Time for a Fresh Look at School Systems - Brief Article

School Administrator, March, 1995 by William F. Goodling

We live in a time of tremendous change. We have heard that phrase so often that it has become a cliche. Nonetheless, I can think of no other that more accurately describes our present or our future.

The signs of this change are everywhere around us and quite familiar, perhaps uncomfortably so. Alvin Toffler, Peter Drucker, and others point out that we are transitioning from an industrial economy to one that is information-based. The explosion of personal computers and other electronic wizardry has increased dramatically the amount of information available to us, enhanced our ability to share it, and hastened its passage to obsolescence.

Businesses are changing, streamlining and decentralizing to better face the challenges of the international marketplace. Their leaders realize that survival depends on embracing and quickly adapting to the demands of a changing world. Even government, which always lags behind the rest of the nation, is slowly stirring from its reaction and inertia and exploring how to reinvent itself.

Last Nov. 8, the voters presented us with political change of historic proportions. New ideas now are raised to the level of serious discussion and debate. As some of these ideas become policy, they will bring into your lives more change and more of the anxiety that always accompanies change.

In short, the revolutionary changes that are overtaking businesses, families, society in general, and now the political system also are overtaking our schools and school systems. Educators can react to this in a predictable and human way: They can dig in their heels, resist, complain, and exhibit all of the classic symptoms of denial. Or they can acknowledge the winds of change that swirl about them and join with policy makers, parents, and the public to respond constructively to all of this.

If we are frank and honest with ourselves, we will admit to the need for change. Our model of education is more than 100 years old and was designed for another time. We have revised and amended it over the years, but we have not altered it in any significant and structural ray. The time has come to take a fresh look at our educational institutions and school systems with a clear intent of making every change that will benefit the children we serve.

The federal government's role in education and its relationship with states and school districts should not be exempt from this examination. If federal policy makers are equally candid, they will admit that much of what they have created is not working and is not producing the desired benefits for children. This criticism extends to politically sacrosanct programs like Chapter i and Head Start. The federal government also must face up to the fact that its good intentions and best efforts actually may hamper educators at the local level and limit their ability to serve children.

I hope educational leaders and policy makers will view this new and uncertain environment as a time of opportunity, a time when it is possible to subvert partisanship and petty differences to the greater concern of what is best for our children.

As chairman of the Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee, I intend to invite educators to be a part of an open, ongoing, thoughtful, and constructive discussion about reshaping the federal role in education policy. I hope you will accept that invitation.

Bill Goodling is the Republican representative from Pennsylvania's 19th District. He served as superintendent of the Spring Grove, Pa., school district for seven years.