European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 21, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns James j. Kilpatric Radical plan for education Reform makes sense a revolution developed the other Day out on Massachusetts Avenue. You might suppose that this excitement arose in one of the third world embassies but no. Two scholars raised the firebrand of Radical Reform of Public education and they raised it in the staid surroundings of the Brookings institution. This is the stuff of Man bites dog. Brookings has functioned for years As a veritable Citadel of political and social liberalism. But the study just released is far removed from traditionally Liberal policies in Public education. This study bears a regrettably off putting title a politics markets amp americans schools a but you can to Tell a Book by its cover. This is Bombshell material. The authors Are John e. Chubb a senior fellow at Brookings and Terry m. Moe a professor of political science at Stanford. They propose nothing less than a a revolutionary Reform that introduces a new system of Public it would be a Gross oversimplification of a thoughtful and provocative work to describe their proposal As merely another variation of a a vouchers or a tuition this columnist was enthusiastically promoting tuition Grants More than 30 years ago. The concept is nothing new. Political conservatives have embraced the concept intuitively. Chubb and Moe get there empirically. After three years of pondering a Mountain of educational statistics they became convinced that none of the Quot reforms urged by the educational establishment has anything much to do with the successful school. Piecemeal changes they contend wont do the Job that needs to be done. Over the past seven years spasms of Reform have led to dozens of palliative the most familiar of these traditional approaches has to do with Money if Only the teachers were paid higher salaries if Only the schools were equipped with modern tools if Only More were spent on this or that Money we have been told is the key word. The authors debunk All this. Teacher salaries have soared and expenditures now amount to about $4,500 a year per Pupil in average daily attendance. A there is no evidence that increases of even this magnitude stand to have important effects on school reformers have promoted smaller classes hence closer Pupil teacher ratios. Many states have beefed up academic requirements for High school graduation. Much has been heard of stiffer certification requirements for teachers. The spasms have Given us More Homework for students Merit pay for teachers Walter r. Mears famous National disasters Oveka few Quot vol maces i Alp Over tows Rivers 0vetceuswj3 class owls career ladders alternative schools Magnet schools something for everyone. And the level of academic achievement across the nation is pathetic. The two revolutionaries do not discard the traditional Liberal remedies out of hand. A they have their pluses and some of the touted reforms May even work. But the problem with our Public schools in their View lies in the centralized bureaucratic Structure of the system As a whole. Not until this Basic political Structure is swept away to be replaced by a new system of decentralized largely autonomous schools will things begin to improve. Their key word is parents must have a wide ranging Choice of schools that Are self governed. In East Harlem where the Chubb Moe dream has been partly realized Public High schools specialize in Ballet in vocational education in mathematics maritime studies environmental science and computer science. The academic results have bordered on the miraculous. A the system appears to work smoothly effectively and it All seems too Good to be True and Given the entrenched nature of the educational bureaucracy it probably is too Good to be True. The authors Are asking Public authorities a to create a system that is almost entirely beyond the reach of Public this would require an abandonment of political Power unknown in the annals of political science. It wont happen. But it ought to happen. The ideas advanced in this study Are essentially sound. They rely upon the competitive forces of the marketplace. The authors propose to free the talents and resources of Good teachers and Good principals who now Are stifled by bureaucratic controls. It is amazing that Brookings would lend its prestigious name to such Radical disestablishment aria ism but there you have it. I would say to my new friends on Massachusetts Avenue its Nice to have you aboard. C Universal press Syndicate the impossible Job of Senate majority Leader according to one of his followers the Senate majority Leader is the poor Guy who works late after most senators arc a Aback Home at night in pyjamas watching a Republican senator adds that he imagine a worse Job. George a Mitchell the Maine Democrat ran hard for the Job winning the authority to Shepherd senators and Senate business or try. It has its moments. The majority Leader is a National spokesman for his party a Man to reckon with on any Federal government decision. It also has headaches. Mitchell usually is stoic Calm and Businesslike but some Days the frustration shows. His Senate enforcement Powers Are limited. An earlier generation of congressional leaders had rewards to Grant and punishments to Wield. Reformers have eliminated Many of them and party discipline has faded As it has in the House. But the House does its legislative business under procedural rules that limit debate regulate amendments and generally ensure that the majority on an Issue will get its Way. The Senate does no to have such a legislative traffic code and there Are no limits to debate unless three fifths of the senators vote to restrict it. The system protects not Only dissenters but also absentees who often want actions delayed until they get Back to vote. As a result much of the Senate a work is done under intricate agreements worked out to protect All sides and enforceable Only because nobody objected when they were adopted. Lately there have been More objections than agreements. A major crime Bill was swamped in a sea of amendments 337 of them when Mitchell said he was going to drop the Bill even though a majority wanted it passed. Three other measures were blocked too one by a threatened filibuster one by amendments and sparse attendance and one by the objections of absentees who insisted on delaying the vote. On june 8, a Friday Mitchell said 27 of the 100 senators were absent which meant those who were left do any significant business because nobody wanted their measures brought to a vote with that Many people missing. A a we re just reaching the Point where it is very very difficult to move Forward on any piece of legislation Quot Mitchell said that Day. Like a teacher with an unruly class he said he might take away recess. He said he May Start scheduling morning votes on mondays and fridays a move that would Cut Down on Long weekends. He threatened to shorten the four week August recess and said Congress May have to work longer into the fall even though it is an election year and candidate members want to quit a month before the nov. 6 elections. That kind of recess discipline or the threat of it has been tried before by other majority leaders to enforce their schedules. Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas said he sympathized because when the Republican minority he leads was in the majority he tried to dream up ways to Speed Senate business and nothing worked. Sen. Alan j. Dixon Dill called the majority Leader a this poor Guy who gets Here before us in the morning and leaves after we Are All Back Home at night in Mitchell listed some of the major measures that Haven to yet come up for action civil rights Campaign finance Reform a farm Bill defense appropriations housing legislation and the biggest of the lot a budget Resolution still under negotiation with the White House. There stalk that it May take a lame Duck Post election session to Deal Wilh the budget. Sen. Bob Packwood a Ore a thinks it will be necessary in order to Settle on a budget. Sen. Warren b. Rud Man r-n.h., speculates that a lame Duck session might also Deal with Senate pay and Campaign Reform. Even the deadlines and Calendar pressures of a Holiday season lame Duck session would not guarantee Swift Down to business behaviour. Delay becomes an even More formidable weapon against legislation when everybody wants to quit for Christmas. And another headache Tor the Leader. A i cannot imagine a worse Job than to try to organize this body a said sen. John c. Danforth a to. A i think it would be absolutely note a Walter r. Mears vice pres a a a a and columnist for the associated press has r�p�rt0�i. Washington and National politics Tor More than 25 years the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views 01 the stars and strives or the United
