Editorial: Clinton has spotlighted school debate

Saturday, Feb. 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

PRESIDENT Clinton has done well in focusing public attention on government's most important public service, education.

Some aspects of Clinton's proposal will undoubtedly come under fire from political opponents and education experts. Nevertheless, it's gratifying a national debate has begun on how best to educate our children.

Clinton wants to offer states standardized performance tests for every fourth-and eighth-grade in the nation. For the first year, the tests would be free and it would be up to states whether to use them. Standardized tests may pave the way for states with lagging performance scores to improve themselves. As it is now, there are wide disparities in student performance among the states and differences in test criteria.

The president also wants pocketbook incentives for education. He would offer a $10,000 tax deduction for college tuition and $1,500 HOPE scholarships to make two years of college a universal opportunity.

And he opened the door to move public education into the private sector. Clinton proposes more federal funding for charter schools that are run by the parents and are fairly free of government regulation. Charter schools, a hotly debated option to publicly funded education, feature greater parental participation and and control.

Under the proposal, Department of Education spending would increase 13 percent to $32 billion. Some of that money would help renovate older schools, install computers, expand reading programs and train teachers.

Congressional opponents who have sought to abolish the department certainly won't like this latest wrinkle. But Clinton's emphasis on education is in line with the views of the voters.

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll last week showed an overwhelming majority -- 83 percent -- favored national performance tests for fourth-and eighth-graders. The public apparently perceives that all is not well with the nation's schools. In many areas, test scores have sagged despite substantial infusions of public money. States with the highest performance scores often have the smallest per-student investment in education.

The mediocre performance of many schools has raised alarms about the nation's ability to compete in an increasingly complex world economy. Demands for better trained and educated workers may force companies to look beyond our borders for their manpower.

Clinton obviously understands this and is responding to rising public worries on education. He has shown leadership in bringing this issue to the forefront and in taking the first steps to improve our schools. Other presidents have tried to identify themselves with education -- George Bush claimed to be the education president, but did nothing to earn the title -- but Clinton deserves the credit for actually trying to improve it.

It doesn't matter whether all the president's proposals are enacted into law. The debate over education has the public spotlight and that spells good news for the nation's young people and their future.