WASHINGTON — In commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the Reagan administration’s seminal report, “A Nation at Risk,” a bipartisan group of policymakers and education and business leaders gathered at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education (RISE) to discuss the challenges and progress across the American education landscape since 1983.
With an emphasis on then-President Ronald Reagan’s message that it is the responsibility of all citizens to restore excellence in America’s schools, RISE highlighted focal areas for educators and officials at the federal, state and local levels to increase access to quality education, lifelong learning experiences and other opportunities that create pathways to fulfilling careers for students.
Frederick J. Ryan Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, said education is the institute’s first focus. He said the institute will examine five major objectives the initial “A Nation at Risk” report focused on: leadership, improving teaching, improving educational content, raising standards and expectations and adding time to the school day.
A primary concern for education leaders today is that a zip code can determine whether a student receives a quality education, said Dr. Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State and former provost of Stanford University. In the opening plenary, “The Learning Society,” she warned that the United States could become two societies: one that is competent and another that is not.
“A democracy really cannot thrive and survive” without quality education,” Rice said, adding that education is “the new frontier” in the civil rights struggle.
University of California president Janet Napolitano echoed Rice’s sentiment. She said a collective investment and a “joint interest” in quality education for all students “is a value for the country” and will help each individual reach the full measure of their talents, be socially engaged and enter fulfilling careers.
Rice said that as science, technology, engineering and mathematics education increase, she hopes leaders do not lose sight of the part of education that enhances “humanness” — the arts. She also urged lifelong learning, saying leaders should inspire students to “explore the range of human knowledge and keep finding ways to do it.”
