Education Reform

Report Outline
Special Focus

Overview

The New Jersey Legislature had just defeated Republican Gov. Thomas H. Kean's key education proposal for the year, and he was angry. A “nefarious coalition,” led by the state teachers' union, had killed a bill allowing state takeovers of incompetent or corrupt local school system, Kean told reporters in September. “This is a defeat for children.”

On the West Coast, California's Superintendent of Public Instruction was also voicing frustration. After a bitter struggle with Republican Gov. George Deukmejian. Democrat Bill Honig recently was forced to accept a. $443 million cut in the state education budget for the current school year. “If this happens two years in a row,” he said, “I think the education reform movement could be dead.”

The difficulties encountered by Kean and Honig reflect those facing the national “education reform” movement of which they have been prominent proponents. In the past several year, the New Jersey and California programs have raised standards and improved conditions in the schools. But now, both programs face growing political resistance. Many people are questioning whether massive spending increases for education in recent years have been worth it, and whether they should continue. At the same time, teachers, and other educators are digging in their heels against further changes. Like the New Jersey teachers' union, they are refusing passively to accept mandates they see as coming from ill-informed non-educators acting through a distant bureaucracy.