TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/100989/10098900.072

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EDUCATION, Page 60

Calling for an Overhaul

Bush and the Governors agree on reform goals for the schools

By Dan Goodgame


    The power to summon others and the ability to command attention
rank high among the tools of any leader. Last week George Bush
wielded both of them artfully in pursuing his long-promised bid to
become "the education President." During two crisply photogenic
autumn days at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, he
convened his Cabinet and the nation's Governors for a historic
summit that raised hopes of new national leadership, if not new
federal funds, to address the critical problems facing American
public education.

    While the meeting produced more talk than action, its
high-powered guest list and coverage by some 700 journalists,
including anchors of ABC and CNN national networks, lent it a tone
of drama and urgency. Not since Franklin Roosevelt's day had a
President called the nation's Governors together. Topping F.D.R.'s
agenda was a search for ways to cope with the Depression. Bush
sought to deal with a crisis whose long-range results could prove
no less catastrophic for American power and prosperity: the failure
of U.S. schools to teach the basic skills needed to keep Americans
productive and competitive.

    Faced with that daunting challenge, Bush and the Governors were
able to reach an unprecedented agreement to set national
performance standards and goals for the schools and to measure each
state's progress. Only a few years ago, such a step would have
provoked loud complaints against federal encroachment on the
traditional autonomy of states and local school districts. Now,
however, the idea of national standards is supported by solid
majorities in opinion polls. "Bold action is what we need," Bush
told the Governors. "The American people are ready for radical
reforms." Despite the high-flown rhetoric, however, the summit's
achievements were not so much radical as merely encouraging.

    Bush won some respect for attaching his prestige to the knotty
education issue, but many Governors are still waiting to see
whether the President will make the tough choices necessary to
establish education as a genuine priority. Some wonder, for
example, why he retains the so far ineffectual Lauro Cavazos as
Education Secretary. They also wonder why a self-proclaimed
education President would propose, in effect, to cut federal
education spending $400 million, adjusted for inflation.

    Most important, on a day when Congress voted to fulfill Bush's
campaign promise to reduce capital-gains taxes for the wealthy,
Governors of both parties pressed for information on when Bush
would redeem another campaign pledge: to fund fully the Head Start
program for needy preschoolers. Head Start has proved
cost-effective in preparing disadvantaged students for school, but
can now accommodate only about 1 in 5 of those eligible. As the
summit closed, White House chief of staff John Sununu noted that
"the Governors succeeded quite well in convincing the President of
the value of preschool and early-childhood programs." Bush conceded
"the need for more federal support for the prekindergarten
education process."

    The prospects for a substantial increase in federal education
funding were dim, however. For weeks, Bush and his aides had
rejected the notion that an education President should spend more
on education. A senior White House official pointed out that
federal funds account for only about 7% of total spending on
education, and argued that much of the money is spent so
inefficiently that "we could eliminate most of it and nobody would
notice." Such arguments moved New York Governor Mario Cuomo, a
liberal Democrat, to retort that waste and inefficiency never
prevented the Administration from spending on defense.

    Although most Governors agreed that more federal spending on
schools is not the answer to their problems, they did ask that Bush
help them hack through the thicket of regulations that accompany
existing federal education grants. Bush agreed, in the words of
Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, to "swap red tape for results" in
disbursing federal money. Those funds now come encumbered by rules
that, for example, prevent night classes of adults from using
computers bought for day classes of handicapped students.

    The Governors, in turn, pledged to promote two of Bush's
favorite nostrums: freedom for parents to choose which public
schools their children attend, and "alternative certification" for
career switchers who move into teaching. Bush and the Governors
also agreed on the need for school "restructuring," which generally
means letting individual schools be run by teachers, principals and
parents rather than by bureaucrats in district headquarters or
state capitals.

    One of the most provocative reform ideas came from drug czar
William Bennett, the former Education Secretary, who bluntly
described much of what he heard at the summit as "pap -- and stuff
that rhymes with pap." Bennett noted, for example, that "everybody
seems to like national performance goals, but the question is . .
. What happens if we don't reach them?" He suggested that "if we're
not able in five years to get our schools back up to where they
were in 1963, after spending 40% more, then maybe we should just
. . . give people their money back and let them educate themselves
or start their own schools. That would be one radical way to have
accountability." Irritated White House officials scrambled to
dissociate themselves from Bennett's impolitic outburst. But if the
President and the Governors fail to show concrete results in this
latest round of school reform, perhaps parents will be ready to
take Bennett up on his offer.