Education and Our Children

Nothing is more important to those of us who are parents or grandparents than they way we prepare our children for the life in front of them. That is why education is the first task of state government.

Equality in Funding Education

Inequality in our schools is not just bad public policy, it is a moral crisis. We cannot honestly say we are a commonwealth that gives every child an equal start in life when average spending per pupil is $13,954 in some parts of the state and $5,520 in others. Inequality in education is not just a violation of our fundamental notions of justice. It undermines our hopes to create a vibrant economy in Pennsylvania. It is vital to the future of everyone in the state that our children grow up to be educated, informed, and productive citizens. We won’t have good government or a strong economy without children well prepared for life in the 21^st century. So we have to convince people throughout the state that investment in education is both just and necessary. I fully support Governor Rendell’s efforts to dramatically expand state funding of education in a way that moves us towards much greater equality of funding.

Programs that Work

Good education is not just a matter of spending money. We have to spend it on programs that work. Research on education has shown that pre-kindergarten programs like head start; full day kindergartens; small class sizes, especially in the early grades; and tutoring programs for those students who have difficulty in school are all effective means of boosting educational achievement. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should make the funds available so that all school districts can provide these programs.

Strong Principals / Effective Teachers

Good education also requires schools that a run by strong principals who respect and encourage good teachers. And it also requires principals and teachers to work closely with parents. Too often schools in Pennsylvania are too big and too hemmed in by bureaucratic rules to allow anyone—principals, teachers, or parents—to have a positive impact on education. We need smaller schools. We need to give principals greater authority over their schools, and then hold them accountable for the results. And we need to attract and keep good teachers by paying them as the professionals they are, giving them the resources and respect they need, and then holding them to the highest standards.

Charter Schools

We still have much to learn about what makes effective schools. So we also need to keep experimenting both about curriculum and how best to organize schools. One way to do that is by means of charter schools. The charter school movement, if developed in the right way, will also enable us to create smaller schools run by strong principals who support good teaching and maintain strong ties to parents.

Helping Parents and Kids Outside School

Finally, we can’t raise our kids properly if they leave good schools and return to disorganized communities and problem-ridden families. That is why we need strong communities and economic development to bring our kids up right. But we also need to give parents all they help we can. We need good, high-quality after school programs for all children. We need libraries that are open after school and on weekends. The cutback in funding for our libraries in the current state budget is appalling. It and must be reveres. And, in some cases, we need to teach parents as well as their kids. There are effective programs that train parents to better understand and raise their children. We need to make them available to all parents who need them. Early intervention in problem families will keep kids safe and keep families together.

Higher Education

We need to insure that everyone capable of attending college has the resources to do so. While it is important for students to pay some share of their education, in recent years state support for higher education has been declining. Students are either going much further into debt to pay for college or they are working longer hours while in college. College graduates who have high levels of debt are less likely to choose low-paying careers that contribute a great deal to society, such as teaching. College graduates who have to work more than fifteen to twenty hours a week cannot take advantage of the educational opportunities open to them. We need to insure that grants and tuition waivers are generous enough to prevent these problems.

While the recent increase in the number of students attending Temple University has raised standards, I am concerned that higher tuition, combine with these new, higher standards will make it more difficult for Temple to achieve its founding mission: educating college students whose talents may have been stifled by the inadequate high schools they attended. Together with the community college system, Temple should be a prime means by which equality of opportunity is guaranteed to students in Philadelphia.

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