Toughen Up

U.S. schools must improve

Concern about the quality of public education in the U.S. continues to grow. Last week two more prestigious groups issued critical reports. "We have expected too little of our schools over the past two decades--and we have gotten too little," declared the National Task Force on Education for Economic Growth, a group of 41 Governors and top corporate executives led by North Carolina Democratic Governor James Hunt. Summed up the report: "Our success as a nation will depend on our ability to improve education and training for millions of individual citizens." The findings echoed the conclusions of a report released two weeks ago by the National Commission on Excellence in Education.

The main recommendation of Hunt's task force was that each Governor draw on leaders in many fields "to develop an action plan to improve education in the state's schools--in all grades." This key point ran contrary to the main thesis of a study by the Twentieth Century Fund, also released last week, which called for the Federal Government to take the lead in improving U.S. schools. Declared the fund: "The Federal Government, after all, is charged with providing for the security and well-being of our democratic society, which rest largely on a strong and competent system of public education."

Both reports emphasized the need to improve the teaching of mathematics and the sciences and the importance of attracting and keeping good teachers in public schools. The two reports also addressed the need to modify the traditional approach of paying teachers on the basis of seniority and advanced degrees by making merit a factor in compensation. The Twentieth Century proposal would have the Federal Government annually award a bonus as high as $40,000 to qualified teachers, with the aim of making public school pay competitive with that of private enterprise. Within five years, the fund would like as many as 10,000 teachers to be receiving bonuses. Hunt's group recommended "better pay for all teachers and a good deal more for the really excellent teachers."

Traditionally, unions have opposed the concept of merit pay for certain teachers because of the danger of favoritism. But Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, says, "If it is possible to introduce performance-based salaries without demoralizing teachers, I would be the first one to jump up and say hurrah."

The Twentieth Century Fund also opposed federal funding of bilingual education, in which a student is taught academic subjects in his native language until he can master English. The concept's opponents claim the process slows down students' learning of English. President Reagan, who opposes the bilingual approach, approved cutting such programs from $167 million in fiscal 1981 to $138 million last year. The fund recommended that federal grants be spent instead on teaching non-English-speaking children to speak, read and write English. "Although this nation has become more aware of the value of ethnic identities, anyone living in the U.S. who is unable to speak English cannot fully participate in our society."

Nor, both reports made clear, can anyone who has not had a solid education. . This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.