Making the Grade
In the hands of parents, information is like rocket fuel for education reform.

By Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio), Chairman, House Education and the Workforce Committee.
April 6, 2001 9:30 a.m.

hen Congress returns from its Easter break, conservatives will have an opportunity to inject some

Printer-Friendly E-mail a Friend

accountability into federal education policy for the first time since the LBJ era. This rare opportunity presents itself in the form of "No Child Left Behind," President George W. Bush's plan to empower parents by asking states and public schools using federal education dollars to be more accountable.

Conventional wisdom holds that by requiring things like annual state assessments and school report cards, the Bush plan takes conservatives into unfamiliar territory. But does it really? Much like school choice, such reforms make the education establishment nervous. The reason is simple: They empower parents at the expense of bureaucracy.

In the hands of caring parents, information is like rocket fuel for education reform. Why ask states to evaluate schools and students annually? Because parents deserve to know how their child's school stacks up against others. Why have report cards for states and school districts? Because parents deserve to know whether their children are being taught by qualified teachers, and whether their child's school is falling below expectations.

The more parents know, the more likely they are to push for meaningful change in our schools. No one understands this more completely than the education establishment. When parents lack information, there is little incentive for schools to demonstrate that they're using taxpayer resources effectively. Without the ability to measure, there's no way for parents (and by extension, policymakers) to know for certain that children are learning.

For those who don't consider "No Child Left Behind" a challenge bold enough to warrant conservative enthusiasm, consider the alternative.

Washington's willingness to spend more money on education without accountability has given rise to a battalion of special interests, teacher's unions, and other so-called experts with an entrenched interest in preserving the status quo. The establishment has long since reached two conclusions that are every bit as false as they are self-serving: That due to societal factors, many disadvantaged students are incapable of learning; and that consequently, it is unfair to demand that states and schools using federal education dollars be accountable for improving students' performance.

While giving lip service to the importance of parental involvement — the real cornerstone of education — the education bureaucracy has crushed efforts to empower parents. This defiance has been to the detriment of both students and taxpayers. Since 1965, Washington has spent nearly $130 billion on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)'s Title I program in a well meaning but fruitless bid to aid disadvantaged students. More than $80 billion of that has been spent in the last 10 years. Yet the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers hasn't budged.

Enter George W. Bush. Cognizant of the fact that Bill Clinton outpolled Bob Dole by wide margins on the education issue four years earlier (GOP polls showed Dole lost by more than 50 points among voters for whom education was the most important issue), the Texas governor targeted the achievement gap from day one of his campaign and never looked back. By the time it was over, Bush had erased the Democrats' lead and given Republicans the slight edge that they have today. For the moment, some Democrats are as ready as they'll ever be to buck the establishment.

The 2000 campaign paved the way for reform, and conservatives must capitalize by implementing the president's plan. An initial triumph — particularly one that empowers parents, represents a wholesale (and possibly bipartisan) rejection of the establishment's resistance to accountability, and validates the conservative notion that there must be consequences for failing schools -- paves the way for future victories on such cherished priorities as school choice.

"No Child Left Behind," backed by Democrat and Republican governors alike, is a shot across the bow of the weary Washington establishment; it is a signal that policymakers are no longer willing to squander taxpayer education dollars on mediocrity. Its passage would mark the first time since the Great Society that Washington has returned a meaningful degree of authority to parents at the expense of the education bureaucracy. Most significantly, it would provide new hope that the next generation of disadvantaged students can escape the misery of low expectations.

As former Education Secretary Bill Bennett recently noted: "It is better for a student to be corrected by a parent, a teacher, or a test and then be given a chance to improve, than to be corrected by an often unforgiving, out-of-school world."

Conservatives have yearned for an opportunity to break the status quo in federal education policy. This could be our moment. On behalf of parents and students, let's seize it.