Escalante’s Defeat Amid Triumph

If, at age 59, super teacher Jaime Escalante decides he wants to do something else after 16 years of helping students master calculus, he is certainly entitled to move on and challenge himself anew. But his expressed frustration with education bureaucracy should be alarming to anyone who wants public schools to attract and retain excellent instructors.

Escalante has received national attention--from President Bush to Hollywood, which made his work the subject of a popular film, “Stand and Deliver.” His dedication and tenacity led East Los Angeles’ Garfield High to the top in national calculus exams. But Escalante is not the only star in the public school system. He represents hundreds of lesser stars but equal talents who feel constrained by bureaucratic rules that seem aimed at elevating form over content. For example, Escalante was said to be angry that he was criticized by carping superiorsfor using a federally funded aide to help in an advanced program when the aide was supposed to be used only in remedial courses. If a nationally recognized teacher like Escalante “is frustrated with the school district, imagine what other teachers are feeling,” said a teachers’ union spokeswoman. The union and school district Supt. Leonard Britton, who has expressed dismay that Escalante plans to resign, must work together to devise additional ways to allow teachers more say, more flexibility--and more rewards for superior work.

Escalante would seem to have many more years of teaching left in him. He declares: “I have the energy of a volcano, the precision of the best calculator and the memory of an elephant!” Sounds as if that’s precisely what public education needs.