
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 8, 1993                   TAG: 9307080458
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GET EDUCATORS' PROMISES IN WRITING

A FEW bureaucrats are now making huge changes in Virginia's public education. Many citizens believe this education restructuring - labeled "World Class Education" - is a dangerous, expensive, harmful boondoggle. They may be right.

This very different educational program, also known as outcome-based education, is not new. It has been tried in other places, and it has flunked out.

Larry W. Brooks, an administrator at the state's Department of Education, assures us that, unlike other outcome-based education programs, Virginia's will not require students to accept attitudes and values predetermined by the state, and neither will it attempt to evaluate how well each student acquires particular attitudes and values. There are reasons to be skeptical. Brooks' assurances run counter to the history of other outcome-based programs.

The treatment given House Bill 1792 in this year's General Assembly session provides another reason to question his promise. This bill would have required written parental notification before public-school students are subjected to a program of instruction that "employs any activity which could be reasonably interpreted to include psychotherapeutic techniques." The bill's definition of "psychotherapeutic techniques" included any instruction that is "focused upon the pupil's values, opinions or ethics."

The parental notice would have contained a description of the psychotherapeutic technique, the purpose for its use, the names and credentials of those offering the technique to the pupil, and the publisher of any printed program or course of training used in connection with the program. The parent would have been permitted to withdraw the pupil from the program.

Unfortunately, the House of Delegates' education committee did not act on this pro-family bill. A decision was made to have the Department of Education study provisions of the bill. Apparently, there was opposition to it from Department of Education administrators.

We need a law that codifies the promise that Virginia's outcome-based education will not include instruction and assessment focused on pupils' values, opinions or ethics. When will those pushing this program in Virginia support a bill that locks their promises into law? Give us this law, not empty promises. LEWIS R. SHECKLER RADFORD

by CNB