Harold L. Hodgkinson, a senior fellow at the Institute for Educational Leadership, has been named the American Council on Education’s first senior fellow in residence.
The new fellows program marks an effort to enrich the council, a national organization of colleges and universities, “through the presence of renowned scholars and analysts of the higher-education scene,” said Robert H. Atwell, president of the ace
Mr. Hodgkinson currently is conducting research on demographic changes and their impact on schools, colleges, and education policymaking. He is a former director of the National Institute of Education.
Verne A. Duncan, Oregon’s superintendent of public instruction, has called for spending as much on students who drop out of school as on those who complete their high-school education.
“If equal funding were available, new and innovative programs could be offered by business, industry, and other community sources,” Mr. Duncan said in his annual “state of the schools” address.
Mr. Duncan predicted that the necessary resources and a variety of programs designed to help dropouts and potential dropouts would result in a 95 percent graduation rate for the state.
Education officials estimate that about 20 percent of Oregon public-school students who enter the 9th grade do not complete high school.
Mr. Duncan said he would propose such a funding plan for dropout programs to the legislature and the state board of education.
Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey has won the support of the New Jersey Education Association in his re-election bid, the first time the teachers’ organization has endorsed a Republican candidate for governor.
Gov. Kean “has said repeatedly that education is the state’s top priority,” said an njea spokesman, Kathy Gallaher. “We agree with that.”
The association also “developed a good working relationship” with the Governor during talks on the state’s minimum-teacher-salary measure--a piece of legislation, proposed by Mr. Kean, that gives teachers an $18,500 starting level that is among the highest in the nation.
In the state’s 1981 gubernatorial race, the njea backed the Democratic candidate, state Representative James J. Florio.
Roundly criticized in recent days for lecturing to high-school students on the controversial issue of federal tax reform, Commissioner of Education Gordon Ambach of New York State said he would “absolutely” be willing to give the same lecture again.
Many questioned the propriety of the Albany High School lecture--one of 15 the department coordinated statewide--especially since the New York Board of Regents, which appoints the commissioner, has been vocal in its opposition to President Reagan’s tax-reform initiative and in particular to the proposed repeal of the deduction for state and local taxes.
But according to press aides, Mr. Ambach’s lecture was “simply an attempt to get students involved” in discussing a major issue. “He gave a basic outline of the arguments for and against the tax-reform proposal and who would benefit one way or the other. No one came away from it feeling that he had given a biased presentation,” said Christopher Carpenter, assistant director of media relations for the education department.
