By Sen. Val Stevens

How did we fail our youth?

How on Earth did our public school system derail the hopes and dreams of so many of our youth, and what is the best way to get our schools back on track? Our nation’s leaders ought to ask themselves this one critical question before launching another round of debates over education spending.

Frustrated by stagnant test scores and failing students, parents have begun to demand dramatic results — not just bricks and mortar — to drastically improve the quality of our schools. Worse yet, many parents worry that their child may be next to slip through the cracks in our nation’s education system.

Starting in the 1960s, the federal government hyper-extended its role in most aspects of our lives, including K-12 education. This was official with the establishment of the U.S. Department of Education in 1980. Altogether, the federal government has spent nearly $125 billion on education over the past 25 years. Today, the federal government provides about seven cents of every education dollar spent in our country.

Of course these funds are not provided without strings attached. Those strings are the crux of the problem. Over the past eight years, the federal government dictated education policy and programs at all levels. Unfortunately for our students, a centralized, "one-size-fits-all," approach continues to force local school officials to buckle under to Washington D.C.’s schemes and mandates. At risk is the state’s share of federal dollars for education.

Interestingly enough, out of the $125 billion that the federal government spent, nearly $80 billion of that was over the past eight years. Just what has federal command and control of our education policy gotten our students?

According to the findings from the 2000 National Assessment of Education Progress test, two-thirds of public school fourth graders performed below the "proficiency" level in reading and nearly one-third performed below the "basic" level. These results are nearly identical to the results from the NAEP tests taken eight years ago.

We are hard-pressed to find test scores that actually refute the failure of the public school system. Throughout Washington state, third, sixth and ninth graders are required to take the Iowa Basic Skills test. Of students in Arlington, Darrington, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Snohomish, Monroe, Sultan and Index who took the test last year, average scores hover in the 50th percentile with little to no improvements made over previous years. These scores hold true throughout the state and the nation. Do we really want our youth to be average, or do we want them to excel?

What’s more, the NAEP test’s findings are confirmed by a new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council. The report card on American education finds there is no correlation between spending more money and improving student achievement, such as average scores on standardized tests. Over the past twenty years, expenditures per pupil have increased by 22.8 percent in constant dollars — from $5,087 in 1979 to $6,251 in 1999 — while standardized test scores have remained relatively stagnant.

There is an old saying that goes, "Don’t throw good money after bad." Unfortunately, for the past eight years, the feds have been doing just that in their attempt to fix our nation’s public school system. So-called educational programs like hiring 100,000 new teachers, reducing class size, and raising teacher salaries have all produced negligible results.

The Bush Administration has brought a new attitude on education to Washington D.C. Realizing that the federal government can play an important role in shaping America’s educational system, President Bush also knows it is essential that states and local communities play the dominant role in the future of public education.

A statement by the new Education Secretary Rod Paige highlights this new approach, "More often than not, in fact, it is precisely this bewildering array of federal programs, regulations, and paperwork that gets in the way of promising reforms at the state and local levels."

In short, the President is saying to the states, "I’ve got some new ideas on how to fix our public schools, but I’m leaving it up to you to be creative with the solutions."

The states have long been called "laboratories of democracy," and Washington D.C. is giving the states a great responsibility to take the lead to fix our public schools. Money is important to the success of our public schools, but it is less important to increase investments in education than it is to make the right investments in students.

Clearly, we must challenge our schools with a new vision for the future. Our nation’s leaders must look beyond the entrenched "public" education system and advance new models of reform that will bring educational choice and freedom to parents and students.

Senator Stevens represents rural Snohomish County and a portion of north-eastern King County.