DATE: Monday, March 3, 1997                 TAG: 9703030041

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  140 lines

EDUCATION ADVOCATE PETE DECKER NO LONGER IS ON THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, BUT HE CONTINUES TO PUSH FOR EARLY INTERVENTION FOR AT-RISK CHILDREN.

Pete Decker is talking about his favorite topic: helping children, particularly the underprivileged. He's on a roll - it's probably best just to get out of the way.

He still overflows with advice for those in charge of Virginia's public schools after the governor recently replaced him on the state Board of Education. A sampling:

Teach disadvantaged children early and well to help them start school on an even footing, ultimately reduce poverty and crime, and prevent possible riots and general social collapse.

Put federal Title 1 remedial-education money where the needs are greatest - it's misused now.

Allow school guidance counselors to do their jobs unfettered by parents' restrictions.

Return public prayer to the classroom.

And don't even think about accepting Ebonics in the schoolhouse.

Peter G. Decker Jr. - Norfolk lawyer, civic and charity activist, staunch Democrat - also had kind words for the Board of Education president and its other members, despite their ideological differences. He said the board and Republican Gov. George F. Allen were sincere but misinformed in rejecting federal Goals 2000 money until this year.

Decker plans to stay involved. He's already talked with Superintendent of Public Instruction Richard T. La Pointe about meeting with federal Title 1 officials to discuss changes in that program. And he promised to volunteer as a tutor for at-risk children in Norfolk community centers.

Gov. Allen last month declined to reappoint Decker to a second four-year term. Replacing Decker on the nine-member board will be former Republican state Sen. John W. Russell of Fairfax.

Decker says the decision is fine - that's politics. He, after all, was appointed by Democratic Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. Under Wilder and earlier Democratic governors, Decker headed the board overseeing the state's prisons.

Now he's preaching the gospel of early intervention. Start working with disadvantaged or at-risk children before they start school to get them caught up with their better-off peers. Teach them their letters, numbers, colors, whatever they need.

Decker saw that the bulk of the state's prison inmates, largely illiterate and unschooled, came from disadvantaged backgrounds. He saw a connection between poverty and crime that he passionately believes can be severed by education - intense, almost one-on-one work with 4-year-olds, involving as many as half the children in urban cities like Norfolk and Richmond. This early education also will be necessary to make welfare reform work in the long run, he says.

To not do so would be ``malfeasance,'' he said during an interview in his downtown office.

``These are the children who start the 50-yard dash of life about 20 yards behind the other kids,'' Decker said. ``Early intervention is the answer. There should be literally 25 percent of the budget dedicated to early intervention involving at-risk children.

``If we don't involve ourselves in early intervention, I think we'll have another generation such as the past one we just had, with so many children who continue to be have-nots. I really see not only riots occurring . . . , I see the have-nots in an uprising.

``We need to invade the minority and at-risk children with education. We need to suffocate them with education. And we need to spend whatever monies it takes to bring them all to the same starting line in the first race. Otherwise, this society, in my opinion, will never be a success.''

His proudest time on the Board of Education came with the successful rebuff of administration efforts to require parents' permission for guidance counselors to talk to students. Decker sees the counselors as ``the most-urgent Band-Aid'' for kids with problems affecting their schoolwork. Restrictions would impede everything from classroom-behavior management to investigations into possible abuse.

The counselors are ``the bridge between what's possible in education and what could otherwise never happen,'' he said. ``That would have been a very hopeless situation if guidance counselors had been modified so that you have to have parental approval before a counselor could even talk to a child. That would defeat the very purpose. My greatest fear has been, since that 4-3 vote, that once I left that they would put it back on the agenda. And if they do, I think that the bridge of learning is going to be blown up.

``For some reason, we have a fear in the Allen administration that the rights of parents are going to be taken away. In the past, we never knew that. Your mother and father were never concerned about those things. I'm not concerned about those things. I mean, I see no indication that any administration in our state or our federal government is attempting to take away the rights of parents. Why should there be such a fear?''

Decker quickly touched on other education topics:

On Ebonics, the so-called ``black English'' that some have suggested accepting as a separate language while teaching standard English:

``It would be probably a classic example - a most-classic example - of dumbing down that's ever been practiced. And it would be a cop-out. It would be a separation - not only a separation of the races, but a most-dangerous separation of classes of people. By the use of a language that doesn't use appropriate English, I think you would have a true subclass . . . .''

On Virginia's new education standards that direct what is taught in the state and how well:

``Virginia has formulated Standards of Learning and Standards of Quality that are second to none. I mean, they are magnificent. I think we're doing a lot of what we were doing before . . . and I think we've shifted the focus from what do you have to teach to what should they learn - what should a child know?''

On the Board of Education:

``I also feel very confident that we have Michelle Easton as the chairlady of that board - an Allen appointee. She really cares. She works hard.

``I can tell you, the members of that board are the hardest-working people, and most sincere people I know. And they're all Allen appointees.''

On prayer in school:

``I used to say that our sociological problems started when our country kicked God out of our schools. . . . Maybe it's coincidental - I don't know. was what about allowing some type of religion in our schools. . . . So I said about two years ago that the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) had their lawyers . . . and the students had lawyers, the parents had lawyers and the school board had lawyers, the Department of Education had lawyers, the state had lawyers. God had no lawyers, right? So I said, `I'll be God's lawyer.' ''

On how Title 1 money, aimed at helping disadvantaged students catch up to their peers, is used:

Title 1 ``activities include every student at every school. . . . It's wrong. . . . And that's the problems with `no strings attached.' ''

On Goals 2000 money being rejected for years by Gov. Allen because of unacceptable ``strings,'' a position Decker fought strenuously:

``The strings that were attached were very few. Questions were: `Could you buy computers?' `Yeah, you could buy computers.' All you had to do was tell us you were buying computers, and why you're using it for that.

``There never were any strings. They haven't changed anything. Everything's the same as it was. . . . I'm just grateful that the administration saw the light.

``I think the governor was sincere in what he did. And you can be less harsh when you think a person is sincere. And not accepting Goals 2000, I found that I considered that he was misinformed, and the board with whom I served was misinformed, in that regard. . . . But I think it's strong evidence that they were not correct when 49 other states took hold and not one of them had a complaint about - quote, unquote - `strings attached.' ''

On the state of public education in Virginia:

``I would think that we're certainly in the upper third in the country. . . states throughout the country. They're as good as they can get.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Pete Decker KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW EDUCATION

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