THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 19, 1994 TAG: 9409170017
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Unfortunately, the comic strip Doonesbury these days is reflecting reality. In recent cartoons about fictional Walden College, the president of the school decides, based on the quality of the discussions he is having with incoming freshmen at a mixer, that what he is really running is a high-priced high school.
One student, who transferred to the school from ``Self-esteem University,'' tells the president he came to Walden because he is really interested in learning how to read.
Most college presidents today can relate. They too have to teach basic skills to incoming students whose high schools did not do the job. In Virginia's public colleges, according to a recent report by XXXX, 26 percent of incoming freshmen have to take courses in remedial math, English or reading. In the Hampton Roads area, the figure is even higher.
The problem speaks volumes about the lack of standards in public schools, where earning a high school diploma for many is less an achievement of learning than an activity in attending school more than is minimally required. But the public education establishment is resistant to change even in the face of evidence that indicates the system isn't working.
Partly, the fault can be laid at the door of business. By making a college degree the minimum requirement for employment in most jobs, the high schools have an incentive to simply pass their problems onto the colleges.
Gov. Allen's task force on government waste and inefficiency wants to attack that problem by having school districts reimburse colleges for the cost of freshmen who have to take remedial courses. The prospect of a real whack out of their budget might force high schools to confront their problems rather than make them somebody else's.
Another measure proposed by reformers is a graduation exam that would test basic skills and which students would have to pass before receiving a diploma. Other ideas include charter schools, which would allow non-traditional approaches to education.
In the Doonesbury cartoon, administrators suggest calling the remedial courses ``introductory'' in order to hide their low standards from view. Others suggest renaming the college a high school. (Do Gary Tudeau and Jane Pauley send their kids to private school, we wonder?)
Those are the kinds of empty ``reforms'' that usually come from within the education establishment. If the $26 million that Virginia's public colleges now spend on remedial courses is ever to find a better use, Gov. Allen will have to force the General Assembly to confront the issue. by CNB