TV REVIEW : ‘Reading, Writing’: Education Reform a la Louis Rukeyser

Asking Louis (“Television’s Top Financial Expert”) Rukeyser to host a show exploring the issue of whether the United States is doing a responsible job of educating its children for the 21st Century seems to make perfect sense. After all, a slick Wall Street guy like him just might be able to explain the ins and outs of the education biz--a business that’s been in a bear market for some years now.

Unfortunately, Rukeyser’s slant on things can’t get past his business orientation, starting from his opening bully pulpit warnings about “an authentic crisis central to our economic future” and finishing with a stern-faced sermon lauding the benefits of “higher standards” and a “free market” voucher system.

Rukeyser is preaching to the converted--including this reviewer--and doing a bad job of it. Charged issues like the above and others --such as the political correctness softball that Rukeyser repeatedly serves up to a guest roster of conservatives like Milton Friedman and Benno Schmidt--he even threw in a left-wing straw man, Albert Schanker, who was in “informed agreement” with him-- are given short shrift in the show’s inadequate coverage.

Rukeyser trots out all the usual signposts--illiteracy, truancy, disruptive students, bureaucratic school districts, suspect ideological agendas--but does little to analyze the problems and even less to force his guests to seriously engage these vital topics. “Reading, Writing and Rukeyser” falls flat--as a polemic and as a documentary.

As a result, what could--and should--have been a valuable educational experience is an opportunity missed.

* “Reading, Writing and Rukeyser” airs at 9 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.