Education Politics: The Real Clinton Education Policy

By Chester E. Finn Jr.

Is education one of President Clinton's (few) success stories, as Administration boosters claim? Or is it another example of what the voters rejected in November?

As with so much in Washington today, getting to the answer means looking beneath the surface. There's often a gap between what is said and what is done. Administration officials privately acknowledge this discrepancy. In late summer, a colleague found himself chatting with a high-ranking but disaffected Clintonite. "Why do I dislike this crowd so much?" my friend asked. "Probably," she replied, "because the veneer of 'New Democrat' is so thin and under it is such a conventionally left-wing agenda."

Perhaps this will change in 1995, as the Administration scrambles to recapture the political center. Meanwhile, however, education vividly illustrates the canyon between rhetoric and reality. Senior officials chatter about local control, state responsibility, high standards, accountability, novel schemes for managing schools, decentralization, and parent involvement. Mr. Clinton ran on those precepts in 1992, and there's reason to think they're still respected by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley...