
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990                   TAG: 9006070414
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

STUDY RECOMMENDS INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

Each school should be able to structure its own program because student achievement is being stifled by "heavy-handed politics and high-handed bureaucracy," said a study released Wednesday.

John Chubb, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, and Stanford University political scientist Terry Moe said in the study that states should provide schools with tax-funded scholarships for every eligible student enrolled.

Parents and students then would be free to select either public or private schools in any district.

"We found that America's current system of public education stifles student achievement because of heavy-handed politics and high-handed bureaucracy," Chubb said.

However, California Schools Superintendent Bill Honig called the scholarship idea a voucher system that would isolate poor and minority children, and would cost more because parents now paying private-school tuition would be subsidized.

According to the study, "Politics, Markets, and America's Schools," effective schools have 20 percent to 50 percent less interference from superintendents and central offices in matters related to curriculum, instruction, hiring, firing and discipline.

by CNB