(8/7/03) Government’s most significant duty is to provide education and we each view our public school system as being the best. That’s why it’s important to understand what experts are saying about our public schools before we get too complaisant.

A recent news story indicated Vermont tops national average in reading and writing scores. Sounds great! About 60% of our kids aren’t proficient at their grade level. Not great!

I attended a meeting in Boston this past spring and heard Mark Roosevelt speak about education and the need for reform. Roosevelt is a liberal Democrat who re-wrote many controversial education policies in Massachusetts while chair of the House Education Committee. He lost in his bid for Governor in the mid-90’s.

Roosevelt, who heads a foundation promoting education excellence, spoke on what he termed the “great array of incapables in our public schools systems.” He indicated our schools aren’t vigorous and just award diplomas rather than educating kids.

The focus of Roosevelt’s remarks was to advance vigorous standards for all students with very specific measurable goals. The current practice of customizing education to each student’s achievement level is counter-productive and widens the achievement gap that’s so damaging to our kids.

He also spoke about improving teacher quality with vigorous professional development and evaluations, since a good teacher matters more than anything. Students with two bad teachers in a row will never recover.

Last fall, I met Pete DuPont, former Governor of Delaware who has written extensively on education. He too is concerned about the rising tide of mediocrity in our public schools and how we have devoted money to education but have seen no academic progress in the last 20 years.

Though classes are smaller and there is more emphasis on English and Math, DuPont says there is little if any performance pay or teacher assessment to improve quality. The school day and school year has remained the same. Homework still averages one hour a day and there are fewer teachers with master’s degrees.

Student performance also shows little change. Test scores are virtually the same, graduation rates are down, research papers in high school are an endangered species and on an international education measurement, relative to other nations, American children do worse the longer they stay in school.

It isn’t a money problem. Federal spending has risen from $4 billion to $22 billion in 20 years and in the most recent fiscal year, our country spent $480 billion on elementary and secondary education compared with $360 billion on defense.

Rooservelt approached the problem from an ideology perspective. Republicans want to reduce the cost of education, Democrats want to spend more but don’t want to consider education reform and the unions just get in the way of progress to reform and improve education.

DuPont calls it an “institution problem; a problem created and sustained by layers of immovable bureaucracy in public-school administration, departments of education, legislatures and teachers’ unions.”

“We’re doing it for our kids” just doesn’t cut it anymore in today’s environment because our kids are failing academically. Roosevelt wants tough standards because that will raise the bar for everyone in the process. Focus should be on challenging and educating children to achieve excellence and not allow social promotion and grade inflation that’s so evident in our education system today.

Other writers (Checker Finn and Caroline Hoxby) indicate the reason our public education system is failing our children is that public schools “have not been obligated to produce results.” They have a captive student body, a guaranteed source of income forever and are insulated from competitive pressures with school boards, state administrative and union bureaucracies that govern the education system.

Though DuPont, Hoxby, and Finn subscribe to market forces like school choice to propel our education system to replace public education bureaucracies, Roosevelt indicates we should challenge our schools, regularly measure students’ and teachers’ progress and provide extra help to students who fail standards.

Right after Mr. Roosevelt spoke, three NEA teachers verbally attacking him for degrading our public schools and for teacher bashing. He defended his views and indicated several of his colleagues are also dismayed that he’s so critical of his former political base. However, most people in the audience agreed with him.

Whatever action is taken to reform education, we must remember intellectual, moral and spiritual strength of our people is threatened by our poor education system. Good education is an American value and we should be aiming for perfection even if we miss it rather than aim for mediocrity and hit in on the nose.

Thank you for your calls and notes. I can be reached at 658-3975 (home), 1-800-322-5616 or 228-2228 (State House) and via e-mail.

Rep. Frank Mazur
South Burlington