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"ICH BIN NICHT EIN BERLINER"
By Tracy R. Thomas
The Goldwater Institute, September 1999
David C. Berliner, Dean of the Arizona State University College of Education, claims there is nothing wrong with our nation's public schools. In 1995, he gained fame in the education community by co-authoring The Manufactured Crisis, a book expressing this sentiment. Five years later, he is still crusading to deflect blame away from our ailing school system, most recently spreading his message before a group of Phoenix business leaders. He claims that the perceived education crisis is pure fiction: an illusion created by the business sector.
The truth is that the crisis is alarmingly real. Standardized test scores are on the decline, the U.S. consistently places near the bottom in international achievement comparisons, businesses are spending millions of dollars on remedial worker training, nearly 30 percent of college freshmen are enrolled in at least one remedial course. All this despite the fact that school spending has been rising at meteoric rates. In the midst of this, Berliner stands as a defender of the status quo, blocking the path to much-needed education reform.
Dr. Berliner blames the business sector for much of the public perception that our school system is failing. He believes that members of the "privileged business class" have "manufactured" the education crisis. In his efforts to mask the obvious shortcomings of our education system, he is attempting to paint a portrait of business leaders as greedy, heartless, and over-critical. Berliner charges that business leaders are using propaganda to advance an education agenda that will cater to industry needs rather than the general good. It is as though he were trying to resurrect the 19th century notion of the "Robber Barons," only this time their victim is the poor, helpless public school system. Berliner chastises members of this "privileged business class" for belittling the competency of American workers and ultimately undermining public education.
Unfortunately for Berliner, the facts contradict his assessment. There is no conspiracy among a "privileged business class" to undermine our school system. This is not a viable supposition considering the dynamics of the contemporary business sector. To begin with, the label "privileged business class" is no longer appropriate in the U.S. The era of corporate dominance is over. The proliferation of small businesses has been so great that they now constitute 98 percent of all businesses in America. Today, the typical business owner employs less than 20 workers and earns close to $40,000 a year. Dr. Berliner would have you believe that the average business owner is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
In Arizona, as in the rest of the nation, small businesses have been the driving force behind the recent period of economic prosperity. There are 210,000 full-time businesses in the state. Of these, 95 percent have fewer than 100 employees and 64 percent are sole proprietorships with no employees. From 1991-1995, businesses with fewer than 100 employees created 55 percent of all net new jobs in the state. During the same period, businesses with more than 5000 employees cut their job rolls by 1.3 percent.
Dr. Berliner claims that business leaders are overly critical of American workers. It is this behavior, he charges, that has contributed to a loss of faith in our public school system. It is true that some U.S. businesses may question the competency of their workers, but they are not alone in expressing this sentiment. Their doubts are shared by Dr. Berliner's own colleagues. According to a study done by Public Agenda, 76 percent of college professors "believe that a high school diploma is no guarantee that the typical student has learned the basics." It is easy to understand their skepticism considering the fact that remediation takes place at 100 percent of community colleges, 80 percent of public universities, and 60 percent of private universities. Each year between $911 million and $1.05 billion is spent on remedial higher education. These statistics demonstrate that it's not just businesses that feel that public schools are not getting the job done. This concurrence between the business sector and academia suggests that the education crisis is alarmingly real.
Dr. Berliner's books and speeches could be dismissed as the ramblings of an out-of-touch academic if he were not in such a position of influence. Think about it: The Dean of ASU's College of Education, the man in charge of training many of Arizona's teachers, believes that although nearly 40 percent of the nation's 4th graders can't read at grade level, and although nearly one-third of those who enter 8th grade in Arizona won't graduate, the crisis in public education is "manufactured."
Can't we set the bar a little higher?
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Tracy Thomas is chairman of the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.
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