KINDER'S COMMENTARY: IT IS TIME FOR LOCAL DEBATE OF SCHOOL-REFORM ISSUES

In a column published Feb. 16, the fourth in this series on Senate Bill 380 and the Outcomes Based Education-type reforms it inspired, I issued a challenge to voters and readers. After indicting OBE, I asked, "Is this agenda coming to our community? Has it already arrived? Last year, the Cape Girardeau Public Schools received a grant from SB 380 funds for `a complete redesign of the curriculum.' This fact, combined with the existence of a campaign under way to elect school board members at the April election, might just make timely a public debate in our community about just exactly where our schools are heading. This is a debate that should be feared by no citizen or official at any level. If the allegations I have laid before the public are wrong, then let the appropriate officials come forward and state how, and when and where. If I am correct, then someone must be held accountable. Let the debate begin."

I must confess to being astonished at the lack of direct response from school officials to that rather bold challenge. It appears, though, that a long-overdue discussion may be developing in advance of the April 4 school election after all.

I am told that at the Cape Girardeau School Board meeting a couple of weeks ago, a board member made an inquiry concerning just exactly what is going on with something called the "A-Plus Schools" program. Board member Dr. Bob Fox's inquiry is timely and should be feared by no honest administrator, parent or school district patron. In fact, I would submit that not enough questions have been asked, not enough full disclosure engaged in for parents and taxpayers.

This is not meant as a criticism of any particular board member or administrator. Rather, I mean to say that the time for laying everything before an increasingly informed and increasingly inquisitive public has arrived. As Mao Tse-tung used to say, in a much different context, "Let a thousand flowers bloom."

The SB 380 grant for the Cape Girardeau public schools I was referring to in last month's column is for $203,828 and is part of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's "A-Plus Schools" program. Basically, SB 380 empowered DESE to pick and choose among Missouri's 538 school districts and designate some of them (initially, 35) as "A-Plus Schools." Sounds good, right? Who among us would not want to have our school singled out for something called "A-Plus" status?

Moreover, there's money tied to the designation. Six figures of money. Enough to hire an A-Plus coordinator, former junior high principal Dr. Lanny Barnes, to run a program that will scrap the way generations of Cape Girardeau students have been taught. "What we're looking at here is a complete overhaul in our curriculum," then-director of secondary education James Englehart told this newspaper in an interview last June. "This is trying to do away with a general curriculum," said Englehart, who retired last year after many years of service to Cape Girardeau schools.

Englehart continued, "This is a chance to look at our curriculum in a very comprehensive way that will benefit all students."

Maybe. I certainly hope he is right. Still, some European statesman once aptly stated that "war is too important to leave to the generals." I feel that education is far too important to leave to the professional educational bureaucrats in Jefferson City, now busily handing out six-figure grants and flat-out deceiving Missourians as to what they're really up to.

In the nine days that remain before the school election, some tough questions should be asked -- and answered -- right here in our community. "A-Plus Schools" would be a fine place to start.

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