Speaking this month to a group of nationally recognized teachers and principals, U.S. Secretary of Labor Ann McLaughlin criticized the combative nature of labor-management relations within the nation’s schools and urged educators to emulate the more cooperative relationships that have been forged in the private sector.
“The last area of really adversarial relations between labor and management is within our school systems,” Ms. McLaughlin told a symposium in Key Biscayne, Fla.
“Labor-management cooperation is the way to go,” she asserted.
“Where we have labor-management cooperation in this country, you are going to see the ability to compete,” the Secretary added. “Where we don’t, we are going to fail.”
Also at the meeting, the Burger King Corporation--sponsor of the annual “In Honor of Excellence” symposium--named Lamar Alexander, the former governor of Tennessee, the winner of its first Distinguished Service to Education Award.
As governor, Mr. Alexander, who is now president of the University of Tennessee, spearheaded a massive education-reform effort in his state.
The memory of M.W. Savage, a breeder whose horse Dan Patch was a harness-racing star early in this century, may not live on in the name of an elementary school near his Minnesota home much longer.
A group of parents in the town of Savage thinks the school’s name has become an embarrassment to its students, who do not like being called the “Savage kids.”
The subsequent growth of a “save Savage” movement, however, has prompted the local school board to seek a compromise.
Sally Bell, the district superintendent, thinks that the “cruel” name-calling would stop if Mr. Savage’s initials were added to the school’s name.
