As one goes around, talking both to employers and to young people, and on the Youth Training Scheme, you will find that some of the young people who are in difficulty with getting jobs are in that difficulty because they found they are not very articulate, they find it difficult to express their thoughts. They are not very good at writing a letter. They are not always very good at reading and their idea of arithmetic and their idea of how to go to an interview and their ideas of what is wanted of them—that they must turn up on time and that they must be part of a team and so on. They have not got the normal grounding in those things that one would expect them to have, and so you find that there are a number of schemes now to give them that grounding and I can only say that I have seen some of them and the confidence that comes with it is a joy to behold.
I am overwhelmed with two thoughts: how is that these young people have had eleven years of compulsory education, but at no stage in their development did someone say: “Look! By the time they are about eight or nine, they ought to be reading. Even a late learner ought to be reading. They ought by that time to know the essence of writing a letter and they ought to have had the basic tables and the basic elements of arithmetic!” and if you do not get it into them then, then of course, when they go to secondary schools they are frightened because if you have not got the basic reading, there is an awful lot you cannot learn later…
We do not want to dictate the total of education to the teachers, but it really is a core curriculum. Not in every subject, but a core curriculum, and to work out a syllabus in certain fundamental subjects: your arithmetic, your English—the spoken, the written word and some of the literature—and basic science because you really need the kind of literacy in science these days; and then going on to a kind of basic geography and history. This ought to be a part of the education of every child, and parents are all for it because they want their children to be taught…
Now choice in schools. We are finding a number of things happen. Many MPs, certainly those who think the same as I do, will have found it in their constituencies. Often, you will find people very keen on church schools—schools which are run by the church although they get the money from the tax-payer… You will find that many many parents want their children to go to a church school. They may not themselves go to church, but it means that they [recognize] that if you go to a church school, the chances are you are going to be taught things that are good. They really like to have that extra assurance… Coming always to this: “Please, I want my child to go to a church school!” and you say: “But look! The church schools have much bigger classes because so many parents want their children to go to it, but there is another school down the road where they only have classes with sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen to a teacher!” “Never mind!” the parent will say: “I would rather my child went to a school with thirty-six in the class where I know that they will get a very good education and the reputation of that school, than to the other one!” This is, of course, giving problems and so some local authorities were restricting the amount that a popular school could take and saying that they must go to others.
We are going to do away with that in the coming Bill, because we believe that so long as there are spaces in a popular school, then the parents should have their right to send them to that school…
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died today at age 87, explaining why comprehensive curricula and school choice are critical to helping all kids succeed. Reformers should keep these words, as well as the Iron Lady’s strong example in leadership, in mind, as we advance the transformation of American public education, especially in expanding choice and supporting the implementation of Common Core reading and math standards.