High Schools Called Obsolete

U.S. high schools are called obsolete
It’s a moral issue, governors advised

BY PAUL BARTON ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

WASHINGTON — Governors on Saturday declared U.S. high schools to be "in crisis," still poorly equipping too many students for work and college despite nearly two decades of education overhauls.

Microsoft Chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates went further, telling the winter meeting of the National Governors Association that the nation’s high schools are "obsolete" and that redesigning them is a "moral" imperative.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, vice chairman of the association, defended progress in Arkansas high schools but acknowledged the state has more work to do.

Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat and chairman of the governors’ group, set the theme of the two-day session, billed as a "National Education Summit on High Schools." Governors portrayed it as another in the series of national education summits stretching back to 1989, when Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was co-chairman of the first one at Charlottesville, Va.

This year’s conference acknowledged that those previous meetings have left America’s schools far from fixed.

Gates spared no words in saying high schools need an overhaul.

"By obsolete, I don’t just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed and underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points," Gates said. "By obsolete I mean that our high schools, even when they’re working exactly as designed, cannot teach our kids what they need to know today."

Too many low-income students, he said, are "tracked" into courses that will never prepare them for college.

"This isn’t an accident or flaw in the system; it’s part of the design of the system," Gates said. "In district after district, wealthy white kids are taught algebra II while low-income minority kids are taught to balance a checkbook."

Gates added, "But there is also a moral argument for better high schools. We’d better do something about these kids not getting an education because it’s hurting them."

The challenge, he said, is clear: "We designed these high schools; we can redesign them."

Gates, who heads the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, went on to propose a new "three R’s" — rigorous curriculum, relevance of courses to life goals, and relationships. He said "kids [must] have a number of adults who know them, look out for them and push them to achieve."

At a press conference, Huckabee also emphasized the importance of a rigorous high school curriculum, saying exposure to one makes students more likely to finish college. Huckabee said that introducing a tougher high school curriculum is going well in Arkansas.

"There has really been less push-back than I anticipated," he said.

While high schools need improvement, a high school education by itself never will be good enough, the Arkansas governor said.

"The next big issue is how do we prepare them adequately for what is critical — that is something beyond high school," Huckabee said. "This is about the starting line, not the finish line."

When questioned afterward, Huckabee defended Arkansas high schools, pointing out that the test scores of 11 th-graders have improved for six years in a row.

"I think we’ve done a remarkable job," he said. "We’re seeing record numbers of kids going into college."

Yet, he said, "There is always room to go; there is always room to improve."

Meanwhile, Warner listed a series of nationwide statistics about American high schools: Three out of 10 students who enter don’t graduate.

Four out of 10 who graduate lack skills to go on to college or succeed in the work force.
High school dropouts earn 70 percent less than high school graduates.

The United States is 16th among industrialized nations in students graduating from high school.

"In the past there were jobs in our society where the strength of your back was more important than the strength of your mind," Warner said, adding that those jobs have almost disappeared.

Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, said radically changing high schools may be hard in part because Americans are so nostalgic about them.

"We look back at our classes and homecoming and Friday night football," Taft said. "It’s hard to imagine a high school being anything other than what we remember. There is no doubt that changing the high school education experience will be difficult."

But, he said, the onset of a global, information-based economy demands it. "It’s here. It’s changing our world with blinding speed, and we’re playing catch-up when it comes to our education system, especially our high schools."

This story was published Sunday, February 27, 2005
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