SEIFFE:  P-16:  Does the Media Get It?

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

By Ralf Seiffe

One of Illinois ’ two political couples met the press yesterday and released their plan for fixing the state’s educational problems.  Ron Gidwitz and Steve Rauschenberger jointly faced the fourth estate with a seven-page outline that arrayed their perception of the state’s constitutional duties, the system’s problems and their remedies for what ails Illinois ’ system.  Judging by the paucity of reports in today’s media, the pair wasted their breath.  

Gidwitz and Rauschenberger recognize our children’s problems with reading and math performance and have proposed the “P-16 Education Plan”.  It is their version of a “comprehensive approach” to reform and a vision to improve all levels of the state’s educational infrastructure.   

If elected, the governor will issue an executive order to the Illinois P-16 Partnership of the Joint Education Committee directing it to come up with a plan for a coordinated approach covering pre-school to college.  The partnership will expand by inviting representatives from business, teachers’ unions, school boards, colleges, parents and “other parties deemed appropriate”.  The panel would then hold statewide hearings, and within 18 months, present  recommendations.  The prospective Gidwitz administration would then ask the General Assembly to make the surviving ideas law.  

The blueprint has presumed academic performance can and should be objectively measured.  The plan, like most high-achievement households, recognizes that long-term educational achievement starts early so they propose starting schooling one year earlier by making kindergarten mandatory.  Notably, the plan will surely rile the education establishment by accommodating home schoolers, promising parents the teaching material they need to do the job.  They also would down-shift subjects like algebra and geometry to middle school.  

On the liability side, solving public policy problems with the “blue ribbon panel” approach is usually a politician’s strategy to dodge problems.  But, as the President warned Democrats in the State Of The Union Address , this is a problem that isn’t going away.  Gidwitz and Rauschenberger understand that but, the commission approach won’t result in the radical reforms necessary, such as funding individual kids rather than succoring the bureaucracy by introducing competition with school choice.  

Even accepting the blue ribbon approach, the plan still has a structural shortcoming, committing the same mistake that the 9/11 Commission made. The “blue ribbon” approach works only when the panel consists of neutral members charged with finding the truth.  If the educrats are included, they would be the “Jamie Gorelicks” of the panel. Failing bureaucrats should not be participants but witnesses, closely questioned about why the money we spend isn’t working.  

Nevertheless, as the former chairman of the State Board of Education, Gidwitz should already be familiar with the education establishment’s evasions and should be less susceptible to hoodwinking.  So, if “other parties deemed appropriate” means that Governor Gidwitz would be a serving member of the panel, I’d support the approach because he comes across as a no-nonsense type.  

Despite the glaring importance of education, a check of this morning’s daily press turned up little reportage of the plan.  Only slight mentions appeared in the electronic versions of the daily press; I did not check the landfill versions.  One radio station covered the press conference but reported little about the plan.  Instead, they chose to focus on an irrelevant question about an immaterial contribution Gidwitz allegedly made to George Ryan.  This, more than any specific point in the P-16 plan, illustrates its biggest problem: the mainstream media is unable to understand and explain a complex issue.  

Even if it were capable, the MSM philosophically aligns with the status quo and is an important supporter of the teachers’ monopoly.  They are simply unwilling to afflict these comfortable public employees by asking what we’re getting for our money.  Unfortunately, Mr. Gidwitz’s plan needs the media to get interested so, until it remembers its purpose, the plan won't get much traction.  

Whatever quibbles one might have with the plan, let’s give the duo their due.  Their plan is more of a conceptual statement rather than a roadmap but, it's now exposed for debate.  The “P-16 Education Plan” has its good points, and bad, but the Republican hopefuls deserve every voters’ kudos for attempting to kick-start the debate over state and local government’s most important responsibility.

© 2006 Ralf Seiffe

Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader and Illinois Review.