If one thing is clear from the tone of the presidential debates and President Clinton's recent State of the Union address, it is that education remains the paramount issue to voters in these increasingly stable and prosperous times. Across the political spectrum, candidates and office holders are heeding this call to do something about the state of our schools. Candidates host photo-ops in elementary schools.
Education even earns top billing in the annual message from the president to the public.
True to form, in his last budget submission of his presidency, President Clinton makes great pronouncements of how the federal government can solve the ills of our schools by spending more money. The president is calling for a doubling of federal monies to assist underperforming schools. There is no question these are noble goals. Yet this guarantee presents two terrible problems to public education. Even more problematic, there is not, and has not been, any accountability in federal education programs.