Educator Urges Commitment to School Reforms

Former Education Secretary Terrel H. Bell said Friday that President Reagan has missed a chance to spark a real turnabout in American schools, and he urged the presidential candidates to make that their top domestic priority.

Bell expressed alarm at the steep high school dropout rates, especially among minority youths, and the “marginal” skills of many others who manage to get a diploma.

“We can’t continue to lose 30% of the rising generation,” Bell said at a news conference at the National Press Club.

“This problem needs to be attacked by all of us, but the leadership needs to emanate from the Oval Office,” said Bell, the author of a book of memoirs, “The Thirteenth Man,” on his four years in the Reagan Cabinet.

In a separate interview with the Associated Press, Bell expressed disappointment with the results to date of the school reform movement and with Reagan’s efforts in this area.

1983 Report

Bell created the commission that wrote the stinging 1983 report, “A Nation at Risk,” which warned of “a rising tide of mediocrity” in schools and prodded many states to raise graduation standards and look for ways to improve teacher status.

“I think we missed an opportunity to fully take advantage of ‘A Nation at Risk’ and all the attention on it by not giving it a high priority and a high profile in the second term,” Bell said.

“Had the President done that, the results of the school reform movement would have been much more impressive than they are.”

Bell said Reagan sent the wrong message by repeatedly seeking deep cuts in federal spending on schools and colleges.

“It would be wrong for me to say he has ignored the problem. But it hasn’t been one of his top three priorities,” said Bell, a professor of educational administration at the University of Utah. “It just hasn’t occupied enough of his time.”

He urged the next President to call an education summit early next year of governors, lawmakers, college presidents, school administrators, teachers, parents and others “to arrive at a consensus on what we need to do.”