The educational system in this country is in serious trouble, but changes are occurring constantly that suggest there is hope for thousands of children, according to state Sen. Rick Price.

“Education as you know it is dead,” the two-term legislator told the Peachtree City Rotary Club at a recent meeting. “It's on life-support, but it's brain-dead and it's going to change.”

Noting that with more than 70 percent of local property taxes going toward education, along with local-option sales tax money and state lottery funds ($3 billion since 1994), Price charged that the government school “monopoly” is not working.

About one in four children in the United States are now attending some kind of alternative to public schools, whether it be private or parochial, Price said, citing a California survey. Security is the top reason, he added.

Attitudes are changing everywhere, he said, even among the judiciary. Vouchers for private education are now legal in three states, having been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The federal courts are supporting change in education,” said Price.

Changes are happening close to home, as Price alluded to when mentioning an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article that said that one-half of third-graders in city schools will not pass this year. He added that Atlanta has considered privatizing about 20 elementary schools.

“There are many good teachers in our educational system,” said Price. “But they've given up. They've worn down.

Price blamed a culture shift that began in the 1960s for much of what is wrong with education today, while the bureaucracy is “losing its grip” on the educational system.

But he mentioned some positive signs, such as when two men put up $100 million apiece to supply 40,000 needy students with vouchers for school choice. About 1.25 million applications were received for those slots, mostly from poor families in the inner cities.

“They care,” Price said of these parents. “But the system doesn't let them help their children.”

Of all of the educational reform movements of the past few years, Price says that Texas governor and presidential candidate George W. Bush has done the best job, adding that Bush has huge support in Texas among black and Hispanic voters.

Price is Georgia 3rd District chairman of the Bush 200 campaign.

The state senator also touted a program being bandied about in Georgia for helping students and their parents. Called Early Hope, it would give parents the option to get out of a public school with scholarship money if that school does not perform above the 40th percentile on the Iowa Basic Skills Test.

Unfortunately, Price said, the program has not yet passed. Opponents of it are trying to change its name, he said, fearing the connotation with the hugely successful HOPE scholarship program would be too great to overcome. Still, Price believes that Gov. Roy Barnes will support it.

Despite a system that famed civil rights advocate and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young has called “the apartheid of the `90s,” Price sees a lot that is positive in education reform.

“I think the future's exciting,” he said. “I'm glad to be a part of it."

Back to News Home Page | Back to the top of the page