Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 3, 1995 TAG: 9506060061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
This time, the thousands of angry phone calls, letters and Internet messages poured in because of a Federal Trade Commission action accusing a reading program, Hooked on Phonics, of misleading ads. The company and the FTC announced an agreement to settle the complaint Friday.
A befuddled FTC insisted Friday that it had nothing against either home schooling or phonics.
``We are not trying to prohibit sales of this program. We are not against home schooling in any way,'' said FTC spokeswoman Bonnie Jansen.
The action against Hooked on Phonics' maker, Gateway Educational Products of Orange, Calif., was merely a ``routine, bread-and-butter type of case'' alleging that advertising claims were too broad, Jansen said.
``All we are saying is that they need to have substantiation to back up any educational claims,'' Jansen said.
But parents who believe that public schools are controlled by liberals who are hostile to the basics insisted the FTC had targeted the small company for ideological reasons.
``The bottom line is that thousands of parents are deeply unhappy with the prevailing `education industry' way of teaching reading in this country, that of `whole language' learning,'' said Bob Sweet, president of the National Right to Read Foundation.
Mike Farris, unsuccessful Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in Virginia in 1993 and head of the Home School Legal Defense Fund, said he had feared the FTC was planning ``a broad attack on the materials that parents use to home school their children.''
If the FTC plans to routinely check the claims of private educational products, it also should check whether publishers can prove their school textbooks teach effectively, Sweet said.
Whole language learning is popular in many universities that train teachers, and many researchers insist it works.
In phonics, children sound out letters and combinations of letters. In whole language instruction, they tackle a whole word at a time.
Conservative groups contend whole language instruction teaches children bad habits, including that correct spelling isn't important.
``I'd just love to have people quit spouting this nonsense, and just teach kids how to read,'' said Linda Page, a former reading teacher in California public schools who now works for the Christian group Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Hooked on Phonics officials, meanwhile, insist their product is not political and that their agreement with the FTC was amicable. ``We feel confident we can substantiate our claims,'' spokeswoman Dorothy Taguchi said.
Nevertheless, the firm was not surprised by the outpouring of support. ``We know people like us, because they also send us thousands of letters,'' Taguchi said.
Support also came from members of Congress. After the consent agreement was proposed, several members of the House, including Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Rep. Bob Dornan, R-Calif., wrote the FTC in February to complain that the success of products like Hooked on Phonics is ``seen as a threat ... to an establishment with a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo.''
Home schoolers have flexed their political muscle before. In February 1994, they flooded House switchboards over a proposal to require teachers to be certified in subjects they teach.
Its sponsor, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., insisted it would apply to public schools only, not home schools. Nevertheless, the House rejected it quickly.
Normally, the FTC does not go out of its way to publicize the number of public comments it receives on a pending case. But in this instance, ``we felt we had to,'' Jansen said. ``The misunderstanding was just so broad.''
Under the agreement, Gateway acknowledges no violation of law but agrees to have ``competent and reliable evidence to back up any future educational-benefit claims.''
The FTC had taken issue with claims that Hooked on Phonics could ``quickly and easily'' help those with reading problems or disabilities. It also took issue with a claim that Hooked on Phonics could ``teach reading in a home setting without additional assistance.''
Farris' group estimates that 600,000 to 1 million children are now being taught at home by parents. The Education Department estimates that 248,500 to 353,500 children were educated at home during the 1990-91 school year.
by CNB