Last week, as a House subcommittee was hearing testimony on a proposal to convene a “summit” conference on education, Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell said here that the matter cannot wait for Congressional action.
The Secretary said he will convene a national meeting in late November that will bring together a bipartisan group of “the leadership structure” of education in the United States--including governors, teachers’ union officials, state education leaders, and representatives of business and industry--to discuss education-reform measures that could lead to new legislation.
He said there was “no difference” between his plan and plans currently being discussed in Congress except that a Congressionally mandated meeting would not occur for four or five months.
Secretary Bell said that would be “too late.”
He said that in five months, the President will be in the midst of work on the State of the Union Address, the Congress will be busy with meetings, and the governors will already have presented their education-reform plans to the state legislatures.
