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--- Monday --- November 4, 1996 --- Vol. 63 --- No. 82 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
GET OUT THE VOTE | SPOTLIGHT |
Tomorrow's election day. | |
Don't forget to vote! | A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT |
| |
FIRE SAFETY | Marriott International |
| Inc. has reached a new |
The National Fire Protection | social contract with its |
Association has selected 10 | low-wage employees, note |
cities from across the U.S. and | some observers. The hotel, |
Canada to receive a "1997 Learn | like other U.S. industries, |
Not to Burn Safe Cities Award." | faces an economy of low |
The winners are: Chicago; | unemployment, meaning that |
Colorado Springs; Jacksonville, | it cannot easily replace a |
Fla; Kern County, Calif; Los | maid or clerk who quits or |
Angeles County; Milwaukee; | otherwise drops out of the |
Philadelphia; Raleigh; Yonkers | work-force. Marriott's |
and Calgary, Alberta. | response: develop programs |
Each city or county will | that benefit low-wage |
receive NFPA's Learn Not to | workers and increase the |
Burn fire safety education | hotel's productivity and |
materials along with technical | bottom line. Pathways to |
support to establish or enhance | Independence, one of |
the Learn Not to Burn program | Marriott's programs that |
in grade schools and daycare | provides basic work-skills |
centers. Safe City winners | training for former welfare |
will participate in a workshop | recipients, may become a |
designed to help teachers | model for the nation's new |
manage a Learn Not to Burn | welfare reform agenda.(#3) |
program and to evaluate program |
results. NFPA leaders will | The U.S. DoEd also is on |
visit each community to | board the low-wage-worker |
conduct a teacher in-service | bandwagon with new grants |
workshop and provide assist- | for the National Workplace |
ance. NFPA headquarters is in | Literacy Program. (#2) |
Quincy, Mass.; 617/984-7274. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"I think it is premature to say much because there is not much to
say." -- Peter Flanigan, Wall Street investment banker,
on developing a plan to carry out New York City Mayor Rudulph
Giuliani's call for sending 1,000 low-achieving public school
students to Catholic schools. (#4) ____________________________
| A service of the National Education Goals Panel |
| Published by the Education Policy Network |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Wash, D.C.; 20037; 202/632-0952 |
| The DRC hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
PARTNERS IN EDUCATION
ACHIEVE: An education resource center. (#1)
WORKPLACE LITERACY PARTNERS: Riley awards funds. (#2)
MARRIOTT'S LESSONS: How to help low-wage workers. (#3)
THE PRIVATE EYE
GIULIANI'S CATHOLIC SCHOOL PLAN: Still on drawing board. (#4)
FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE
AGUILAR VS. FELTON: Justice Dept. seeks new ruling. (#5)
ELECTION '96
BOB DOLE: Talking about education. (#6)
===== PARTNERS IN EDUCATION =====
*1 ACHIEVE: AN EDUCATION RESOURCE CENTER
A new education resource center designed to assist states
and business leaders has emerged from the 1996 National Education
Summit. Business and foundation leaders already have pledged
about $5M to build the center, called Achieve. Summit organizers
said Achieve will be located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan
area and will be independent of any existing organization
(ACHIEVE press release, 10/16).
According to the release, Achieve has five goals: provide
national leadership on the issues of high academic standards,
assessments, accountability and effective use of technology to
achieve high standards; prepare and make publicly available an
annual report that tracks progress made toward achieving the
commitments made at the 1996 National Education Summit; establish
and manage an electronic clearinghouse of information on academic
standards, assessment tools and accountability systems used by
various states and countries; provide a benchmarking program to
compare standards and assessment tools among states and
internationally; and provide technical assistance to states
seeking to establish and meet higher academic standards.
Thirty states already have submitted their standards and
testing tools to be included in the electronic clearinghouse.
The 1996 National Education Summit, held at IBM headquarters
in Palisades, N.Y., was attended by 41 governors, 49 business
leaders and 34 resource participants, as well as President Bill
Clinton. (See DRC 3/29) Attendees voted unanimously to adopt a
policy statement calling for all states to establish
internationally competitive academic standards, assessment tools,
and accountability systems within two years, notes the release.
Business leaders vowed to change their hiring practices by
considering a potential employee's high school academic
transcript in making hiring decisions. They also agreed to
consider the quality of a state's academic standards when making
business location or expansion decisions.
Eleven states have held or plan to hold their own statewide
education summits, including: Alaska, Conn., Fla., Ga, Kan.,
MIch., Neb., Nev., N.J., N.Y., N.C.
Louis Gerstner, Jr., chairman and CEO of the IBM
Corporation, conceived of the National Education Summit, and was
joined by then National Governors' Association Chairman Gov.
Tommy Thompson (R-Wis.) and Gov. Bob Miller (D-Nev.) to co-chair
the Summit.
*2 WORKPLACE LITERACY PARTNERS: RILEY AWARDS FUNDS
U.S. Ed Sec Richard Riley announced the award of $12.4M in
the National Workplace Literacy Program grant awards. The funds
will support the efforts of 45 projects in 27 states to "help
workers retool their skills to keep pace with changes in the
workplace," writes a DoEd press release. (10/28)
"We must ensure that every adult possesses the knowledge and
literacy skills needed to succeed in the 21st century," said
Riley. "These grants promote continuous learning through local
partnerships that enable workers to acquire the job literacy
skills that result in new employment, job retention, career
advancement and increased productivity."
National Workplace Literacy Program projects focus on
literacy, English-as-a-second-language, computation, problem
solving and other skills required to perform job tasks
effectively. Awards are made to a variety of partnerships
involving state education agencies, local schools, universities,
community colleges, businesses, community-based organizations,
industries, labor unions and private industry councils.
For example, First Chicago Corp, the city's largest
employer, received funds to provide about 4,000 employees with
basic skills training programs to support quality initiatives and
enhance employee performance, service accuracy, timeliness,
reliability and customer satisfaction.
Employees -- including clerks in remittance, payroll,
research and adjustment, accounts payable and mail distribution
-- have benefited from training that helps them work in teams and
handle more responsibility "in response to major technological
changes in cash management, administrative functions and bank
card processes," writes the release. Other employees received
basic reading and math skills to help them master increasingly
complex financial services.
Another grantee, the Colorado Community College and
Occupational Education System, provides customized instruction
that encourages new employment and training opportunities and
improved job performance for more than 2,000 workers in
manufacturing, health care and electronics employed by 15 of the
system's business partners. The consortium also has developed
resource books for workplace learning, a newsletter for workplace
learning professionals and workplace learning videos.
The National Workplace Literacy Program awards are
authorized by the Adult Education Act, providing funds to
partnerships that involve at least one educational institution
and one business or labor organization. The current awards are
for the last year of a three-year project period.
*3 MARRIOTT'S LESSONS: HOW TO HELP LOW-WAGE WORKERS
Marriott International Inc. is in the vanguard of businesses
that provide training, social services and other programs for
their low-wage employees (Yang, Palmer, Browder and Cuneo,
BUSINESS WEEK, 11/11). "It's critical that we become more
skilled at managing this workforce," said Donna Klein, Marriott's
director of work-life programs.
BUSINESS WEEK describes the current economic landscape that
makes improving the skills of low-wage workers critical to the
private sector. Although the economy demands a growing number of
high-skill workers, it also needs more low-wage employees.
Nearly 30% of today's employees earn $7.28 an hour or less, which
is up from 23.5% in 1973, according to an Economic Policy
Institute study. Yet, unemployment nationwide is at a low of
5.2%, which means "companies are hard-pressed in many places to
find new workers," observes the magazine.
Marriott's solution is to develop various training and
social programs to improve the skills of their low-wage workers,
since they are not as easily replaced as when unemployment was
running higher. BUSINESS WEEK: "While [Marriott's] approach
may hark back in some ways to the paternalistic labor strategies
of old company towns, it has also launched something new: an
attempt to forge a more lasting, more productive relationship
with lower-wage workers." Faith Wohl, director of the U.S.
General Service Administration's Office of Workplace Initiatives,
said employers have "returned full circle to a social contract
with employees."
The social contract for Marriott includes Pathways to
Independence, a company-developed course on basic work skills for
former welfare recipients. The six-week program is offered at
hotels in 15 cities and could become a model welfare-reform
program, notes the magazine. Pathways to Independence
participants learn about the importance of showing up to work on
time, personal financial management and work on developing self-
esteem. BUSINESS WEEK reports that Pathways graduates placed in
Marriott jobs have a 13% turnover rate, which is far below the
company's national average.
Another program sponsored by Marriott is the Associate
Resource Line, "a national toll-free referral service that hooks
up its workers with local social services," reports the magazine.
The program is offered in more than 100 languages. Other
programs ready to start are The Fatherhood Project and Atlanta's
Inn for Children, a 24-hour subsidized child-care center launched
by Marriott and two other hotel groups.
The Fatherhood Project, to be launched by the Families and
Work Institute for the Washington, D.C., Marriott, will teach
male employees and spouses of female workers how to become better
parents. Other companies offer similar programs only to white-
collar workers. But Marriott officials, noting surveys that show
women view a more involved partner as a "key stress-reducer,"
claim the company will benefit from less burned-out workers.
ESL (English-as-a-second-language) programs are prevalent
among Marriott locations. According to the magazine, more than
half of the Marriotts in the U.S. offer ESL classes.
Organized labor has joined forces with the San Francisco
Marriott to create a $3M training program and an $1.8M child- and
elder-care fund, writes the magazine. The Marriott Hotel-
Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union agreed to
the programs as part of their 1994 contract.
BUSINESS WEEK notes that Marriott critics chastise the firm
for not simply increasing wages -- Marriott pays its U.S. workers
a median rate of $7.40 an hour, including overtime. They charge
that Marriott "simply is taking advantage of vulnerable workers
who can't get jobs elsewhere," writes the magazine. But others
point out that employee turnover is "well below most rivals" and
loyalty runs high, notes the magazine. "If I hadn't found good
day care," said Gladys Chacon, a single mother working for the
Chicago Downtown Marriott, "I would have had to quit my job."
===== THE PRIVATE EYE =====
*4 GIULIANI'S CATHOLIC SCHOOL PLAN: STILL ON DRAWING BOARD
Early September, New York City Mayor Rudulph Giuliani (R)
proposed sending 1,000 of the lowest-achieving public school
students to Catholic schools. (See DRC 9/11) Two months later,
the plan remains on the drawing board, with several individuals
groping for a way to make it happen (Steinberg, N.Y. TIMES,
11/3).
According to the paper, a small group of Wall Street
executives and philanthropists, including Peter Flanigan, a
director of the investment banking firm Dillion, Reed & Company,
is working to establish a charitable organization to raise
tuition funds for the city's worst students to attend private and
parochial schools. "I think it is premature to say much because
there is not much to say," conveyed Flanigan. "The honest-to-God
truth is that we are a long way from having come to some
agreement as to how to design and implement this program," he
said.
Flanigan and two other trustees of the Manhattan Institute,
a conservative public-policy group, are trying to secure
contributions from individuals, philanthropies and businesses to
cover the cost, which the TIMES indicates could run more than $2M
a year. "We think we can raise the money," said Richard Gilder,
a stockbroker and the chairman of the Gilder Foundation, which
has "donated nearly $1M to the city's Catholic schools over the
last decade," reports the paper. "But no one has guaranteed it."
The TIMES reminds readers that Giuliani "accepted a long-
time offer form the Archdiocese to take 1,000 public-school
students who rank among the lowest 5% in academic achievement."
Initially, the mayor said the program would be paid for with
public funds. However, he retracted his statement the following
day, and said the program would have to be paid for with private
donations.
Several questions continue to challenge the program's
advocates, including: will it be open only to high school
students, and how will the students be identified since Schools
Chancellor Rudy Crew refuses to provide a list of the city's
lowest-performing students.
===== FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE =====
*5 AGUILAR VS. FELTON: JUSTICE DEPT. SEEKS NEW RULING
In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Aguilar vs.
Felton prevented public school instructors from teaching remedial
courses in religious schools (Greenburg, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/31).
Now, the U.S. Justice Department has filed a brief requesting
that the court's decision was based on an "incorrect
interpretation" of the 1st Amendment and has had a "significant,
adverse impact" on the teaching of remedial courses.
The initial ruling focused on a federally funded remedial
program for certain elementary and secondary school students in
disadvantaged neighborhoods that was designed to reach both
public and private schools, writes the paper. In the Aguilar
case, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that "public funds could be
used to teach remedial students in private, religious schools
only if the teaching occurs off the school's premises," reports
the paper.
One consequence of the decision: "hundreds of millions of
dollars" of federal funds have been spent on administrative costs
to ensure compliance with Aguiler -- funds that could have been
spent on teaching, notes the paper. The administrative costs
include leasing mobile units and "escorting students away from
religious schools," writes the TRIBUNE.
According to the paper, the Clinton Administration filed the
brief last month in support of the New York City Board of
Education and New York parents of religious school students. New
York religious-school students are offered the remedial courses
four ways: they could attend a nearby public school; attend
classes in mobile units; attend classes in off-school sites
leased by the school board; or, for computer-assisted
instruction, use a certain room in the religious school or a
laptop in their home, writes the paper.
Last year, the parents and Rudy Crew, chancellor of the New
York City school system, petitioned a federal judge to allow the
students to again take remedial courses in their own schools.
However, a judge ruled against them, and a federal appeals court
concurred.
Douglas Laycock, a religion scholar from the U of Texas,
holds that the Aguiler ruling is a "goofy compromise that makes
no sense to either side." Douglas Kmiec, a constitutional law
expert at the U of Notre Dame, predicted that the Supreme Court
would overturn the case "based on recent decisions that allow
religious organizations to accept subsidies that are generally
available to everyone else," writes the paper.
The paper also points out that Justices Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice William Rehnquist stated two
years ago that Aguilar should be overruled "at the earliest
opportunity. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who dissented in the
Aguilar decision, also let it be known that the decision should
be overturned. And Justice Anthony Kennedy has publicly
announced that the ruling should be reconsidered, writes the
paper.
==== ELECTION '96 ====
*6 BOB DOLE: TALKING ABOUT EDUCATION
The following are excerpts from an education speech
delivered by Senator Bob Dole at Cardinal Stritch College in
Milwaukee, Wis., on 13 July 1996.
"I'm here to talk about education reform. If we're going to
build a better America and prepare ourselves for all the
challenges of the 21st century, then education reform has to be
right up there with tax reform, regulatory reform, and welfare
reform. Milwaukee's a good place to talk about this issue,
because it's home to some of the most exciting education reforms
in the whole country.
"A lot of people in this city have struggled for years now
to improve the education system, and to give parents the right to
choose where their children go to school. Your movement is
really grassroots America at its best. . . . This doesn't have
to be a partisan issue. And in Wisconsin, it hasn't been a
partisan issue.
". . . I spoke yesterday in Minneapolis about the need to
strengthen our pubic schools with an Education Consumer's
Warranty that guarantees basic principles like safety. The
ability to learn the three Rs through proven methods, and to
acquire an understanding of American history and democratic
values. Freedom from needless bureaucracy and red tape. The
right to know whether your school is meeting its obligations. A
diploma that truly indicates readiness for college or a good job.
"The warranty also includes parental school choice. We have
choice and competition in our higher education system, and not
surprisingly we have the best colleges and universities in the
world, by a long shot. But if you look at elementary and
secondary education, you find an education monopoly that often
fails in its mission, because there is no competition and not
enough drive for excellence.
"Last year, we tried to establish a scholarship program for
the people of Washington, D.C. -- people with no choice but to
send their kids to the most mismanaged, over-staffed, incompetent
and dangerous schools in America. . . . But the teacher's union
said no, and Bill Clinton went along with them. I think it's
time to say no to the education monopoly and yes to the hopes and
dreams of American parents. . . .
"Our idea is to provide cash scholarships in the amount of
at least a thousand dollars for kids in elementary school and
1,500 dollars for high school students. Of these amounts, half
will come from Washington, and half from the states And the
states can add even more if they wish. The dollars will follow
the child to the school chosen by the parents. If parents pick a
public school outside their district, that's their choice. If
they want their son or daughter to apply to a private school,
that's their choice. And if they want a religious school, that's
their choice as well. That's how the G.I. Bill worked, and it's
how the Pell Grant program works today for college students;
nobody tells you where to go to college.
". . . My philosophy of education is that the federal
government should be giving fewer orders and offering more
options. For Opportunity Scholarships, we'll use existing
federal dollars and direct them to families instead of
bureaucrats. And we won't have Washington pulling the strings.
The states should lead the way because they're closer to the
people. That's the spirit behind the Tenth Amendment to the
Constitution, which has been neglected for too long and which I
intend to revive as president.
"Opportunity Scholarships will be another step forward for
the school choice movement. I think in some ways this movement
is like a civil rights movement of the 1990s. You have ordinary
citizens fighting against the odds to overcome the old ways of an
old order. And then you have the so-called experts who say,
'Keep quiet. Just wait, we'll fix things. We know what's good
for you.' Yet the parents and the communities keep organizing,
coming back, standing up, speaking out, refusing to take no for
an answer. Here in Milwaukee, you've had to fight the
bureaucracy, the teacher's union and even the ACLU. You're still
fighting, and you're doing the right thing.
". . . President Clinton is on the side of the teacher's
unions, the bureaucrats and everyone else who wants to fight for
the status quo. I'm going to be on the side of the parents and
the children -- today, tomorrow, and when I assume the office of
President of the United States."
Education remarks given by President Clinton were published
in the Friday, 1 November, DAILY REPORT CARD.
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