The Coloradoan - Sen. Bennet Preps For Education Debate

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By Robert Moore

Sen. Michael Bennet, a former Denver Public Schools superintendent, is spending more time back in the classroom this winter in preparation for a likely legislative overhaul of the federal government's role in education.

On Friday, he spent part of the afternoon with students and teachers at Fort Collins' Harris Bilingual School, which has been widely recognized for its dual language program for elementary students.

While he spent much of the time asking students about what and how they were learning, some of the students got in questions of their own.

"What plans do you have for the rest of the schools?" fifth-grader Monze Guerrero said.

"Well, Monze, one of the things that I think is that no matter where you come from, no matter who you are, you should have an excellent education that prepares you for your career or for college," Bennet said. "And unfortunately, there aren't as many schools as good as Harris; we don't have as many as we need."

Her classmate, Rafael Hernandez, asked: "Is it hard to be senator?"

"It's hard, but not as hard as being a teacher," Bennet said.

"That's the hardest job that anybody can do, in my opinion," he said.

Bennet is expected to be one of the Senate leaders in the debate this year on reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, the George W. Bush administration's education accountability program. Both Republicans and Democrats are calling for the program to be overhauled.

In an interview after his visit to Harris, Bennet said his background as a former urban school superintendent gives him unique insight on education matters.

"During that period of my life, I spent a lot of time wondering why Washington was so mean to our teachers and to our kids," he said. "What I've discovered is they're not mean; they just have no clue what's going on in our schools and in our classrooms."

Bennet said massive change is needed in the federal government's role in education.

"No Child Left Behind is about the crudest accountability system you could imagine. The only thing cruder was the response of school districts like the one I used to work with as they tried to respond and figure out ... and it was an unwinnable battle in a lot of ways."

Bennet said accountability should focus on student growth rather than proficiency measures, a change Colorado already is making. And he said the amount of accountability tests for students can be greatly reduced.

He said the role of the federal government should be to "support people at the local level that have innovative ideas."

Harris principal Julie Schiola said campus visits by policymakers such as Bennet are invaluable.

"They see what's going on in the trenches. And we've got great things going on," she said.

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