Senior Fellow Newt Gingrich

The message of change being delivered by the voters in campaign '08 is directed as much against Memphis, Chattanooga and Nashville as it is against Washington.

And just as Washington shouldn't wait for elections to change the way it does business, neither should Memphis.

The change we need can't come from the president and Congress alone--this president and Congress or future leaders in Washington. It will require transforming every level of government--federal, state and local--by insisting that federal, state and local elected officials be truly accountable to "we the people" who elected them.

It means demanding from our government the high level of performance we expect from what I call the "world that works"--the private creators, entrepreneurs and innovators who make America better, safer and more efficient every day.

Contrast the world that works with the world that fails--the inefficiency, failure and stubborn resistance to change that are our big government bureaucracies. The kind of change voters across the country are calling for means moving from the world that fails to the world that works.

In the world that works, innovators create and employ common-sense solutions every day. They don't shrink from challenges, because accepting failure means losing business. In the world that works, excellence and innovation are critical to staying in business.

In the world that fails, none of this applies, and yet our government is entrusted with the awesome responsibilities of defending our country, preventing terrorism, remaining prosperous in the global economy, responding to natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, ensuring Social Security benefits, educating our children and protecting our environment.

In the world that works, if 80 percent of customers want something, they get it. In the world that fails, if 80 percent of Americans want something, the bureaucracy continues to do what's best for itself, not for the majority of the people it is supposed to serve.

Moving our politics and government from the world that fails to the world that works won't be easy. It will take more than mere change; it will take real change.

Take education, for example.

One of the key indicators of the success (or lack thereof) of a school system is its high school graduation rate. Nationwide, it is estimated that three out of every 10 students who start high school won't graduate on time. For minorities, it's far worse. One of every two African-American and Latino students either won't graduate on time or won't graduate at all.

Why do we tolerate this level of failure? If a private company took money from its customers and then failed to serve 50 percent of them, it would be closed in a day.

The reason is that too many states and big cities don't have government by the people; they have government by the special interests and union bosses. And for the unionized education bureaucracies, the system works just fine because it delivers their paychecks on time. Never mind that it is cheating half the students it is meant to serve.

Moving from this world that fails to the world that works means breaking the power of these special interests and putting it back in the hands of the people. It means innovations like merit pay for outstanding teachers, bonuses and incentives for new teachers, charter schools and school choice. It may even require paying kids in the poorest neighborhoods if they get a B or better in math and science. Real change requires real change.

And so the question for your elected representatives in Memphis is: Why wait for the outcome of the elections to get started?

The voters are calling for change and our elected officials have a choice to make. They can take the rest of the year off and watch the mounting frustration of the people they were elected to serve. Or they can spend the next few months implementing the kind of real change we suggest at AmericanSolutions.com.

Imagine the future of Tennessee if this challenge is accepted. Imagine a new era in which the vast majority of Memphians are actually represented in Memphis. Imagine an era in which things actually get done.

There's no reason to wait. The message of this election season isn't just change. It's real change--now.

Newt Gingrich is a senior fellow at AEI. He is the author of Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works.