Where Have All the Critics Gone?

If the quality of public schools and the graduates they produce are linked to the health of the U.S. economy, you can't avoid coming to this conclusion: What a great job we are doing.

By most accounts, the U.S. economy never has been stronger, and the job market is absorbing college graduates, the vast majority of whom are products of public education.

Maybe the argument for tying the quality of schools to the fate of the economy has been overstated. Perhaps public schools have been graduating a better product than they have been credited with. Most likely, both are true.

Those who claimed the public schools were generating unemployable illiterates destined to drag the nation into an economic abyss probably owe those of us who disputed such a thesis an apology or at least an explanation. Where are those critics now? Retooling? Downsizing?

If the U.S. economy is flourishing largely as a result of having highly productive workers, who or what institutions deserve the credit? Public education bashers have been noticeably silent on this issue.

Eradicate Accusations

Clearly, the strength of the economy will ebb and flow and the causes of change are highly complex, involving to some degree the quality of its workforce and their levels of education. Equally clear, public education must continue to transform itself, However, first let us get rid of the unchallenged accusations that public schools have placed our nation at risk economically. If blame is to be placed, let it be followed with praise when the indicators are positive.

In a recent speech, North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, who has made school improvement a top priority, challenged an in-state audience to make our public schools as excellent as our state university system--a worthy goal by anyone's standard since North Carolina's higher education system is world renowned, according to the governor.

Unasked were questions about what made it of better quality than its smaller and weaker public school sibling. Was it the vast differences in per pupil expenditures? Was it the fact that more than 90 percent of the universities' students were graduates of its own public school system? Has an effective public relations operation allowed less-distinguished schools like North Carolina Central and Fayetteville State to bask in the glow of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, its flagship campus? Are administrators and teachers of the university system smarter or more competent than public school personnel?

Rhetoric Rules

Political hyperthyroid ism can be expected from a renowned public school basher, but not from someone who purports to be a friend.

And that's the problem. Whether the issue is establishing cause and effect among the quality of public schools, its graduates and the economy or comparing the public school system to its big league sister, facts get lost in the rhetoric and assumptions often remain unchallenged. The negative consequences linger for public schools, making needed change even more difficult.

I challenge economists, politicians and educators at all levels to revisit earlier assumptions about our schools, given the new evidence, and to set the record straight. Public schools are an institution alive and well, not unlike our thriving economy. Let the public school bashers become as extinct as the deficit!

Howard Sosne is superintendent of Pitt County Schools.