A bold idea for advancing public education

By Werner Z. Hirsch

The National Commission on Excellence in Education, chaired by former UC President David P. Gardner, warned in its 1983 report, "A Nation at Risk," that a "rising tide of mediocrity in education is likely to materialize" unless action was taken.

Some 25 years later, Evergreen, a consulting firm, concluded that the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest, is inefficient and ineffective — and a nationwide study recently reported that just 26% of high school students who take college-preparatory courses are prepared for college work. Clearly, unless California's inadequately funded public universities address Gardner's warning, it will be impossible to provide the quality education so crucial to the state's well-being and leadership.

Understandably, the state, which spends about half of its general fund budget on education, expects better use of its funds, particularly as it faces serious financial problems. Among them are the need to serve ever more residents, many with low incomes; an obligation to pay frightening debt service charges; and the general reluctance of Californians to pay higher taxes.

To meet Gardner's challenge, here's an admittedly ambitious initiative. It would enrich 12th-grade education and effectively integrate it with a three-year rather than four-year baccalaureate, while providing education more cost-effectively. For graduating 12th-grade students not interested in a college education, vocational training could be offered.

Twelfth-grade education could be improved with assistance by faculty of an area's universities and colleges. This would greatly enhance everything from the quality and scope of tutoring to the availability of and access to advanced placement and honors classes. Students also could be encouraged to avail themselves of summer school and university extension opportunities. Longer school days or shorter vacations could be introduced.

Further, the use of computers and self-learning would leave fewer 12th-graders bored — and a great many excited and strongly motivated to acquire new knowledge. Such an enriched high school program would enable undergraduates to skip the present freshman year and graduate in three years, as is the case in the United Kingdom, Australia and other Commonwealth countries.

Admittedly, a more compressed and intensive learning environment can impose intangible costs, especially for students from families with a limited academic background and learning tradition. On balance, however, improving 12th-grade education will cost less than does the present freshman year (UCLA, for example, spends millions on remedial work for freshmen ill-prepared for college).

A three-year undergraduate program would also allow the university to focus more on basic research and graduate education, while allowing students to save a year's fees and living expenses and enter the labor market a year early.

These proposed reforms are similar to the 1960 California Master Plan, which facilitates the transfer of community college students after two years of relatively low-cost education to university upper divisions. Moving better-prepared 12th graders directly into a university's three-year baccalaureate program would result in comparable savings.

It would be judicious to try out this untested reform proposal by undertaking an experiment. UCLA, in cooperation with surrounding high schools, offers a promising environment for such an undertaking. We must push the envelope.

Hirsch is an emeritus professor of economics.