A Nation at Risk

Regular readers of the Inside Austin blog know that this is a blog about local issues and the local organizations and individuals addressing those needs. But when I was invited to the Education Commission of the State’s National Forum on Education Policy, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear from some of the most well know education policy-makers in the country.

Besides, there was a free lunch.

The lunch I attended was a panel discussion of “A Nation at Risk,” the 1983 report on the state of our country’s public schools, and how that report affected the system here in the U.S. The overwhelming feeling shared by the panel members was that, while the report was a groundbreaking document and led to many educational reform policies, in general the country has done little to improve our public school system and we continue to lag behind other industrialized nations.

This week on Inside Austin, we will be playing some excerpts from the discussion, along with an interview that I got from Gov. Roy Romer, Chairman of the Ed in ‘08 Campaign. Gov. Romer’s organization said this about “A Nation at Risk” 25 years later:

“While the national conversation about education would never be the same, stunningly few of the Commission’s recommendations actually have been enacted. Now is not the time for more educational research or reports or commissions. We have enough commonsense ideas, backed by decades of research, to significantly improve American schools. The missing ingredient isn’t even educational at all. It’s political. Too often, state and local leaders have tried to enact reforms of the kind recommended in A Nation at Risk only to be stymied by organized special interests and political inertia. Without vigorous national leadership to improve education, states and local school systems simply cannot overcome the obstacles to making the big changes necessary to significantly improve our nation’s K-12 schools.”

Tune in this Sunday to hear more!