child’s History of the World in the 1920s and 1930s helped spark the development of formal homeschooling in America. The copy I read in the mid-1970s, however, had been rescued by my mother from the dumpster behind the Charlotte public school where she taught.

Hillyer thought that most children could learn far more than commonly thought. They simply needed to be challenged, and to be presented material in an engaging way. His work reflected that sentiment, as do most successful instructional programs.

Unfortunately, North Carolina has had little success improving the reading program in its public schools. Too many teachers (and teachers of teachers) remain wedded to discredited practices. Too many lawmakers devote too many tax dollars to pointless exercises in political theater. And too many families allow kids to do everything except sit down to read.

You can see the results in the data. Since the mid-1990s, when North Carolina launched its latest flurry of highly touted and expensive “reforms,” the state’s performance on independent math tests has improved significantly, particularly from 1996 to 2003.

The same can’t be said for our reading performance. Among North Carolina eighth-graders, for example, the average reading score on the National Assessment of Education Progress was 264 in 1994 and 260 in 2009. Only 29 percent of our eighth-graders were proficient readers in 2009. In 1994, 31 percent were. (The change was not statistically significant, so it would be best to say there was no progress.)

The education establishment and its defenders point their fingers in every other direction but at themselves. They say schools and teachers can’t help it, that these mediocre results are caused by social factors beyond their control. They also say that if they could only get their hands on even more tax dollars, the results would be better. They say a lot of things, it seems, ignoring the tensions and inconsistencies.

North Carolina can no longer afford to tolerate mediocrity. We have one of the worst economies in the United States. Our jobless rate has remained in double digits for more than two years. One reason is that as traditional manufacturing industries have downsized, thanks to international competition and technological innovation, some emerging industries doubt they can find the skilled labor they need in our state.

More importantly, however, today’s students are tomorrow’s voters. The most compelling rationale for state government’s involvement in education is that a self-governing republic can thrive only to the extent that its citizens possess basic knowledge – about science, history, and civics – as well as the skills to learn more about the problems facing their families and communities.

North Carolina needs real education reform. Its elements aren’t hard to outline:

• Adopt higher academic standards and independent, reliable tests of student performance.

• Of the nearly $10,000 spent per pupil in our public schools, devote a higher percentage to classroom instruction, particularly our best teachers.

• Ensure that most North Carolina parents exercise greater control over their children’s education by promoting public-school choice, charter-school expansion, tax relief for family investment in education, and scholarship assistance for low-income families.

“When a wheel turns over we call it a revolution, which is a big name for a little thing,” Hillyer wrote in his Child’s History. “When a country turns over we also call it a revolution, which is a big name for a big thing.”

It’s time for a revolution in North Carolina education.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.