CNN - National education summit under way

Now that Johnny can read, can he get a job with IBM?

Governors, business leaders tackle education woes

March 26, 1996
Web posted at: 7:20 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Charles Bierbauer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Readin', writin', and 'rithematic just aren't good enough for the fast pace of today's job market. That's why the nation's governors, along with business leaders, opened an education summit Tuesday in New York state to consider the top three new areas of concern: standards, assessments and technology.

Pledging to raise the standards of academic achievement in America's schools, the leaders from throughout the United States met to hash out the details of a tough new scholastic agenda for the country.

The group is calling for "new world-class standards" for American education -- mainly by raising the standards used to measure achievement by students and schools.

"Too often we seem too willing to accept underachieving standards suitable only for a Beavis, a Butt-head or a Bart Simpson," Nevada Gov. Bob Miller said. "The nation's governors and CEOs are fed up with passive acceptance of mediocrity."

But educational standards add stress to the debate about what's important in schools today.

"What we need to be teaching them is how to access the knowledge and how to use the knowledge. These tests aren't going to test any of that. They're going to see how well children can memorize," teacher Cynthia Wrenn Swecker said at the summit.

Education officials, however, say that the solutions to education problems cannot be found at the national level. Education Secretary Richard Riley wants to leave much of the work to the states themselves (127K AIFF sound or 127K WAV sound).

In a recent survey, U.S. students ranked 14th compared to other countries in math and 13th in science. Polls suggest that most Americans support higher academic standards and believe graduating high school seniors should be required to pass an exam before receiving a diploma.

At the summit Tuesday, Virginia and other states' governors touted standards as the measure for bringing America's schools back to a competitive level.

For Virginia Gov. George Allen, standards are a local matter. He has turned down federal funds for his program. "We're not going to prejudice and harm the potential of our young people in Virginia just for a penny a day," he said.

The business leaders' interest in education is competitive. Job applicants line up for new jobs by the thousands, they say, but few are qualified, so the companies must spend millions on remedial training.

"The reason the business community is more interested in education today than it was 10 years ago is because they are having a more difficult time getting people to work in their industry or business place than they did 10 years ago," said Keith Geiger of the National Education Association.

IBM's CEO Louis Gerstner says Americans don't want national standards and that education is a local enterprise. Gerstner is a strong voice at the summit because he and others like him are the ones who hire America's graduates. And, he says, things don't look good. "In an increasingly global economy, I'm not liking our chances."

Former President George Bush convened the first education summit with governors in 1989 and called for a national standard. Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, was in the front row. In a speech to the meeting, he too called for a national standard as well as an annual report card on American education (191K AIFF sound or 191K WAV sound).

President Clinton will drop by for an hour of the two-day summit, which is being held at a corporate campus near New York. The summit was convened by Gerstner and Gov. Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin.

Joining them is a hand-picked group of nearly 40 people, many of whom are active in conservative education circles. No students and only one or two teachers have been invited. Groups left out, such as the National School Boards Association and the National Parent Teacher Association, have openly complained.

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Now that Johnny can read, can he get a job with IBM?

Governors, business leaders tackle education woes

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