A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

EMBARGOED FOR DELIVERY                 Contact:  Kathryn Kahler February 15, 1994 - 2:00 p.m.                    (202) 401-3026 

RILEY SAYS NATION HAS A "MORAL URGENCY" TO RECONNECT WITH CHILDREN AND EDUCATION

Riley's remarks came in his first annual "State of American Education" address delivered before more than 700 students, parents, educators, business, labor and community leaders at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Riley said there is a compelling need for adults to reconnect with America's children."If I am troubled by anything, it is this: we seem, as a nation, to be drifting toward a new concept of childhood which says that a child can be brought into this world and allowed to fend for himself or herself. There is a disconnection here that demands our attention ... a disconnection so pervasive between adult America and child America that we are all losing touch with one another."

There is, Riley said, "a moral urgency to our coming together ... a need to act ... to reconnect."

He announced a new family involvement campaign to encourage all adults -- whether parents, grandparents, stepparents, aunts, uncles, or close friends -- to take a special interest in a young person and guide that child's education. He encouraged schools, communities, and businesses to support the campaign by helping family members to help their children.

"I believe," Riley said, "that all parents, indeed any adult, regardless of his or her station in life or even their level of education, has the capacity and obligation to teach their children a love of learning."

The campaign will draw on the lessons learned from examining parental practices around the world and will teach a series of concrete steps that parents can do to become involved in their children's education.

This spring, the Secretary will also publish "Riley's Rules," a compendium of simple but helpful advice on education for parents. Riley said the Education Department is also planning to issue a series of papers devoted to close examination of major topics in education. The first will address the role of parents.

In his address, Riley focused on some of the obstacles education reform faces. He conceded that "education, like any institution in our society, can be intolerant of new thinking, bureaucratic, and reluctant to give up old habits." But he said there is evidence of "resiliency, the capacity for innovation, the early beginnings of a fundamental shift away from the old assembly-line version of education to something new."

Riley also warned that political bickering can set the reform movement back.

"Nothing can be accomplished," Riley said, "if we continue to hurl political invective... . At the same time, nothing is gained by the intransigence of some in the education community who see any outside reform or proposed innovation as unneeded, unwanted, and unnecessary..."

"The public wants higher academic standards, more accountability, and some sense that their children are getting prepared for the coming times. They do not want a conservative or a liberal, nor a Democratic or Republican, solution to our nation's education troubles."

Riley cited two major administration initiatives nearing passage in the Congress -- the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and the School-to- Work Opportunities Act -- as examples of the effort "to make higher educational standards a nationwide priority" and to encourage every citizen to participate in the reform process.

"Reform is best," he said, "when it is voluntary, inclusive, and bottom-up ... when we involve parents, teachers, and the entire community in putting children first." Riley said he supports such innovations as public school choice, charter schools, schools-within-schools, magnet schools, and efforts to expand early childhood and after-school programs. However, he rejected private school vouchers and cautioned that contracting outside firms to operate schools "may be one interesting option to try, but it is no panacea."

Returning to his call for reconnecting citizens and schools, Riley cited the "disconnect" between teachers and parents and noted that "the two most powerful groups of adults who can influence the course of education in this nation seem to be talking past each other."

Riley also said there is a vital need to reconnect with alienated minority youth and called the belief that some children cannot learn "impediments to the progress of American education." He added that "no child in America, of whatever race, color, or ethnic persuasion, can succeed if he or she falls for the lie that says using your mind is a sign of weakness."

Calling for high expectations and standards for all children, Riley said "a watered-down curriculum came to be and still remains, to my mind, the surest way of turning a child who can learn into an angry, illiterate 19-year- old dropout ... without hope."

Riley said he believes that new "connections" will be made and that education improvement will result. He said, " ... we are at a critical turning point where we can, together, move American education forward."

"When the American people put their collective mind to a problem, something good happens. We are at that moment."