Political Points

ALMOST a year after his election, President Bush continues to act as if he is running a political campaign. His strategy is to focus on a tremendous national problem, grab a few headlines, and then move on to the next issue without supporting substantive change. Months after Bush's famous press conference from a national park, he has yet to present tough clean air legislation to Congress. And he plans to fund his famed War on Drugs as if it were a minor skirmish.

LAST week, Bush turned the nation's attention to education, by sponsoring a three-day educational summit with 50 governors at the University of Virginia. The politicians talked about problems in the educational system, while trying to grab some positive publicity in the process. If governors keep their promise to follow up on the conference with concrete proposals, however, Bush may find himself with more than he bargained for. He may have to back up his words with actions.

All the talk on education did serve a useful purpose. National leaders discussed important issues such as adult illiteracy, a declining supply of teachers, and troubling dropout rates. Governors shared experiences on promising new approaches to education, such as administrative decentralization which would transfer power from bureaucrats to teachers. For his part, Bush vowed to cooperate with governors to increase flexibility and accountability in state education. Notably, Bush also pledged to increase funding for Head Start, a successful pre-school program for poor children, by $250 million.

THE conference, however, was too little, too late for a man who promised to be the "Education President." Yes, the conference acknowledged that adult illiteracy is a problem, but what should be done about it and, perhaps most important, who will pay? Yes, we must decrease dropout rates, but how and when?

These policy issues could not be decided at a two day conference--and that is precisely where Bush is most at fault. In the face of real problems such as those facing the inner cities and poorer states, it is most tragic that Bush chose to pass the burden of action to the states.

Lest we forget, Bush and the Republican Party still refuse to accept their complicity in the creation our nation's current educational crisis. Eight years of conservative attacks on education spending have weakened America's social structure to the point where many school systems teeter on the brink of collapse.

And now, Bush tells governors they must raise state taxes to finance new education plans--he only believes in "no new taxes" at the federal level. This overwhelming hypocrisy may ultimately prove to be a major stumbling block to progressive reform in the educational system. Fifty independently conceived and funded approaches to education do not a national policy make.

FOR now, the ball is in the hands of governors, who vowed to return to the National Governors Conference in February with a refined set of educational goals and proposals. If they can create a "national consensus" on education, they may be able to prod Bush into real action. Governors must try to force Bush to take the extra step, and turn political pointscoring into public policy.