We Americans are still the world’s technological leader in most fields.
We must keep that edge, and to do so we need to begin renewing the basics--starting with our educational system. While we grew complacent, others have acted. Japan, with a population only about half the size of ours, graduates from its universities more engineers than we do. If a child doesn’t receive adequate math and science teaching by the age of 16, he or she has lost the chance to be a scientist or engineer.
We must join together--parents, teachers, grassroots groups, organized labor, and the business community--to revitalize American education by setting a standard of excellence.
In 1983, we seek four major education goals:
A quality education initiative to encourage a substantial upgrading of math and science instruction through block grants to the states;
Establishment of “education savings accounts” that will give middle- and lower-income families an incentive to save for their children’s college education and, at the same time, encourage a real increase in savings for economic growth;
Passage of tuition tax credits for parents who want to send their children to private or religiously-affiliated schools;
A constitutional amendment to permit voluntary school prayer; God never should have been expelled from America’s classrooms.
