Deputy Secretary of Education Madeleine Kunin said in a speech Friday that the American education system has serious problems but President Bill Clinton's "Goals 2000 Education America" plan could help solve them.
Kunin gave her speech, titled "Fixing American Education: The Clinton Plan," to about 150 people at the Rockefeller Social Sciences Center.
Kunin, a former governor of Vermont, said she endorsed Clinton's plan that includes voluntary national testing standards in education and national curriculum standards.
But after the speech, Education Professor Faith Dunne said Kunin offered no specifics and Clinton's plan is "still in the formative stages."
Dunne, the former head of the College's education department, said she believes the Clinton administration "is working towards a coherent plan or strategy," but has not yet fully developed one.
In her speech, Kunin said the major problems in educating young Americans are violence in inner-city areas, lack of parental involvement and the changing definition of education in an increasingly technological world.
"Education reform must address quality of education and social problems such as poverty that influence the classroom," she said.
Kunin said the Safe Schools Act, which grants federal funds for security improvements in schools, and Head Start, a program that provides inner city youths with subsidized pre-schooling, are partial solutions to some of those problems.
Student panelists questioned Kunin after her speech about the voucher system, which would give each primary and secondary school student a credit that could be used at any public or private school.
The voucher system, which is now on the ballot in California, is "dangerous," Kunin said. She called it "another quick fix," and said she objected to the lack of quality control and tuition regulations and the drainage of funds from the public schools.
Part of Clinton's plan calls for a revamping of teacher training. Kunin said undergraduates interested in teaching should leave education training for post-graduate work and should major in a field outside of education.
Cynthia Parsons, the former education editor for The Christian Science Monitor, said Kunin's idea of proper teacher training "fits with Dartmouth's plan," which only offers a minor in education.
Parsons, who often comes to Dartmouth as a visiting professor, said this forces students to gain a "core of knowledge in one subject area," which Kunin called ideal teacher preparation.
Kunin said lack of funding is not the main problem with public schools. "Money is never the only solution," she said. "It cannot fix the [education system]".
A declining dropout rate, rising Scholastic Aptitude Test scores among minorities and rising rates of minority participation in Advanced Placement tests are encouraging signs for America's education system, she said.
Kunin's speech was the first in a series entitled "Critical Issues in America," and was sponsored by the Rockefeller Student Council.
