Improving Educational Opportunity

By Greg P. Harris

It is imperative that school funding no longer be contingent on geography (e.g. property taxes). The production of knowledge is a uniquely national issue, and it is critical that educational opportunity be equalized nationwide.

At a time when educational achievement is more important than ever, 95% of America's high school seniors score worse than their counterparts in other developed countries when tested for reading, math, and science. On a global scale, with emergence of the Euro and, eventually, a united Europe, the U.S. is poised to fall behind in the knowledge economy.

It is imperative that school funding no longer be contingent on geography (e.g. property taxes). The production of knowledge is a uniquely national issue, and it is critical that educational opportunity be equalized nationwide. Only the Federal Government can address this issue of interstate inequality in school funding.

In addition to mandating equal opportunity in education regardless of geography, the federal government must work to ensure that schools stop functioning as a relic of the pre-industrial agrarian era (short hours and long summers). This not only needlessly cuts into learning time, but also accelerates juvenile crime. It is no coincidence that most juvenile crime occurs during the late afternoon hours. Presumably, many teen pregnancies are also conceived during these hours. The extended school day is the ultimate juvenile crime prevention program. As a tool for extending the school day, quality extra-curricular programs need to be integrated into curriculums nationwide, from service learning to cultural, athletic, and vocational opportunities.

President Clinton--both through Hope Scholarships and Americorps--took first steps towards universalizing education through the 14th grade. This goal must be completed. In the modern knowledge economy, universalizing educational opportunity through at least an associate's degree will pay for itself in the long term because it will add more skilled workers to our workforce.

Although I support meaningful education reform, I believe that we must stop blaming teachers and schools for educational problems that often have more to do with socioeconomic conditions than with what goes on in the classroom. Quick fixes such as vouchers and mandated testing simply will not improve student learning in any significant way, as early studies have already begun to show. Vouchers are bad educational policy. Public funding of private or religious education transfers precious tax dollars from public schools, which are free and open to all children, accountable to parents and taxpayers alike, and essential to our democracy, to private and religious schools that charge for their services, select their students on the basis of religious or academic or family or personal characteristics, and are accountable only to their boards and clients. Similarly, standardized testing exerts an insidious pressure on teachers to "teach to the test." Improved student achievement is better achieved by reducing class sizes, by ensuring safe and orderly classrooms, by equalizing school funding, and, especially, by making the teaching profession fulfilling enough to attract and retain qualified teachers.

I am a former teacher whose parents are professors at a public university. I grew up with deep respect for the profession. I was educated in the public schools, and all of my degrees, including a PhD from Ohio's Miami University, are from public institutions. In addition to teaching for six years, as Program Manager for an Americorps service learning program called Public Allies, I recruited predominantly inner-city young adults to work as apprentices in community agencies throughout Greater Cincinnati. So I have been on both sides of the proverbial desk, studying for many years from skilled public teachers, then doing my best to carry out that tradition of committed teaching in traditional and non-traditional academic settings. Because of this background, I will work hard to protect the interests of America's teachers and their students.