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Subject: Idea of the Week: A New Bargain for Public Schools
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The DLC Update Monday, September 27, 1999
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Discuss the Idea of the Week at the DLC Idea Exchange at
http://www.dlc.org/idea/discussion.htm
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***Idea of the Week: A New Bargain for Public Schools***
Most federal aid to education has been traditionally based
on an old bargain that no longer works: Washington offers
money to states and school districts based on need, and then
micro-manage how it is used, with little or no attention to
what it produces in the way of educational results. While it
has done much good to offset the financial inequities
inherent in schools due to widely varying local revenue
bases, it has also rewarded failure as often as success. That
is why the disparities in education levels between poor and
middle- or upper-class Americans--that justified federal aid
to education to begin with--are getting worse, not better, at
precisely the time when education and skills loom larger
than ever as a factor determining individual opportunity.
This year's reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA)--the primary vehicle for
federal aid--offers Congress the chance to reinvent federal
education policy for the Information Age. In addition, there
is finally a legislative package on the horizon that would
accomplish the kind of dramatic shift in strategies the
country needs: DLC Chairman Sen. Joe Lieberman's (D-
CT) Public Education, Reinvestment, Reinvention, and
Reinvigoration Act
Lieberman's "Three R's" bill (along with a House
counterpart that Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN) intends to offer)
is based in large part on the Progressive Policy Institute's
report, Toward Performance-Based Federal Education
Funding, by Andrew Rotherham, President Clinton's
Special Assistant for Education Policy. In some respects, it
is a more sweeping variation on the Clinton
Administration's proposal to link federal education aid to
accountability for educational results. It also draws on
bipartisan proposals from the Governors to provide greater
flexibility in administering federal education funds by
consolidating a variety of programs. More fundamentally,
it redefines the federal role in education and offers states
and poor school districts a new bargain: strong federal
support and broad administrative flexibility in exchange for
a commitment to reform, innovation, and the achievement
of measurable results in closing the gap between good and
bad public schools.
Lieberman's "Three R's" plan would:
--Reconfigure the Title I compensatory education program
for disadvantaged students by increasing the targeting of
funds to the poorest schools, requiring steady progress
toward the goal of ensuring math and reading proficiency
for all children, demanding radical action to improve or
close poor-performing schools, and raising overall funding
by more than 50 percent.
--Consolidate teacher training programs into one grant
focused on raising the quality of teaching as well as the
quantity of qualified teachers, with strict performance
standards.
--Streamline bilingual education programs while making it
clear the goal of bilingual instruction is to achieve student
proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking English.
--Strengthen federal efforts to provide parental choice
among public schools, including universal--information on
school, student and teacher performance, school safety,
access to technology, and physical conditions; while
encouraging more performance-based "charter" schools.
Consolidate all other K-12 programs into a single fund that
would encourage innovation and --experimentation on a
broad array of educational challenges.
--Introduce a regime of accountability throughout all
federal education programs that would reward success and
punish failure according to simple performance measures.
In effect, Lieberman's bill combines the best ideas for
improving public school performance from every direction.
But it does not endorse the dubious logic of Republican
schemes that demand accountability without standards for
public schools, and no accountability at all for private
schools receiving public funds.
If lawmakers in both parties believe half of what they say
about the critical importance of improved education in an
Information Age global economy, they should get behind
Lieberman's bill as an urgent priority.
***Bad Company in Seattle***
The AFL-CIO recently announced it intends to send 15,000
members to Seattle at the end of November to participate in
events surrounding the World Trade Organization (WTO)
ministerial summit. The labor federation's web site
outlines the need for a strong labor presence in Seattle to
ensure that trade negotiators from around the world
understand the need for including workers' rights in future
trade liberalization efforts conducted under WTO auspices.
To be sure, stirring a healthy debate over workers' rights
keeps faith with a progressive vision of globalization. But
we hope leaders of the labor movement also recognize the
necessity of keeping their distance from the virulent anti-
globalization forces marching on Seattle. The WTO talks
have become the target for a truly weird international
initiative to demand an immediate and unconditional halt to
any discussion on liberalizing trade or investment, and then
a rollback of earlier trade agreements to reverse the alleged
damage to Mother Earth and her many children.
A manifesto signed by approximately 1,100 organizations
from 87 countries makes it abundantly clear that the "battle
in Seattle" is not intended to be a calm and reasoned
dialogue. "The Uruguay Round Agreements," it says,
referring to the last major series of trade liberalization
efforts, "have functioned principally to prize open markets
for the benefit of transnational corporations at the expense
of national economies; workers, farmers and other people;
and the environment....We oppose any further liberalization
negotiations. We commit ourselves to a campaign to reject
any such proposals." Signatories include a rich broth of
Marxists, anarchists, pacifists, animal-rights groups,
Greens, a few trade unions, and third-world advocacy
groups. The groups plan a giant bus caravan across
America to Seattle, which should provide a fine autumnal
diversion for the decidedly capitalist and carnivorous
heartland populace along the route.
More ominously, some of the fringe groups headed for
Seattle seem ready for a reprise of 1960s-style guerilla
street action. According to the September 20, 1999 issue of
The Financial Times, "a small group of self-described 'top-
flight hell-raisers' from across the country spent last
weekend at a special 'Globalize This!' action camp...the
aim was to fine-tune their skills in non-violent action
techniques and civil disobedience so they can train others."
The venerable Industrial Workers of the World (a.k.a.,
"Wobblies") has called for a sort of general strike to "Shut
Down Sea-Town" on the day the WTO meetings begin. It's
all beginning to look like last summer's "Carnival Against
Capitalism" in London, which got out of hand and then
violent.
We are sure the U.S. labor movement does not share such
loony views or loopy plans. Our hope is that their presence
in Seattle will serve to spur a genuine dialogue, and not
converge with a movement that wants to radicalize Seattle
into a "happening" that may well wind up resembling
Chicago '68 or Woodstock '99.
***With Friends Like These***
Congressional Republicans are forever telling the business
community that it needs to put all its eggs into the GOP
basket, foreswearing any assistance to Democrats and even
firing staff people with Democratic backgrounds from
every trade associations or government affairs office.
"We're your friends," they say. "We'll never let you
down."
Next time any business executive interested in international
trade gets this kind of call from a GOP fundraiser or
enforcer, the caller should be asked why the trade
community's "friends" in Congress went out of their way
this week to deep-six any prospects for congressional action
on permanent normal trade relations (NTR) for China,
without even pausing to see what eventual deal U.S. trade
negotiators may strike as part of China's accession to the
WTO.
"I don't think it's possible to get permanent NTR," said
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, in a statement
virtually guaranteed to undermine ongoing negotiations
with China. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott cited
Congress' "busy legislative schedule" in agreeing there just
was no time for an NTR vote this year. Lott is also
blocking action on the Africa Trade Bill and extension of
the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the only other trade
measures on Congress' plate. Sorry, we're just too busy.
That's a howler. What, exactly, is the GOP Congress so
busy with this year, other than waiting around for its leaders
to figure out how to get out of the budgetary box they have
constructed for themselves? Maybe they are too busy
intimidating business lobbyists with demands that they
support their "friends."
###
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