From statehouse to schoolhouse.

• Author: Koprowicz, Constance L.
• Position: How legislators launched education reform

This spring marks the 10th anniversary of "A Nation at Risk," the federal report that launched education reform. While others talk about broad goals, legislators have been working hard to develop specific solutions.

At 21 years of age, Lisa blends right in with all the other students in her college classrooms. Her grades are good and she is moving steadily toward a degree in law enforcement. What you can't see when you look at Lisa is the difficult road she has traveled to get where she is today.

Lisa has a 4-year-old daughter, conceived during her sophomore year of high school. Being from a troubled home, the idea of marrying her 23-year-old boyfriend and having their child provided the 16-year-old with a sense of security she did not have in her own family; it all seemed so romantic. Unfortunately, the relationship did not last and, over time, reality set in.

Her good sense and intelligence led Lisa to the realization that she had to finish school, but the idea of returning to her old high school at age 18 was uncomfortable. Luckily, legislators in Lisa's home state of Minnesota had established special schools for students who are out of the mainstream but want to finish high school. Additionally, a postsecondary options program, also initiated in legislation, allowed Lisa to attend college classes and earn credits for high school and college simultaneously. Lisa soon caught up with her peers.

Chances are that Lisa knows little about the legislation that created the programs she took advantage of or the legislators who sponsored them. Yet, from school finance to school choice, Maine to California, state legislators have paved the way for change in America's schools. While the federal administration and the governors have talked and developed broad goals, legislators have been working hard to find ways to improve education.

April 1993 marks the 10-year anniversary of "A Nation At Risk: The Imperatives for Educational Reform." In 1982, the National Commission on Excellence in Education conducted research into the quality of America's public school systems. "A Nation At Risk" reported the conclusions of this research, summed up in the oft-quoted statement, "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

Before 1983, state legislatures merely helped pay for education. Education policy was hammered out mainly by the state board of education or in local districts. "A Nation At Risk" helped change the role of state legislatures by questioning the adequacy of public education. Lawmakers could not continue to pour money into an ineffective system. Education reform became the direct concern of legislative education and finance committees.

"Education is a state responsibility," says Michael Kirst, director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), in his essay in Education Reform in the '90s. "States provide the largest share of education funding, and voters increasingly look to state capitols for an accounting of how their children are faring, how their money is being spent and how schools are working."

Initial reforms followed the recommendations listed in "A Nation At Risk." Legislators addressed the...