Learning: FYI
Finally, A Vision for a New Federal Role

Vice President Gore is proposing the biggest boost in federal support for public schools in over 30 years.

Back in 1964, after decades of NEA advocacy, a President of the United States was finally able to convince Congress to help support American public education on a serious, ongoing basis. Without President Lyndon Johnson’s leadership, the landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act would never have become law.

Federal support for public education has waxed and waned in the years since, sinking in the 1980s and then coming back in the 1990s, but, today, federal dollars still amount to just under 7 percent of the cost of operating America’s public schools.

That could change. In December, Vice President Al Gore became the first American political leader in 35 years to propose a fundamental expansion of federal support for public education.

What would Gore’s plan mean for you and your school? This month’s NEA Today takes a closer look.

All candidates say they support education. What’s Gore proposing, in actual dollars and cents?
Vice President Gore is proposing to devote $115 billion of the budget surplus to create an Education Reform Trust Fund. Those dollars would be earmarked for a wide range of initiatives, from raising teacher salaries and reducing class size to making preschool more universally accessible.

Just what sort of an increase in federal support for education would the Gore plan constitute?
A sizeable increase. Over the last 10 years, the federal government spent, all told, $182 billion to support public schools. Over the next 10 years, under the Gore plan, federal support would jump by $115 billion.

This boost would clearly amount to the largest single federal funding increase for educating kids since the 1964 passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

No President has ever before pushed for a program to directly raise teacher salaries. How would the Gore plan work?
Far too many high-poverty school districts are hard-pressed to attract and retain qualified teachers. In California alone, 28,500 emergency credentials were handed out in the last school year.

To address this reality, the Gore plan would award grants to districts that create partnerships to raise teacher standards and provide professional support to help all teachers succeed.

All teachers in these participating partnership districts would receive up to a $5,000 salary increase.

Teachers who have met an advanced professional standard—such as national certification—would receive an additional $5,000 salary hike.

Will higher salaries alone be enough to get the nation past the impending teacher shortage?
Probably not, which is why Gore is also proposing an aggressive effort to attract talented young people into teaching via what he calls a 21st Century National Teachers Corps.

This Teachers Corps would annually provide college scholarships to 60,000 young people who commit to teach in high-need schools for at least four years.

Isn’t the Clinton Administration already moving to lower class size? What’s different about what Gore is proposing?
The Clinton Administration’s class size initiative has centered around the hiring of 100,000 new teachers. The new teachers hired so far have been largely at the elementary level.

The Gore plan aims to build on this success by creating incentives to create smaller high schools. Districts that have a strategy to create high schools with less than 600 students—or break up existing schools in innovative ways—would be eligible for the new federal support.

Gore’s goal: an average classroom size nationally of no more than 20 students for all grades, with an average no higher than 18 in the early grades.

Too many kids arrive at school not ready to learn. What’s the Gore plan say about readiness?
A huge chunk of the total plan’s spending—about $50 billion—would be spent to make preschool education accessible for three- and four-year-olds.

Currently, about 55 percent of American three- and four- year-olds are enrolled in preschool. But these totals are skewed by income. Nearly 80 percent of households earning over $75,000 send their children to pre-school. The figure in households earning under $10,000 a year: only 43 percent.

Studies have shown that children who attend pre-K programs have better social and problem-solving skills once they enter the elementary level.

What about opportunity for older, disadvantaged students?
Many low-income students can’t afford to even think about taking Advanced Placement courses. The Gore plan would provide grants that would offer disadvantaged students subsidized access to courses at the AP level.

What’s NEA’s take on the Gore plan?
NEA President Bob Chase has called the plan “the kind of educational leadership America wants from its next president.”

What about other reaction?
Predictably mixed. Texas Governor George W. Bush, for instance, has blasted Gore for proposing an expanded federal role in education.

“I’d be wary about federal politicians running around the country handing out pay raises,” Bush noted in December. “That’s a local matter.”