Bennett Criticizes Teachers’ ‘Lack of Accountability’ : More U.S. Aid for Poor Pupils Possible

Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, blasting the “lack of accountability” by teachers in the nation’s public schools, said Sunday that he would consider providing several hundred million dollars for special programs aimed at disadvantaged younger children.

Bennett, responding to a sweeping new report by educators and businessmen that calls for such assistance, said research now suggests “the earlier the education the better,” and announced that his department may soon reallocate funds from its $308-billion budget for child-care programs and preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.

“I agree with this report, that for disadvantaged children early intervention can help, can make a big difference,” Bennett said. “But I also believe there should be more accountability in American schools to make this work.”

Representatives of several national education groups praised the report by the Committee for Economic Development, a New York public policy research group. But they rejected Bennett’s charge that teachers pose a roadblock to reform by resisting accountability in the classroom.

“Our members are willing to be held accountable for their performance,” said Mary Futrell, president of the National Education Assn., the nation’s largest teachers’ organization. “But Mr. Bennett is not willing to deal with us in good faith. He attacks us to shift attention away from the failures of this Administration in education.”

Bennett’s comments were in response to an 87-page report to be issued Tuesday entitled “Children in Need: Investment Strategies for the Educationally Disadvantaged.” The study concludes that so-called “early intervention” programs for low-income students are cost-effective and warns that 30% of the nation’s public school students could face a lifetime of poverty without such assistance.

Role of Business

The report urges business to play a greater role in funding new education programs.

It predicts that nearly a million students will drop out of school and suggests more than 700,000 will fail to graduate with appropriate skills if educators merely impose higher academic standards without offering target programs in students’ early years to help them succeed.

Bennett, appearing on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” praised the findings but used them to take aim at the NEA for its opposition to several proposals he has made that would measure teachers’ abilities, provide merit pay for some instructors and set national standards to certify public school educators.

“Early gains for children can be undone if the school they go into doesn’t do a good job to follow up,” he said. “The education Establishment, the powers that be in education, tend to resist efforts at accountability. And accountability is what we’re after in the American educational system.”

‘Raise Academic Standards’

Futrell, in a telephone interview, said NEA members “are more than willing to be held accountable, but not in a way which is punitive, not in a way which does not support the interests of children. We support programs that raise academic standards, improve teacher training . . . programs that (say) teachers should be evaluated and held accountable.”

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, who appeared on the same program as Bennett, agreed with the need for accountability, saying: “Any time you have a big operation where the funds cannot be traced to any kind of discernible results is a terrible mistake, and obviously we have not been very good at constructing accountability systems.”

However, he said the issue of providing aid for disadvantaged children is a separate concern. If Bennett and other federal officials earmarked “a few hundred million dollars” for early intervention programs, Clinton noted, the nation could avoid paying millions of additional dollars later on to support permanently impoverished families.

“Get these kids when they’re 3- or 4-year-olds,” Clinton said. “They’re less likely to drop out, less likely to get on drugs, less likely to have babies when they’re teen-agers, they’re less likely to be problems later on.”