Bipartisan Coalition Pushes for Education Reform

Business and civic leaders, worried about the poor preparation U.S. public schools are giving students to compete in the 21st century's global economy, have forged a bipartisan coalition to press for broad education reforms. Some of the first fruits of their new partnership are scheduled to be shown on Feb. 28, when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for American Progress plan to unveil their joint platform for change. The project has been in the works since last April.

Their common initiative comes in the wake of a nationwide poll the chamber conducted on how the business community assesses the American education system. In response to one key question, 87 percent of the 571 business organizations that answered the online survey said the current No Child Left Behind requirements should extend all the way through high school.

To qualify for federal subsidies, the law, enacted in 2001, requires public schools to annually measure the reading and math skill levels of students in grades three through eight and at least once in high school.

"It absolutely shocked me when I got those results back," said Jacque Johnson, executive director of education and workforce development at the chamber. "They revealed that there's wide support out there for taking action. There's a pre-election window that's open to extend the provisions with a target date for action in May or June, but that window is likely to close next year if nothing is done."

On Feb. 13, a "Commission on No Child Left Behind," sponsored by the Aspen Institute, released its own blueprint for what Congress should do. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said that report, in laying out needed adjustments, reflects "the broad, bipartisan commitment to improving our nation's schools that was behind" the original legislation.

"It was a good optic," Johnson said of the commission's news conference, which Spellings attended. All four major congressional players were there, which Johnson took to be a positive sign. They are Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee; and their respective ranking members, Sen. Michael B. Enzi, R-Wyo., and Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif.

"The key people on the Hill want it (the reauthorization) to be bipartisan," Johnson added.

For next week's launch of the education reform initiative, the chamber and the center are presenting their top guns: Thomas J. Donohue, the chamber's veteran president and CEO, and John D. Podesta, the center's president and CEO who was former President Bill Clinton's chief of staff. In addition to releasing the reform proposals, the two groups plan to grade all 50 state education programs, plus that of the District of Columbia, from kindergarten through 12th grade. The idea is to gauge how well today's students are being prepared for tomorrow's jobs.

"We will not rank them," Johnson said, referring to the analysis, which is called "Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness." Johnson said the "report card" would cover nine specific areas, including "academic achievement, the rigor of its academic standards, post-secondary workforce readiness and, somewhat uniquely, a business-oriented look at 'return on investment.' "

Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, acted as a third partner in preparing the analysis. In 2004, he published "Common Sense School Reform" (Palgrave MacMillan). His book begins: "School reform is the province of utopians, apologists, and well-intended practitioners who inhabit a cloistered world where conviction long ago displaced competence."

"My views haven't changed in the last three years," said Hess, who holds a doctorate in government from Harvard.

He'll be joined in a panel discussion on Feb. 28 by Cynthia G. Brown, director of education policy for the Podesta-led center, and Ulrich Boser, a contributing editor at U.S. News and World Report. Arthur J. Rothkopf, a senior vice president at the chamber who was President George H.W. Bush's deputy secretary of transportation, will moderate the discussion; he recently retired as president of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.