Go to The Rear of the Class

By Susan Tifft

One of George Bush's first acts as President-elect was to announce that he would retain Lauro Cavazos as Secretary of Education. The move was widely applauded: in addition to being the highest-ranking Hispanic in the new Administration, Cavazos was an amiable former president of Texas Tech University whose reputation for consensus building contrasted sharply with the contentious style of his predecessor, William Bennett. But the honeymoon is over. Reflecting the view of a growing number of critics, Andrew Griffin, executive officer of the Georgia Association of Educators, dismisses Cavazos as "all talk, no action."

The Secretary comes across as a man with no clear-cut agenda who prefers speechmaking to policymaking. "Cavazos hit the ground strolling," says Democratic Congressman Pat Williams of Montana, chairman of the House post- secondary education subcommittee. "He believes the job can get done with Rose Garden ceremonies." An example came earlier this month when Cavazos unveiled a report showing that the performance of U.S. students remained "stagnant." The Secretary said the lack of progress "scared" him, but all he proposed to do was urge Governors and school board presidents to push for higher graduation rates. "He keeps telling us that the problems are disgraceful, but he doesn't come up with any solutions," says Jeanne Allen, education policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Cavazos' boosters say his determination to forge agreement rather than dictate policy has been misinterpreted as a sign of weakness. "Cavazos has brought a willingness to listen and a less combative tone than we've had in the past," says Wilmer Cody, Louisiana's superintendent of education. "It's a style that's needed right now." Specifically, Cavazos acted to change a much criticized policy on federal student-loan defaults, projected to reach $1.8 billion this year. Bennett had made the draconian proposal to bar all schools with default rates of 20% or higher from participating in the program, but Cavazos scrapped that plan shortly after taking office. Later this month, after reviewing public comment about the problem, he is expected to issue more flexible guidelines targeting only the worst offenders.

Cavazos adamantly defends himself against charges that his brief tenure has been short on results and vows to quiet skeptics with an upcoming series of hard-hitting speeches. "I'm more concerned with solutions than criticism," he says. "Has ((Treasury Secretary Nicholas)) Brady solved the budget crisis yet? Has the drug problem disappeared?"

To be sure, the Federal Government's role in education is limited, since the states and local school boards wield most of the policymaking power. But Cavazos seems reluctant to take charge even in the areas that are clearly his. He has yet to promulgate all the regulations for the School Improvements Act, an $8.2 billion bill passed last year that would extend existing programs and create new ones, including dropout prevention. Legislation to promote alternative certification programs, Bush's suggested method for combatting the teacher shortage, has gone nowhere on Capitol Hill, say detractors, because Cavazos has failed to rally public support. "People were critical of Bennett's bully-pulpit role," says Ramon Cortines, superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District. "But at least he kept education on the agenda. Cavazos hasn't done that."

Too often the Secretary seems politically naive. In January, after testifying before the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, Cavazos asked if he could stay and hear the other witnesses. Congressional veterans were stunned. Said a committee staffer: "It looked as if he had nothing better to do than sit and listen to people read statements." Cavazos is also handicapped by his lack of familiarity with elementary- and secondary- education issues. In April, for example, he incorrectly told reporters that Minnesota provides transportation across district lines as part of its "choice" plan, which will soon allow parents to select schools for their children anywhere in the state.

The Secretary is also hampered by Bush's lackluster leadership. So far, the White House has filled only four of the top 13 Education Department positions. Nor has Bush shown much generosity in funding: his $22.3 billion education budget for 1990 does not allow for inflation, effectively eroding future buying power. Says former U.S. Commissioner of Education Harold Howe: "That was a signal that Bush was going to look like the education President but not be one."

Cavazos' problems have prompted speculation that he may soon be replaced. That seems improbable. As the Cabinet's sole Hispanic, Cavazos represents a minority group that Bush is eager to court politically. The Secretary, moreover, is anything but shy when it comes to protecting his turf. When John Chubb, an education expert from the Brookings Institution, made it known that he was in line for a White House post that would allow him to serve as a "counterpoint to the Education Department," Cavazos persuaded White House chief of staff John Sununu to quash the appointment. The country would be better served if Cavazos applied that kind of assertiveness to doing his job, not just keeping it.

With reporting by Jerome Cramer/Washington, with other bureaus