Due to the three-week government shutdown, the January issue of Community Update has been combined with February's in this single edition. The January Satellite Town Meeting was also canceled. The regular schedule for Community Update and the Satellite Town Meetings resumes this month.
"In this effort, good citizenship and good business sense converge," Secretary Riley said. "These business leaders understand that being family-friendly is not just the right thing to do but the smart thing to do. It is one of the best investments an employer can make in the future."
Employers who participated in the event included Cliff Erlich, Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Marriott International; Charles Lee, Chairman and CEO of GTE Corporation; Allan Huston, President and CEO of Pizza Hut Corporation; the Honorable Togo D. West, Jr., Secretary of the Army; Terry Ehrich, CEO of Hemmings Motor News; Daniel Spalding, President of School Specialty; and John Lewis, President of Paragon Furniture. Senior management representatives from John Hancock Financial Services, Hewlett-Packard, American College Testing, and United Airlines were also in attendance.
Terry Ehrich elaborated on the theme of why family-friendly policies make good business sense: "Once we've invested the time and money in finding, hiring and training good people, we want them to stay on the job. The accountable costs and the hidden costs of staff turnover can be very high. Family-friendly policies and benefits give us an important advantage in recruiting and training one of the finest workforces in our area."
Charles Lee emphasized why businesses have an interest in making sure their employees are well-educated: "In the evolution of our competitive marketplace, the distinguishing factor is going to be our workers. As the world continues to evolve, there will clearly be a requirement for more learning, more education, more skills, and more training."
The spirit of active involvement in education was summed up by Cliff Erlich of Marriott International: "The future is not something you walk into; it's something you create."
Other companies that have signed on to the Employer's Promise include Southern
California Edison, Motorola, Walt Disney World Co., and Turner Educational Services. For
more information about the Employer's Promise for Learning and other ways the Education
Department helps families get involved in children's learning, call 1-800-USA-LEARN. 
Entitled "Community Colleges, Businesses, and Local Chambers: Key Partners in School Improvement," the hour-long Town Meeting will air on Tuesday, February 20 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The program is closed-captioned and is simulcast in Spanish.
U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin will host a conversation with a panel of guests who will describe how community colleges and chambers are helping to link schools with the worlds of business and higher education, as well as the larger community. Featured will be examples of how school districts are partnering with community colleges and chambers on such issues as school-to-work transition, preparation for postsecondary education, and family involvement in learning.
The Department of Education produces the Satellite Town Meeting series in partnership with the National Alliance of Business and the Center for Workforce Preparation with support from the Bayer Foundation, The Procter and Gamble Fund, and SC Johnson Wax.
Satellite coordinates are as follows ....
C-Band: Galaxy 4, Orbital Location 99 degrees West; Transponder 5; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 5; Downlink Frequency 3800 MHz; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHz (Spanish) and 6.8 MHz (English).To participate in the Satellite Town Meeting, contact your local Public Broadcasting System (PBS) member station, chamber of commerce, or Johnson Controls branch office and ask if your group can use the facility as a downlink site. Other possible sites are local schools, public libraries, community colleges, cable television stations, universities and technical schools, government offices, hospitals, businesses, hotels, or even private residences with satellite dishes. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for further information or to register your participation.Ku-Band: SBS-5, Orbital Location 123 degrees West; Transponder 10; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 10; Downlink Frequency 12166 MHz; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHz (Spanish) and 6.8 MHz (English).
Editor's Note: The following employers are among the many who have signed on to the Employer's Promise, a voluntary pledge which commits businesses and organizations to family- friendly policies and partnerships that support the family's central role in children's learning. The list of participating employers continues to grow. For a copy of the Employer's Promise or more information on how to sign on, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.
American College Testing National Center for Health Education
Arnel Management P-K Tool & Mfg., Inc.
Aspen Systems Corporation Paragon Furniture, Inc.
Diamond Sign Company Pizza Hut
GTE Ridgeview, Inc.
Gardner's Supply Company School Specialty
Hemmings Motor News Spruce Mountain Design
Hewlett-Packard TBSC Learning Systems, Inc.
Home Box Office Tom's of Maine
Hospital of Saint Raphael Turner Educational Services
John Hancock United Airlines
Johnson & Johnson United Service, Automobile Association
MacLean Fogg Company (U.S.A.A.)
Marketing Partners, Inc. U.S. Army
Marriott International Walt Disney World Co.
Merritt & Merritt Wells Fargo & Co.
Welcome New Partners!
The national Family Involvement Partnership for Learning has over 170 members and continues to grow. We welcome our newest partners:
- Quinton Township School, New Jersey
- Harriet Tubman Susan B. Anthony Women's Self Help Center, Illinois
- Dr. Helen Baldwin Middle School, Connecticut
Editor's Note: In December business leaders from across the country joined U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley in kicking off a national campaign for family-friendly policies in the workplace. (See story p. 1) Participating employers shared some of their own successful programs and practices that encourage family involvement in education. Here's a sample:
50 Simple Things You Can Do was published as part of the "Keep the Promise" campaign, supported by the U.S. Department of Education, the Business Roundtable, the National Governors' Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Alliance of Business. The "Keep the Promise" message encourages all Americans to get involved in improving education. The message is delivered as public service advertising via television, radio, and the print media.
To obtain a copy of Moving America to the Head of the Class: 50 Simple Things
You Can Do, call 1-800-96-PROMISE.
Strategies to help disadvantaged students excel in learning were explored during the discussion. The program underscored that even schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged students can succeed with a commitment to help all children learn and proper support from families and the community.
Town Meeting panelists were part of the Signal Hill school community in Long Beach, California, a success story in school-wide change. Signal Hill Elementary School is one of more than 4,500 schools across the country that have initiated school-wide projects, taking advantage of a recent change in federal law to combine their federal, state, and local resources to assist their disadvantaged student populations. In this way funds can be used to achieve school-wide change rather than making piecemeal efforts to support individual students.
Chris Steinhauser, the former principal at Signal Hill who is now District Director of Special Projects, summed up the philosophy that transformed a struggling inner-city school into a thriving center of learning. "We decided that in order for us to achieve what we wanted, which was the best for our children, we were going to have to radically change the entire school program. We couldn't do it one piece at a time."
Signal Hill is now a magnet school in math and science that attracts students from across the Long Beach school district. Current principal Nancy Nakagawa shared how flexibility in using resources helps the school achieve its goals. Until recently each teacher in grades 1 through 5 had the assistance of a paid specialist. Signal Hill staff met and decided that concentrating more resources in the early grades would make a greater impact on student achievement. A number of teachers sacrificed their time with a specialist so that funds could be targeted toward helping children in kindergarten, first and second grades, preparing students for success in later years.
Panelist Bobbi Lucas exemplified the dedicated teaching staff at Signal Hill. She shared how the core belief that all students can learn has been the foundation of Signal Hill's reform effort. "We didn't want to focus on a child's deficits. We decided to focus on a student's strengths. We adopted the philosophy that if a child is failing, you examine your own teaching."
Involving parents and the broader community has also contributed to Signal Hill's success. Parent Dina Andrews noted the differences she has observed before and after Signal Hill embarked on comprehensive reform. She described the welcoming atmosphere for parents on Back-to-School night and the effort the school makes to provide simultaneous translation at meetings for parents whose primary language is not English. She also related how teachers have taken the time to explain what she can do at home to support her child's learning in the classroom. Program Facilitator Claudia Kreis described how parents were actively involved in drafting the school's plan for reform.
Business partner Joan Anderson of Price Costco told how Signal Hill's clear mission attracted her company to get involved in the reform program. "It was very exciting for us to be approached by a school that had a vision and had a concrete set of goals to accomplish with their students." Price Costco's efforts to support Signal Hill have included donating 900 backpacks filled with school supplies and providing homework kits as incentives for parents to attend school meetings.
Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin noted that Signal Hill's experience poses a
challenge to other communities across the country in how to take success beyond the model
program. "We have to make success not extraordinary, but ordinary," she said.
Without a budget agreement, substantial education funding is in jeopardy if the Congress continues its present course of action. President Clinton has appealed to the leadership in Congress to continue to fund the education and other government functions while negotiations to balance the federal budget are under way.
As this edition went to press, the Congressional leadership has agreed to fund education programs only through March 15, 1996, through a continuing resolution. If the Congressional leadership were to extend the current continuing resolution funding levels for the remainder of the year, the largest cut in education funding in the nation's history would occur, amounting to $3.1 billion.
The following comparison of a sample of education programs notes the differences between the President's balanced budget plan, the current continuing resolution and the House-passed bill:
The President's budget also expands assistance to local communities to raise students' standards of achievement and discipline. Congress would severely limit or terminate this help by eliminating funds for Goals 2000 in the House-passed bill and cutting 25 percent from last year's level in the current continuing resolution. Over 17,000 schools and up to 9 million children could lose school excellence grants.
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