Shhh.

Listen. This is important. Pay attention now.

The retired educator, Brooks Coleman of Duluth, a state legislator who chairs the House Education Committee, is explaining one of Gov. Sonny Perdue's proposals to give local school boards flexibility in return for accountability and agreed-upon consequences.

Listennow. Listennow. Don't jump to conclusions too fast.

What Coleman is talking about —- lecturing about, really —- is not radical in the slightest. It is, however, one piece in a series of tiny reforms that promise to revolutionize the way government treats, and relates to, the parents of children in public schools. It more than represents change. It is change.

Shocking to know that while one of the Democratic Party's presidential candidates is extolled for embracing change, officeholders down the line who share his party label are terrified by the prospect.

Instructor Coleman, in fact, has to reassure a beside-himself young Democrat from Lilburn, Brian W. Thomas, that the language of the bill that would give local systems freedom from many of the staffing, hiring, paying, curriculum and class-size requirements in return for agreements to produce better results in graduate rates, for example, says "may" and not "shall." That means it's up to local school boards what level of "risk" they wish to assume in return for freedom to run their systems generally as they see fit.

They don't have to change a thing. If they prefer a thousand mandates, they can keep a thousand. Input this, input that. It's entirely voluntary.

And yet, House Bill 1209 is a big deal. That's precisely because it takes away a crutch. It takes away the excuse that it's somebody else's fault if a system turns out junk.

The excuse-makers will opt for the status quo. And they can. It's may, not shall. The bold school boards and confident administrators will choose freedom and promise results because the consequences are real. Failed schools could be converted to charters, privatized or turned over to a neighboring school system to operate.

The proposed law, which passed the House 112-58, would be implemented over five years, starting with 15 of 180 systems next year.

That's one of the promising concepts being introduced here.

Another passed the Senate last Wednesday. SB 458, authored by Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson of Savannah, would give vouchers to the parents of children stuck in schools that are chronically nonperforming or in systems that lose accreditation. The voucher would be for the state portion of money allocated to educate the child —- about $4,100 for a child in Clayton County, for example. "If we're on the Titanic, let's put the children in the lifeboats and worry about who hit the iceberg later," he said.

The thing is: Parents should have choice. Their child shouldn't be held hostage until a school or system gets its act together. The Senate agreed, 32-21.

A third important education bill is expected to come before the House today. State Rep. David Casas (R-Lilburn) has legislation to give a state income tax credit to individuals and corporations donating to school-choice scholarship organizations. Individuals could contribute $1,000 and couples $2,500 per year to nonprofits that give grants to public school students to attend private schools. Similar programs exist in Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Rhode Island.

And there's House Bill 881, which is now before the Senate, that would give parents with a good charter school proposal a way around local boards that are resistant to perceived competition. It would also establish the principle that education money follows the child.

There's a lesson here, an important one, one that should be tested and remembered, for all those who would change the way government has functioned. It is aggressive incrementalism.

Push change on a dozen fronts, always forward, always to a goal. If the steps have to be small, take them, but be persistent and aggressive in taking the small ones. Real reform may come suddenly —- but it is far more likely that it will be accomplished by a team. Aggressive incrementalism.

> Jim Wooten is the associate editorial page editor. His column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays.

jwooten@ajc.com