Education Leader Gives Reagan ‘F’ for Action

The Reagan Administration got an ‘A’ for talk but an ‘F’ for action Wednesday from Mary Hatwood Futrell, president of the 1.7-million-member National Education Assn.

Speaking to news reporters at UC Irvine, Futrell said President Reagan’s five-year tenure has been marked by good discussion of educational issues but his Administration has failed to follow through on programs. Reagan, she said, has drastically cut federal aid to education at a time when the nation’s school needs are more urgent than ever.

Futrell, a classroom teacher in Alexandria, Va., before she became head of the NEA in 1983, was a featured speaker Wednesday at the press conference opening the national convention of Pi Lambda Theta, the national education honor society.

Asked to give her assessment of the President’s record on education issues, she said:

“As far as P.R. (public relations), as far as highlighting the problems, as far as raising the awareness level of the American people--he should get an ‘A.’ As far as following through with concrete ideas for improving education, for supporting education, I would have to give him an ‘F.’

“I give him that,” she said, “because I look at the fact that we’ve had this (national report on educational needs in the United States) for two years, which did a magnificent job of informing the American people. (But) we have yet to see progress to come forth to help the teachers, to help the communities.”

The national report to which Futrell referred was the result of a 1983 study titled “A Nation at Risk,” headed by David Gardner, president of the University of California.

Cites Funds Reductions

Futrell said that the Reagan Administration, despite the needs cited in the Gardner report, has slashed federal support of the schools. She said that since Reagan entered the White House, the share of the national cost of education borne by the federal government has fallen to 6.4% from 9.2%.

In contrast, she said, state and local financial support of education has been increasing in the past two years. “States and localities are doing a pretty good job,” she said. She singled out for praise Alabama and South Carolina, which she said are in the forefront of those spending more money on schools.

Alabama, she said, is now committed to paying starting teachers $18,500 a year, compared to a national average starting salary of $16,000. She said that South Carolina “not only passed reform legislation but gave the money to support it.”

Futrell predicted a shortage of at least 1 million teachers within the next five years. The way to respond to that crisis, she said, is not by reducing teaching standards, but rather by increasing them markedly. Raising standards, she said, would tend to attract brighter college students to the field of education.

“We’re talking about (teacher) training,” she said. “We think the training program must be upgraded. . . . We’re calling for a grade-point average of at least 2.5 (of a possible 4.0) or better.”

Two-Degree Standard

One proposal she said she found very appealing would be to require new teachers to have two college degrees or majors, one in education and one in another field.

Futrell said that if two degrees become mandatory, states must be prepared to increase starting salaries significantly. She said that surveys have already shown that the main reason college students give for not pursuing careers in education is low salaries.

Following the afternoon press conference, Futrell addressed a dinner meeting of 260 educators from around the nation attending the national Pi Lambda Theta convention. The organization Wednesday night presented her with its Excellence in Education Award.