School Reform Needs Debate, but Leave Ideology Out of It : Political agendas take the focus off students

In quiet times, educational philosophy and methods of teaching children to read and write are subjects for academic study. But years of constant bombardment with news of poor test scores of California children has led to a reexamination by parents, concerned citizens and educators of what subjects are taught in our schools and how they are taught.

The topic has many facets. Are the many students whose native language is not English better taught through bilingual education or just in English? What of students whose ability to learn is hampered by their lack of nutrition at home? Surely a student can learn better if she is not hungry throughout the day, especially if a school is able to easily tap federal funds to provide breakfast and lunch for those from poor families.

There is also the question of counseling. Can a student pay attention in class if the problems at home are enormous? If the parents drink or abuse each other or the children, how can children be expected to become A students? Would advice from a trained counselor make things easier?

Those questions have come increasingly to the fore in Orange County in the past few years. In a county known for its conservatism, proponents who label their goals “back to basics” and often oppose counseling, subsidized meals, bilingual education and most programs proposed by the federal government call themselves conservatives and denounce their opponents as liberals.

Some of this debate arises from politics, but education should be nonpartisan. Education also should be free of ideology. The Republican answer when 2 is added to 2 should be the same as the Democrat answer.

That does not mean there should not be debates over how best to teach. Teachers unions, administrators and others in the education establishment need to reexamine their assumptions periodically, especially when parents wonder why Johnny can’t read. This and concern about math education in the early grades has, as the governor’s education advisor Marian Bergeson notes, led to a broad-based consensus that improvement is needed.

Parents need to be encouraged to help their children learn, to be a presence at school, to let teachers know they expect the best for their kids.

Debate is good in campaigns for boards of education as well. In too many instances, candidates for school board have run stealth campaigns, unwilling to spell out what they support or oppose. In some cases it appears that candidates are running for the board of education to dismantle it. If indeed that is the intention, say it. Last fall a candidate for a Fullerton school board proclaimed himself an “onward soldier” of the Christian right, an advocate of public schools teaching creationism rather than evolution as the origin of life. The voters listened and defeated him, but there was no doubt where he stood.

The Education Alliance, founded three years ago to put conservatives on school boards in Orange County, disavows a religious mission. But many of its candidates support vouchers that would let parents get state aid to send their children to private schools, most often religious schools. That, and its financing by a prominent Christian conservative, makes many who are concerned about the welfare of public education wonder about the organization’s agenda.

California voters rejected a voucher system in 1993, rightly realizing that it was likely to make things worse for public schools. Unlike their private counterparts, public schools have to take nearly all who knock on the door, be they below average, handicapped or rambunctious in class. Public schools have been a pillar of this country, helping to create the middle class necessary for a flourishing democracy. If they are not doing the job they did decades ago, improve them, don’t destroy them.

Orange County schools have scrambled since last fall to trim class sizes in the first and second grades, spurred by Gov. Pete Wilson’s education initiative and its pledge of extra funds. The initiative and the response reflect the realization that public schools need help and must improve. School board members need to help too, studying what works and what doesn’t, and keeping their focus on the welfare of students.