Gov's plans on education face exams; Critics question costs
BYLINE: By CASEY ROSS
While applauding Gov. Deval Patrick for tackling education reform, lawmakers and economists warned yesterday that his plan could top $1 billion a year and erode the state's emphasis on rigorous testing to spur student achievement.
``Whenever you hear someone say that education is about the `whole child,' that's code for backing away from high-stakes testing,'' said Douglas Sears, former dean of Boston University's School of Education. ``I hope we're not going there. Testing has forced us to focus on the quality of what we're doing.''
Repeating a frequent campaign comment, Patrick made the ``whole child'' reference during a speech yesterday in which he outlined a 10-year plan for reforming the state's public education system.
The plan includes high-cost goals of free tuition at community colleges, universal pre-school programs, full-day kindergarten and extending the school day and school year.
``If we join together, we can have consistent excellence in every public school,'' Patrick said during a commencement address at the Univerity of Massachusetts at Boston. ``If we accept the status quo as the best that we can do . . . then God help us.''
Patrick did not discuss the state's MCAS testing requirements in detail, but he indicated that the standards must change. The governor said the state has ``rightly'' focused on testing, but should re-examine whether MCAS adequately recognizes broader categories of student achievement.
``Being ready means public education that is about the whole child, not just set on a single standardized test,'' he said. ``It's about education that fosters creativity of every sort.''
Lawmakers and education experts lauded the governor's boldness, but some derided the speech as a huge serving of inspirational platitudes, without staking out any sense of how the state will implement or pay for his reforms.
``I question whether he is setting us up for over-promising and under-delivering,'' said House Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading). ``These lofty goals are all well and good, but there's a reality to face here, which is how are you going to pay for it.''
Michael Widmer, director of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said funding Patrick's initiatives will easily cost more than $1 billion a year, a cost that would have to be borne by broad-based tax increases or a sudden windfall of economic growth.
Patrick said yesterday his plan is only meant to be a starting point, and that a special commission of educators, business leaders and lawmakers will begin to iron out details of policy and financing. He took sharp aim at his critics even before he finished his speech, painting them as naysayers aiming to stifle progress.