KINDER'S COMMENTARY: GOP TO WEIGH EDUCATION DRAFT

I was recently named by the Missouri Republican state chairman, John "Woody" Cozad, to the platform committee of the state GOP for the 1996 campaign. At our first meeting, I was deputized by other committee members to draft a proposed section declaring our stand on education. Herewith, a proposed statement I drafted, a version of which will be considered by delegates to the state convention that will meet in Springfield in May:

"Where education is concerned, we Missouri Republicans stand committed to the following principles:

"* PARENTAL CONTROL: Parents must retain sovereignty in the education and upbringing of their own children, and to this end we support submitting to voters a parental rights constitutional amendment to the Missouri constitution;

"* ACCOUNTABILITY: Our schools and all who govern them must be accountable to the parents, employers and taxpayers of Missouri;

"* OBJECTIVE TESTS AND PUBLICATION OF RESULTS: We insist on educators' unwavering adherence to objective tests that accurately measure student achievement on a regular basis, whether between one district and another or between one year's graduates and another, together with publication of these results, such tests being the sole method of guaranteeing the aforementioned accountability; and

"* PARENTAL FREEDOM AND SCHOOL CHOICE WITHOUT FINANCIAL PENALTY: We believe that parents know how best to direct the education of their own children and accordingly support full parental freedom in education, including the right of parents of poor and middle-income children to send their children to the school of their choice -- public, private or parochial -- and to this end we support efforts to enact a scholarship program, such as a 'GI Bill for Kids,' that would further this goal.

"* We further believe Missouri's public schools are best governed to the greatest extent possible by locally elected school board members in our communities. We oppose measures such as Gov. Carnahan's Senate Bill 380 and all other measures that tend to restrict and shrink the sphere of local control while expanding that of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Jefferson City.

"* We support the abolition of the federal Department of Education.

"* We affirm that no one working for the state or any public school has any right to teach values that undermine the values parents teach in our own homes.

"* We oppose all forms of Outcome Based Education, under whatever name it travels, as ruinous to true academics, violative of parental rights and tending toward the dumbing down of our schools.

"* We stand opposed to unionizing Missouri state government and its employees and accordingly oppose collective bargaining for public employees, especially school teachers.

"* We oppose intrusion by the federal government in education and support opting out of the intrusive federal program known as Goals 2000, and further support returning all federal monies received by the state pursuant to it.

"* We oppose the radical and dangerous agenda of the National Education Association, together with that of all its affiliates, as ruinous to standards and accountability and tending toward the destruction of the grassroots support without which no system of free public education can survive in a democracy.

"* We support the abolition of the current office of commissioner of education, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and its replacement by a commissioner of public instruction who is elected by all the people at a statewide election.

* * * * *

ENGLISH PROFICIENCY

IN HIGHER EDUCATION:

On Tuesday, by a vote of 12-1, the Senate Education Committee on which I sit reported out Senate Bill 667, which I introduced. SB 667 would mandate an English proficiency test for higher education faculty at all our state-supported colleges and universities. Senate floor action on the bill, which enjoys wide, bipartisan support, is expected soon.

* * * * *

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE?

As the issue raises its head in other states, such as Hawaii, and in a case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, I introduced SB 895 this week. The measure would ban (or make "presumptively void," in the statutory language) same-sex marriages in Missouri.

~Peter Kinder is the associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.