Many policy analysts believe the federal Education Department -- which has grown at three times the rate of all other government programs except entitlements in the past 16 years -- was created by President Carter as a political payoff to the teachers' unions.
Even some leading Democrats in Congress at the time of its creation voted for the department with misgivings. One described it as "a back room deal, born out of squalid politics," and predicted it would "meddle in everything."
Despite promises by supporters that creating the department would reduce bureaucracy and red tape, it has only grown.
General Accounting Office audits:
Last year, the American School Board Journal asked its readers -- mostly school board members -- if the Department should be abolished. Nearly two-thirds said yes.
Source, Editorial, "Protecting Education?" Investor's Business Daily, February 2, 1996.
Fed up with waiting for slow-moving bureaucracies to improve public education, parents and teachers in some communities are organizing charter schools and private schools to improve student performance.
The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Independent Education estimates there are 390 such schools nationwide, teaching 70,000 to 80,000 students. They include schools with African-American curricula, charter schools employing a more traditional approach and private religious and non-religious schools.
Blacks provide much of the impetus behind the charter school movement. In Michigan, one of six states with laws allowing wide latitude in the creation of charter schools -- along with Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Minnesota -- blacks constitute only 14 percent of the state's general population and 16 percent of its student enrollment. Yet since January of last year, 31 percent of the 42 charter schools opened there have been started by blacks, and 39 percent of charter school students are black.
Source: Hugh Pearson, "An Urban Push for Self-Reliance" Wall Street Journal, February 7, 1996.
President Clinton's proposals for education, as outlined in his State of the Union message, would cost American taxpayers at least another $1.7 billion a year -- five percent more than the Department of Education spent in 1995.
What are his major initiatives, and how much would they cost?
But experts, including Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs, who has donated vast numbers of computers to the nation's classrooms, now realize technology alone won't solve the country's educational ills.
"I've come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve," says Jobs. "The problem is unions in the schools. The problem is buearucracy."
Other critics of the president's approach note that college bills rise automatically to eat up subsidies.
Many education specialists insist that we must demand greater productivity from higher education and hold students, teachers and the schools accountable. But the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers -- which contributed 99 percent of their $3.6 million in political contributions to the Democrats in 1994 -- blanch at the prospect of accountability. In their view -- and the president's -- the answer is more money.
Source: Editorial, "The Era of Big Education," Investor's Business Daily, February 9, 1996.
A report on a privately-funded school choice program offering poor and low-income families in Milwaukee grants for half the cost of private-school tuition indicates the program is successful.
For the 1994-1995 academic year, the program provided 2,654 scholarships -- 2,152 for elementary students and 502 for secondary students -- at an average cost of $637 for elementary grants and $1,369 for high school grants. The total value of scholarship funds was $1,954,257.
The third annual evaluation of the program indicates an overwhelming majority of parents were very satisfied with the education their children are receiving in the 84 elementary and 13 high schools participating in the program.
Finally, a remarkable 96 percent of the parents indicated that they attended at least one parent-teacher conference, indicating a high rate of parental involvement and interest in their children's education.
Source: Maureen Wahl, "Third Year Report of the PAVE Scholarship Program," 1995, Partners Advancing Values in Education, 1434 W. State Street, Milwaukee, WI 53233.
The 1996 Economic Report of the President verifies that it pays to stay in school and get that diploma.
For them, the chalk writing is on the blackboard.
Source: Beth Belton, "Degree-Based Earnings Gap Grows Quickly," USA Today, February 16, 1996.
In 1987, former special-education teacher and financial analyst Steve Mariotti launched a program called the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Its goal is to teach disadvantaged youths how to start and run their own businesses.
NFTE says that between 10 percent and 14 percent of its graduates go on to start lasting businesses, and that the average business earns $85 per week. While that is far from adequate, the businesses are expected to grow with time.
The program's financial backers believe that poverty remains with us -- not because of transitions in our economy or because of cuts in social spending -- but because of a lack of enough entrepreneurial drive and creativity among the poor, as well as a maze of taxes and regulations that make it difficult for the poor to start their own businesses.
Source: Hugh Pearson, "Up By Their Youthful Bootstraps?" Wall Street Journal, February 22, 1996.
Charter schools, which allow a measure of local control of public schools, have proved popular in a number of states.
Charter-driven reform has created a great degree of diversity. For example,
Studies show that two-thirds of the charter schools target a cross-section of students, and half specifically target at-risk children. In Michigan, a survey of 10 charter schools in November 1994 found that about 49 percent of the students were minorities, while other public schools had only 23 percent minority enrollment.
State legislation can encourage or discourage charter schools. In fact, states having strong charter legislation are home to 92.7 percent of the charter schools.
Source: Jeanne Allen, "Charter Schools Could Help Revitalize Ohio's Public Schools," Perspective on Current Issues, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, 131 N. Ludlow Street, Suite 308, Dayton, OH 45402, (513) 224-8352.
Inaccuracies, biases and omissions in American history textbooks used in public schools have become notorious over the years. Less well known are similar flaws in state history textbooks used in many states.
A historian recently examined four textbooks used to teach Michigan's state history to fourth graders and junior high students. Although the quality of the textbooks varied, he found bias and serious omissions in all -- particularly with respect to government and the economy. For example:
One of the textbooks, a multicultural version of Michigan's history, portrays Indians as virtuous peaceful victims of whites intent on stealing their lands. It fails to discuss sometimes bloody conflicts between different tribes, and a massacre of whites that convinced the public that the Indians should be forced to move to Kansas.
Source: Burton W. Folsom, "Are Michigan History Textbooks Reliable?" January 1996, Mackinac Center, 119 Ashman Street, P.O. Box 568, Midland, MI 48640, (517) 631-0964.
Oral arguments are to begin today before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a case which will have an impact on the future of school choice. In Washington, D.C., the Senate is set to vote today on cutting off debate on the D.C. appropriations bill which has been stalled for months because it includes a scholarship program allowing Washington students to attend private schools.
Wisconsin already has some school choice, but the choice is limited to public and private schools without religious affiliation. The issue being argued today is whether full educational freedom is prohibited by the state or U.S Constitution. That question is an important one to backers of school choice.
The idea behind the voucher, or scholarship, programs is to give poor families the freedom and power to help their children succeed by choosing what they feel is the best school to attend, whether it is a government, private secular or religiously affiliated school. Opposition to the program comes from the 2.5 million members of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
Educational reform leaders charge that the unions are fearful of competition in education. U.S. News and World Report has blasted the unions for "driving out good teachers, coddling bad ones and putting bureaucracy in the way of quality education."
Source: James A. Glassman, "Big Day For School Choice," Washington Post, February 27, 1996.
President Clinton claims U.S. education is "turning the corner" as a result of measures he and the last Congress enacted. However, data from the National Assessment of Education Progress indicate otherwise.
For two decades, there was bipartisan support for increasing resources and expanding services, particularly for poor children. In the 1980s a different consensus emerged outside Washington that holds that weak achievement and poor quality are our foremost educational problems and that reform strategies should focus on student performance.
Yet the 1996 education appropriations bill shows how little has truly changed in Washington.
The real revolution is outside Washington, where 19 states have enacted charter school laws and two have passed voucher programs. Further, at least 10 communities are experimenting with private contract management of public schools.
The Education Department now employs nearly 5,000 people and spends about $500 for every student in America, to very little effect.
Source: Chester E. Finn Jr., "Federal Investment or Intrusion?" Hudson Policy Bulletin, No. 17, December 1995, Hudson Institute, Herman Kahn Center, P.O. Box 26-919, Indianapolis, IN 46226, (317) 545-1000.
A $5 billion appropriations bill for the District of Columbia has been in limbo for months because teachers unions refuse to include a pilot program that would grant students scholarships to attend the school of their choice, public or private. Unless some Democrats switch their votes today, the entire District funding bill will fail.
The primary opponents of the bill are the National Education Association and other teachers unions. They are bringing their considerable political weight to bear on the seemingly small target.
Critics charge that liberal Democrats have placed their allegiance to labor unions in an election year over their obligation to the children of the District of Columbia, but the criticism comes from within their own ranks as well. Washington Mayor Marion Barry was reportedly furious at his fellow Democrats for blocking the bill. The National Education Association's lobbyist responded that, "It is much bigger than D.C."
The White House has said President Clinton will veto the entire $5 billion D.C. appropriations bill if the tiny school choice provision is included.
Source: Editorial, "Democrats Versus the Poor," Wall Street Journal, February 29, 1996.