C for Effort

REPUBLICANS on Capitol Hill and conservatives in general appear confused by Bill Clinton’s ten-part education program and fat education budget. GOP congressional staffers privately admit that they don’t know how to handle items like “national testing.” Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has indicated opposition, while Michigan Gov. John Engler has voiced support.

How, then, to judge the merits of the White House plan? First, it is important to recognize that it’s not a unified “plan” at all, but rather a collection of loosely related programs which the President happened to throw together in the same speech. It’s pointless to search for coherence-and meaningless to be “for” or “against” the lot of them. Instead, they are rather like a list of unrelated courses offered to a brainy but undisciplined student to fulfill “distribution” and “diversity” requirements at a second-rate college with no core curriculum. Here’s how I grade them:

About the Author

Chester E. Finn Jr.

Mr. Finn is the president emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

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REPUBLICANS on Capitol Hill and conservatives in general appear confused by Bill Clinton’s ten-part education program and fat education budget. GOP congressional staffers privately admit that they don’t know how to handle items like “national testing.” Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has indicated opposition, while Michigan Gov. John Engler has voiced support.

How, then, to judge the merits of the White House plan? First, it is important to recognize that it’s not a unified “plan” at all, but rather a collection of loosely related programs which the President happened to throw together in the same speech. It’s pointless to search for coherence-and meaningless to be “for” or “against” the lot of them. Instead, they are rather like a list of unrelated courses offered to a brainy but undisciplined student to fulfill “distribution” and “diversity” requirements at a second-rate college with no core curriculum. Here’s how I grade them: