Higher Learning

Michael W. Lynch from the June 2001 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

Fuller retorted that he didn't need to account for opportunity costs, since the bonds are revenue-backed and therefore don't crowd out other meritorious public investment. Said Fuller, "There's no limit to revenue-backed bonds, so long as you have the revenue."

Yet Coates wouldn't budge from his contention that the joy of stadiums doesn't stem from a stimulation of local economies. In a study of 37 cities that funded stadiums, he found no economic benefits to the communities. Not surprisingly, it's the owners and players who make out.

That said, Coates didn't categorically rule out publicly financed stadiums altogether. Using Baltimore's Camden Yards ballpark as an example, he said it cost, on average, $14 a year per person in the metropolitan statistical area. "If that's worth it to you, then you should support it."

Subj: It's about freedom
Date: 4/04/01
From: [e-mail]

Theodore J. Forstmann made a triumphant return to the National Press Club. It was there three years ago that the New York financier announced the formation of the Children's Scholarship Fund, which raised $200 million to provide partial private school scholarships to 40,000 low-income children, including 400 here in the District of Columbia. He was surprised, and then inspired, when more than 1 million families applied for the scholarships.

Today he announced a new group, Parents in Charge, and a new national campaign. On hand: Joseph Califano Jr., secretary of health, education, and welfare during the Carter years; Martin Luther King III; Guy Doud, the 1986 National Teacher of the Year; and Rose Blassingame, whose inspiring efforts to educate her grandchildren in D.C. are chronicled in my January 2000 article, "Rampaging Toward Choice."

Forstmann is launching a major campaign to educate parents on their right to choose where their children attend school. "It will look like a national political campaign without a candidate," said Forstmann, explaining a model that might work well for the next presidential election. "The idea is to get millions of parents to join us and demand the rights they once enjoyed and were taken away from them."

The press conference was filled with hyperbole and a bit of insight (making it, on balance, distinct from most such events). Califano praised Forstmann for providing "a cry in the wilderness of a desolate public education system in this country." Guy Doud provided some well-rehearsed humor, thanking the moderator for getting his name right: "Recently I was introduced and they called me 'gay dude.'" "We need more choices," he said. "I love coming to a city like D.C. I'm from a small city in Minnesota where we have a small number of restaurants. Here I can have Indian and [other ethnic foods]. We need that choice in education." Martin Luther King III brought it back to Pops. "My father really challenged America to be a better nation," said King. "We are challenging our educational system to be the best it can become. We are nowhere near that today."

Rose Blassingame, bless her heart, followed her prepared remarks with a lecture on the cultural bias of the Stan-ford 9, a widely used standardized test that her granddaughter Lapria was scheduled to suffer through today. Having helped her granddaughter study for the test, Rose said that urban, low-income kids don't necessarily know what a pond is. When Lapria thinks of water, she thinks only of a river. Rose was appalled that although everyone knows Indians lived in teepees, the test called them wigwams.

Forstmann made it clear that he wants to remake the American K-12 education system in the image of higher education, which relies on large amounts of government funding but competes for students, reputation, and market share. He was less clear, however, in the Q&A, where he played coy on many details.

"I haven't heard the word yet; are we talking vouchers?" asked a reporter from Congressional Quarterly.

"I'm not," replied Forstmann. "Voucher has become such a dirty word. Voucher is just a way of paying for something. We are talking about having families reassume the rights that have been taken away from them. It's not about vouchers. It's about freedom."

Yeah, the freedom to use a voucher. A reporter from Cox News Service suggested Forstmann might call it a Pell Grant. Now there's an idea that just might work.

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