Where We Stand

Goals 2000 does not just permit -- it requires -- citizen participation.

Goals 2000, the education bill that Congress passed this spring, is designed to encourage states to create clear and high academic standards, and some states have already gotten started. But now we are hearing some alarming things about Goals 2000. If states accept Goals 2000 money, does that mean bureaucrats from Washington will soon be dictating what kids learn? Does Goals 2000 represent a federal takeover of education? That's certainly what you'd think if you listened to some of Goals 2000 critics - for example, Lamar Alexander, who was a secretary of education under George Bush.

Is it fair to deny achievers the recognition they have earned? Or to discourage disadvantaged kids from making an effort?

One big reason for the mediocre performance of U.S. students is that they have no incentives for working hard. When it comes to going to college or getting a job, it makes very little difference whether a student has done more or less -- as long as he or she has done enough to get a high school diploma. So most students do less. And sometimes there are disincentives that actively discourage students from achieving.

CED's insistence that the academic mission should be at the center of our educational arrangements is refreshing and important.

Restore the academic mission of the schools: That's the principal message of the Committee for Economic Development (CED)'s powerful, important -- and politically incorrect -- new report, "Putting Learning First: Governing and Managing Schools for High Achievement."

Americorps promises to strengthen the simple spirit of community.

For over 25 years, the Peace Corps has been sending young American volunteers to towns and villages all over the world to assist people in accomplishing what they want -- whether this means digging a well or learning to read and write. Americorps, which was launched last week, is an inspired translation of the Peace Corps idea into domestic terms.

Suppose we were able to assign universal values to grades ...

Are poor youngsters being victimized by grade inflation? That's what a recent U.S. Department of Education study says. It finds that a large percentage of students in high-poverty schools receive much better grades than the low achievement levels in these schools would lead us to expect. Some people have taken this as yet another instance of how poor children are shortchanged by our education system. But is that the case?

Why is the Justice Department now reversing its rejection of quotas?

When the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's achieved its break-through victories, President Johnson, among others, realized that giving African-Americans the right to compete on a free and open basis was not enough. The analogy often used at the time was of someone who had been fettered hand and foot for many years. Simply removing that person's chains would not make him ready to run in a race. But what could be done to help minorities to compete fairly? The answer has been a wide range of programs generally known as "affirmative action." 

"A Rube Goldberg machine"--that's how one disgusted lobbyist described the so-called Mainstream Coalition proposal for health-care reform that surfaced last week. He probably meant the proposal is an outlandish contraption that is likely to break down on the road. But it's worse than that; it's not even headed in the right direction. And that may be true of any other health-care proposal coming from this Congress.

What happens to youngsters when they come home to neighborhoods where there are no after-school activities or even safe places to play?

Hugh Price, the new president of the National Urban League, kicked off his term last month with a remarkable speech. It was moderate in the best sense of the word -- and a reminder that being moderate sometimes requires courage, without attempting to gloss over the legacy of pain and the continuing cost of racism to African-Americans. Price urged black people to stop blaming racism for all their economic and social problems. At the same time, he issued a rebuke to those who say that the interests of black and white Americans are separate and irreconcilable: "If Nelson Mandela and F.W. DeKlerk can bury the hatchets of hatred and oppression in the sand, instead of one another's heads, and get on with South Africa's future, then surely so can we."

One of our most troubling problems is the large and persistent gap between the achievement of white, middle-class students and that of poor, minority youngsters. This gap puts minority children at a terrible disadvantage. It also threatens the health of our democratic society. There is no dispute about the seriousness of the problem, but there is plenty about how to solve it.

The Supreme Court decision invites a hard-and-fast distinction between those who give orders and those who follow them. 

One day in January 1989, three licensed practical nurses (LPNs) who worked at the Heartland Nursing Home in Urbana, Ohio, drove to their employer's corporate headquarters in Toledo. They wanted to talk about some problems at the home -- understaffing, poor employee morale, low pay for nurses' aides and an increase in paperwork. After their conversation with top management, additional staff was hired at Heartland and pay for nurses' aides was increased. What about the nurses who had brought these conditions to the attention of management? Did they get a plague thanking them for their suggestions? As a matter of fact, they were fired.

America has a long tradition of pluralism and religious freedom, but it has an equally long tradition of prejudice and intolerance. Every other year, AFT gives the Bayard Rustin Human Rights Award to a person who is distinguished in the struggle for human and civil rights. This year, we were privileged to make the award to Cynthia Tucker, the editorial page editor of the Atlanta Constitution. In her acceptance speech, which was both generous and tough, Tucker talked about the racial and ethnic tensions that are threatening to tear our country apart, and she called on all Americans to unite in denouncing bigotry, no matter what its source.

When "Prisoners of Time," a study of the use and misuse of time in U.S. schools, came out a few months ago, people latched on to the apparent relationship between student achievement and the length of the school day and school year.

It's a lot easier to sign up a school management firm than to make sure the company lives up to its promises.

Are private management firms what we need to save public institutions -- like our schools? That's what many Americans hope and believe. But for those who write and think about business issues, private management may raise as many questions as it answers - as we can see from an editorial from The Hartford Business Journal (May 23, 1994), reprinted here with permission.

Imagine saying that we should shut down a hospital and fire its staff because not all of its patients became healthy.

Congress is now considering legislation designed to vastly improve students' school performance -- by punishing school districts, teachers and principals if students don't make miraculous progress. You can see
this idea in full bloom in the revision of Chapter I legislation on which Congress is now working.

$4 million -- for starters -- will be going to a group of people who are eager for public funds but could care less about public education.

A key idea behind charter schools, the latest movement in education reform, is that many terrific opportunities to improve public education are lost because they are squelched by school bureaucracies. Charter school laws, which have been passed in 12 states and are pending in 9 or 10 more, are supposed to allow teachers and others the chance to establish public schools that are largely independent of state and local control. Supporters say that throwing away the rule book will unleash creativity and that the fresh, new ideas developed in these charter schools will revitalize all public schools.

The real question is not whether schools should be independent but when and under what circumstances.

The idea of charter schools is getting favorable attention from a number of business people because they see a parallel with a popular and successful business practice: giving branch offices substantial authority to manage their own affairs. The large companies doing this have found that the branches often are more creative and productive than when they were under the direct management of the main office.

Even kids who are able to nurture dreams and work hard to realize these dreams are likely to be crippled.

When teachers at Frank W. Ballou Senior High School in Washington, D.C., talk about the crab bucket syndrome, they are describing a terrible fact of life at their inner-city school. That is, the way kids who have surrendered to the culture of gangs and drugs react to a kid who is trying to escape it: They do their best to pull him back into the bucket. 

Our system lavishes the best healthcare in the world on the people who can afford it, but it becomes more expensive and less accessible by the year.

As the healthcare debate draws to a climax, we're hearing talk that is bound to make many people uneasy about changing the current system. Business groups say that universal health care will create an intolerable burden for small businesses and put many successful companies at a big disadvantage. 

What questions should school districts be asking if they want to improve their schools instead of being taken for a ride?

When a school district contracts with a for-profit company to build a new gymnasium, it's relatively easy to make sure the district gets what it pays for. But when it considers hiring a for-profit company to manage schools and improve student achievement, as a number are now doing, it's a different story. Assessing the quality of this kind of service is very tough, especially since there is little experience to go on -- Baltimore is the only district that has purchased this kind of service. What kinds of questions should school districts be asking if they want to improve their schools instead of being taken for a ride? Based on Baltimore's experience with Education Alternatives, Inc. (EAI), here are some issues that need to be raised.

At the recent White House celebration for Goals 2000, there were lots of placards saying "World-Class Standards." Perhaps this will be our
newest education slogan, and we'll soon see schools across the country creating their own "world-class standards" -- which will be a few notches above what they have now. But there is a world out there. If we are serious about emulating the standards to which other advanced industrialized countries hold their students, we can find out about them. They are not state secrets.