Teacher Accountability Enters Campaign Dialogue as Candidates Debate

Seven Democratic presidential candidates reiterated their party’s traditional support of increased federal spending on the nation’s schools in a campaign debate Friday, but some of them also added a significant new note--insisting that in return for bigger bucks, schools and teachers should deliver better results.

“Everybody understands” the need for a pay increase for teachers, said Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt. “But there also has got to be some attention paid to accountability, to performance by teachers who benefit from that general increase,” he added, making a point that in one way or another was echoed by many of his rivals.

The 90-minute appearance of the Democratic presidential contenders before a crowd of about 5,000 at the Dean Smith Center here was part of an education debate double-header sponsored by the University of North Carolina.

Kemp, Du Pont Debate

After the Democrats were finished, New York Rep. Jack Kemp and former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV, the only two of the GOP presidential candidates to accept the university’s invitation, confronted each other in another 90-minute session, which like the Democratic encounter was broadcast over state public television.

In their debate in Iowa last month, the Democrats jabbed at each other and in particular at Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, whose campaign has shown signs of gaining momentum. But on Friday, they targeted the Reagan Administration and Education Secretary William J. Bennett, whom several of the candidates denounced for what they regard as his excessively partisan rhetoric.

Educational reform was the main focus, however. The Democrats’ emphasis on “accountability” reflected the growing concern with the quality of the education American youngsters are getting, an attitude going back to the 1983 report of the National Commission on Education that condemned “mediocrity” in the nation’s public schools.

Leery of Spending Label

That emphasis also reflected Democratic efforts to learn from past electoral defeats by moving away from what Republican critics have charged was excessive and automatic reliance on government spending programs to solve the nation’s problems.

Accountability “makes good political sense,” said Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who attended the debates. “It’s unwise to ask citizens to spend more money unless you can offer them something better and different.”

Ironically, “accountability” is a favorite word of Bennett’s. At a National Press Club speech earlier this week, Bennett called accountability the “linchpin” of the educational reform movement.

Former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, who said he favored more accountability by teachers and school systems, nevertheless charged that “William Bennett is on a witch hunt” against the National Education Assn., the nation’s largest teachers union and a powerful ally of the Democrats.

Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. said he would fire Bennett, who was in the audience.

At a private luncheon after the debates, Bennett refused to shake Gore’s hand when the senator approached him.

Still, some of the Democrats appeared willing to put some distance between themselves and the NEA, which critics accuse of being overly influential in party affairs on certain points.

Gephardt said he disagreed with the organization’s opposition to the tax revision law because of its potential adverse impact on teachers’ pension benefits and said he also favored some form of “pay for performance” or merit pay, which the NEA has generally opposed.

Merit Pay Experiments

Dukakis said he did not favor spending as much money on education as the NEA did. He did not mention merit pay but later told a reporter that he favored allowing states to experiment with such plans.

He said that in Massachusetts he had backed a plan that encouraged teachers to assume greater responsibility in return for which their pay was increased.

Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Gore both said they favored a longer school year to improve education quality, another idea generally opposed by the NEA.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, when asked by North Carolina’s former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt, who acted as moderator of the Democratic debate, whether teacher salaries should be increased across the board, or raised on a merit basis, said he favored a general increase. But he also called for extra pay for teachers who worked under often dangerous conditions in inner city schools, which he called “war zones.”

Jackson Lauds Coach

Jackson got the biggest laugh of the session, when, in urging colleagues to recruit more minority students, he referred to the success of Dean Smith, the North Carolina basketball coach, for whom the auditorium where the debate took place is named.

“If Dean Smith can find minorities, then other deans can find minorities,” Jackson said.

Illinois Sen. Paul Simon underlined his commitment to continued financial support for schools. “I can’t accept the basic premise that we cannot find additional dollars for the field of education,” he said. “We can. The question is whether we are going to make it a priority.”

When it was their turn, both Kemp and Du Pont derided the Democrats for their willingness to increase education spending at the expense of the defense budget. “It seemed that their new idea is to spend more money and take it from defense,” Kemp said.

‘$300 Billion on Table’

Du Pont said: “I’m sorry I didn’t have a pocket calculator. By the time the seven of them got through, they had at least $300 billion in new spending on the table.”

But both said in response to questions that they would not have cut back federal spending on education as sharply as President Reagan had done. Du Pont said he would have resisted making some of the cuts that would have been used to help finance college loans. Kemp said: “I have not had the manic desire to cut aid to education like some have had in Washington,” and added that he expected federal spending on education would continue to rise.

The two rivals disagreed sharply on Du Pont’s proposal to provide federal assistance to disadvantaged students through vouchers, which could be used to direct federal payments to either private or public schools.

Sees Threat in Vouchers

Calling Du Pont’s federal voucher proposal “a private market approach” to education, Kemp warned it would undercut the federal commitment to public education and at the same time threaten to increase federal involvement in local school systems.