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Potomac Crossings
--By George Mason
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To Read, Write and Cypher
Our system of public education has always had one paramount goal - to produce a self-sustaining adult. Whether
the issue is hiring beginning workers or having family members in the public school system, the current condition
of public education requires a fresh evaluation. Does anyone really think that a high school graduate is equipped
to successfully find and hold down a job in the adult world? Apparently not. Education ranks in the top three political
issues in both parties.
In the coming election cycle, much will be made of the various candidates' proposals on education. President Clinton
has signed the year 2000 federal aid to education bill that allocates more than $20 billion to public schools from
kindergarten through high school. Vice president Gore has called for an additional $116 billion. He has also proposed
national, voluntary testing of basic reading in the fourth grade and basic math in the eighth grade.
His proposal has been praised by business as promoting higher graduation standards and thus a more highly skilled
work force. It has been criticized from the left because the tests are in English only and fears that the disadvantaged
would be stigmatized by the results. It has been criticized from the right as a national imposition on a local
problem and the spreading of false standards, especially moral relativism. All sides recognize the potency of national
test results on local school boards.
It might not hurt to begin with some facts. The federal government supplies 7% of the $350 annual funding for public
education but requires 50% of the paperwork. The federal education bureaucracy manages 788 programs spread across
some 40 agencies with a combined budget of $100 billion. Of this allocation, 30 percent is devoted to administrative
overhead. Programs that are not specifically in education but targeted to juvenile issues total $4 billion. Ten
departments, three independent agencies, one federal commission, one presidential council and one quasi-official
agency run these additional 131 programs.
With respect to jobs and job training, the federal budget spends $20 billion on 15 separate agencies and there
are 342 economic development programs managed by 13 separate agencies. According to the Government Accounting Office
(GAO) the majority of these programs have no measure to determine the effectiveness of their programs and there
is little to no coordination between agencies or programs.
The availability of federal money has spawned unfunded mandate traps. For the learning disabled, the federal government
supplies $6 billion a year but conforming to federal rules cost states an additional $29 billion. It would take
$170 billion to add 100,000 career qualified teachers but the federal contribution is just $39 billion.
Of all the changes in public education, none has had a greater effect than the unionization of public school employees.
Teacher's unions are the major players in the education establishment. Since 1960, the growth of teacher unionization
has become pervasive. Some three-quarters of all teachers belong to one or another of the national teachers unions.
From their position of strength, union leaders control government sponsored research. No study acceptable to the
education establishment can be conducted or funded without their participation.
Union ability to dictate the outcome in advance is not just limited to studies and research. It extends to controlling
the appointees to boards, commissions and political advisory groups. The traditional union concerns of obtaining
greater funding, maintaining job security, defining promotion rules and opposing differentiated pay are often in
conflict with the need for flexibility in replacing poor and mediocre teachers or revising ineffective programs.
The most vocal opposition to school reform proposals will almost always be found in the public sector unions and
their allies.
The reform movement has centered on teacher competency, uniform measurement of student progress and the creation
of alternatives. There have been calls for teacher competency testing in the subject being taught, general literacy
testing and core teaching skills prior to licensure. In some states, nearly 60% of teachers have flunked general
knowledge qualifying examinations. The average teacher trainee attending our education colleges has completed high
school with a C to C+ grade point average, according to published studies.
Recent research published in Education Week concludes that 11 states have no basic skills testing requirement for
teachers. Of the 39 states that do have skills testing, 36 allow the ones who fail the test to teach anyway.
Many states have considered nationally standardized student achievement examinations. In reading, nearly 40% of
students tested do not read at grade level. In an international math test, American high school students ranked
19th of 21 nations, beating out only Cyprus and South Africa. In our high tech, computer-driven age, only one in
five high school students have studied physics or trigonometry and half have not taken chemistry or intermediate
algebra.
Standardized test results were intended to proscribe remedial action and to rank schools and teachers. Guess again.
As soon as results are issued, remedial action is stalled by calls to water down the tests, extend the time needed
for improvement and intense fear mongering by school administrators among parents whose children might lose social
promotion.
The horrific test results have, however, created a ground swell for alternative solutions. They have included the
creation of public charter schools, public and private school voucher programs and the rise of home-schooling support
systems. A secondary reaction has been the growth of part-time home schooling: computer-aided supplementary education
through commercial after-school education classes and software for at-home use.
The business world has complained about the quality of new hires but acted in just a few instances. Some have pressured
the political system for reform. Traditionally, business has not wanted to take on the education burden itself.
Rightly, it has not been enthusiastic about paying to bring new hires or fast track talent up to speed and then
watch them leave for greener pastures. As a substitute, business has invested in local college and junior college
programs that educate technicians and they have developed intern and cooperative work-education programs that begin
with high school students. Wealthy individuals have created private scholarships and funded pilot projects.
The union-led response to these private efforts has often been to oppose programs that encourage a few promising
students and favor programs that serve many poor students. "High expectations," they say, " are
perverse unless you also provide the means to achieve them." Union positions emphasize the need to "level
up" school funding so that per-pupil expenditure is equal throughout the state. They advocate teacher training
funds, smaller classes and tutoring. All these prescriptions also emphasize higher pay as well as more teachers.
The unions also call for more government programs aimed at various dysfunctions of teenagers. Generally, new initiatives
are opposed until current programs are "fully" funded. The local battle becomes a war of attrition that
favors the status quo. Part time outsiders cannot often effectively compete with full time insiders.
One of the most interesting debates this year will be about private voucher systems. Teacher unions have been successful
in arguing against tax funded school choice on the grounds that public money should not be spent on unaccountable
private and religious schools. (By "unaccountable," they usually mean schools that are accountable to
parents and not to the public school bureaucracy. Weak charter schools have failed when parents withdraw their
support.) Private scholarships have not been opposed as effectively. The profound dissatisfaction of city parents
means that low-income families will not stand for the idea of being prevented from school choice forever. The longer
their children stay in public schools, the less likely they are to succeed. Opposition to private scholarships
withers to a "let's not let the camel's nose in the tent' rhetoric. When offered, free choice prevails. If
parents and the employer-community are not involved, the self-interest of the education establishment generally
prevails.
The popularity of private vouchers rests on all parents' desire for schools with solid academics, which respect
parents, teachers and students, provide a safe and supportive environment and positively advocate personal values.
Every parent wants a safe place where future citizens can learn to read and listen, think, write and speak effectively,
and develop their skills for a digital tomorrow.
Schools only improve when there are incentives and consequences. It will take involved parents and employers to
make it happen. In those places where the public schools have failed, charter schools, private vouchers and full
or part-time home schooling are the tools more and more parents and business alike are using. With the commitment
of parents, these alternative methods produce young adults, who can read with critical judgement, clearly write
original thoughts and travel in the Digital Age with confidence. This past week the nation has celebrated the life
of Martin Luther King, Jr. He defined what education was meant to be. "Education must enable one to sift and
weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal and facts from fiction.""
| George Mason, 1725-92, was known as the Sage of Gunston Hall.
His Virginia declaration of rights, written in 1776, was the model for the first section of the Declaration of
Independence. A friend of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, Mason was an original drafter of the Constitution
and the first ten amendments to the Bill of Rights. He refused, however, to sign the final version of the Constitution
because he thought it did too little for individuals and, without the Bill of Rights, gave too much power to the
government.This column honors his memory. |
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