Kunin Discusses Education

The Clinton Administration is embarking on the most far-reaching education reform movement in 35 years, Deputy Secretary of Education Madeline Kunin said in a speech yesterday at the Institute of Politics (IOP).

The administration's Goals 2000 Plan "gives us a national standard of what education should be" for the first time, said Kunin, who is a former governor of Vermont and has been an IOP fellow.

The bill proposes extending the Head Start education program beyond the current age bracket of three-to five-year-olds to include all children under five years of age.

The program would also increase the number of children immunized against diseases and implement enterprise zones in the welfare department.

The Goals 2000 plan is a combined effort to improve the general status of communities in America, Kunin said.

But she noted that the program "will only work if there is a bubbling up of community involvement."

Kunin emphasized that education is the best remedy for several social problems, including teenage pregnancy, violence and rising school drop-out rates.

"If we can succeed in revitalizing our schools, we can restore the fabric of community in our inner cities," Kunin said.

This goal is possible with high expectations, she said, pointing to schools such as Harlem's Central Park East High School, which sends about 90 percent of its graduates to college. Kunin said that America must extend such successful programs to a broader scale.

One example of such a program, she said, is Washington Height's IS 218. That school is open 13 hours per day, six days a week, to offer a nurturing environment for students "without anywhere else to go," she said.

Kunin stressed the importance of dedicated teachers in helping students succeed. She referred to the Teacher of the Year for 1994 as an example of such dedication.

The honoree feeds, clothes and teaches homeless children out of a makeshift classroom in San Diego, Kunin said. The teacher also helped one of her students with an interest in marine biology eventually go to college and received a masters degree.

Kunin urged administrators to look at schools succeeding despite difficult circumstances. Such schools should be used as examples of the fact that change only comes by "teaching one child, one school, one community at a time," she said.

Kunin implored both students and adults to become involved in the effort to improve education. "I still believe that education is the only miracle that works," she said.