The multiplicity of ills facing the nation's public schools can depress even the most optimistic. In this article, the author presents her views about the school system and the negative effects that labor agreements have had on it. Her views on how to solve some seemingly intractable education problems have been informed by two experiences: her four years as chair of the New York City council's education committee and, more recently, her role as founder and executive director of a new charter school. During the years she spent as a public school student in the city, her time teaching social studies to public school students, and now her experience as a public school parent, she has seen a great deal. One of the most striking phenomena she has observed is the education industry's ability to preclude any dramatic improvement in the schools. She argues that it is a monopolistic structure in which management and labor have colluded for the better part of four decades to protect the interests of adults over those of children. The labor agreements signed by both public officials and labor leaders, governing every aspect of New York City public schools, profoundly inhibit the ability to improve public education. She contends that to improve learning and teaching and have a chance at competing in the global economy, complicity between management and labor must end.