Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 5, 1990 TAG: 9007050272
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/7 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
The boldest action proposed by Geiger in remarks prepared for the opening session of the NEA annual meeting today is the creation of a $2 billion program to make sure all children will start school ready to learn by the year 2000.
"The public perception is that the NEA is against change. It's one of the most mistaken notions in America today," Geiger said in his first address as president to the policymaking body of about 8,000 delegates.
Geiger said the nation's largest teachers' union supports restructuring public education, including giving more authority to local schools and setting higher standards for teacher preparation.
"My friends, no more business as usual. We must be the catalyst to move this country off dead center," Geiger said. "In the '90s, we must be the agents for the rebirth of American education."
Geiger is proposing a plan he called "Operation Jump Start" that would require educators to identify students who need special attention, either with schoolwork, self-esteem or confidence or other services. He estimated about one-third of the elementary schoolchildren in America would be affected.
"We would release this educational surge in an intense two-week period before regular classes in the fall of 1991 - a little over a year away," he said.
"The classes themselves would be held in the schools the children would normally attend, the teachers would be the familiar faces who will follow up with the children during the school year."
Geiger called on Congress and the president to appropriate about half of the needed dollars - estimated at $1.1 billion. He said state and local governments would pick up the rest of the tab.
On a related issue, the NEA's board of directors was expected to adopt a position that public schools become the primary provider of preschool education for America's 3- and 4-year-olds.
"The arguments for this preschool position go beyond the child's own development," Geiger explained. "Every major trend points to public school being the center of the community in the years ahead."
by CNB