Equalizing Opportunity

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The American tradition in education is local support for local schools. According to former Harvard President James Bryant Conant, the emphasis on community responsibility for the financing of public schools has created an "inequality of opportunity" that can only be resolved by shifting the burden to the states and, to a lesser extent, the Federal Government.

In a new book called The Comprehensive High School (McGraw-Hill; $3.95) Conant points out that some states have already assumed a big share of the financial burden. Nonetheless, he adds, "there are gross inequalities within a state as well as between states." Some school districts get as much as two-thirds of their support from state aid; others get as little as 6%. The disparity frequently bears no relation to need. Conant proposes that costs be spread statewide to correct local inequities. He would equalize opportunity nationally by returning part of federal income taxes to the states for school use "as each sees fit."

The Comprehensive High School is a sequel to Conant's 1959 survey, The American High School Today, in which he found that only eight of the 55 high schools he had studied met his "minimum criteria" for acceptable quality. In a new survey of 2,024 schools, Conant reports that 40.3% now give courses in calculus, 49.5% teach the new physics, 92% offer remedial classes for lower-ability students, 99% offer music. Even more significant, about half of the schools have a 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio--a standard that Conant considers basic. On the other hand, he finds that only 11% of the schools make use of television and that more than 60% are too small (fewer than 750 students) to be efficient. Although "considerable progress" has been made, Conant sums up, "American education is far below the level I think it can reach."

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