BLUNT URGES MAJOR CHANGES IN EDUCATION

If he becomes Missouri's next governor, Secretary of State Roy Blunt says he wants to provide direction for real change in education to develop a system that "puts us at the top of the class among the states."

Blunt cited a 1904 history book which showed that at that time, Missouri's school attendance rates were far above the national average, illiteracy rates were below other states, and Missouri spent a greater percentage of its budget on education than any other state.

Blunt said he is concerned that Missouri is no longer a leader in education and hopes that by the turn of the century the state will again be leading the way.

"A sad but true statement about or state is that our schools, if they follow their current course, will not be performing as well in the year 2004 as they were in 1904," said Blunt, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor. "Our commitment to our schools, our teachers and our students is not what it once was.

"I want to see us at the beginning of another century, leading the way in education and being proud of it again," he said.

Blunt said he believes that other than for meeting state mandates, increased funding to schools in Missouri should be "for something other than business as usual."

His education position paper includes providing incentives for school districts to use the talents of teachers, administrators and parents to make reforms that bring measurable and positive results.

"As we go on into the 1990s, I think we will see a lot more focus on results rather than process in education," said Blunt. He said it is important to eliminate many of the barriers to innovation facing school districts.

"I think teachers and administrators are all coming to the realization that we need to do a better job," said Blunt.

The secretary of state said he opposes making cuts in the Parents as Teachers program and believes it should be fully funded because it is a quality program and gets parents involved in the responsibility of educating their children.

"It's the best program we've got in the state," said Blunt. "It's the one program where we are truly leading the country."

In his paper entitled, "Making Missouri the Education State," Blunt calls for changes in education at all levels, including elementary and secondary, vocational, and higher education. He also suggests that state government has become too involved in making decisions for school districts, leaving little latitude for local innovation.

"We need to empower our teachers and neighborhood schools as agents of change so they have the authority they need to enact real reforms and achieve real improvements in results," said Blunt. "My plan is not to issue hundreds of new mandates from the state, but to make the state a partner in reform by setting goals and priorities for the state."

Schools that do a good job in areas like teaching basic skills, reducing their dropout rate, and increasing test scores should be rewarded, he said.

Blunt's plan also calls for reducing Aid to Dependent Children payments to parents whose children are not attending school.

In outlining funding reforms, Blunt said he supports a constitutional amendment requiring that one third of state funds be dedicated to education. He explained that the level of commitment can be gradually increased from its present level of 27 percent by dedicating at least 27 percent of the growth in new state revenues and all lottery proceeds to education.

Blunt said that during the three previous decades, Missouri was spending a third of its budget on education.

The plan also calls for revoking the driver's licenses of youths under 18 who drop out of high school; passing a state law establishing a level of parental responsibility for the actions of their children who are caught selling or possessing drugs or weapons on school property; mandatory skill testing for students to advance to higher grades; and placing social workers in schools where they can better reach students.

Blunt is also calling for school report cards so that the public is aware of their performance, guaranteed financial aid for every Missouri high school graduate who wishes to attend college but cannot afford to, making capital improvements on university campuses a top priority, giving the Coordinating Board for Higher Education greater authority, placing a greater emphasis on community colleges, and increasing opportunities for partnerships between schools and the private sector.

Rather than continue to fight desegregation in the courts, Blunt said it is time to start trying to understand how to bring a final settlement.

"Education is the cornerstone on which all of our efforts to improve our society rests," said Blunt. "If we do not maintain and improve this foundation, it will not matter what new programs we may propose."