WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 -- America's urban school leaders have issued an open letter to the "next president" of the United States, urging him to join them in tackling the challenges facing inner-city schoolchildren to ensure quality education for all the nation's students.

 "We are asking the presidential candidates to commit now to working with us to reform and improve our urban schools," says Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation's urban public school systems.

  In the letter (attached), issued Oct. 27 at the Council's Annual Fall Conference in Los Angeles, urban educators urged the "next president" to consider:

• Fostering a constructive political environment;
• Helping to build a cohesive national urban policy;
• Ensuring federal programs focus on raising student achievement and closing gaps;
• Assisting in the recruitment of qualified teachers;
• Devising a strategy to eliminate disparities in school funding;
• Supporting school repair and renovation aid;
• Defining a more targeted federal strategy to help urban education;
• Using urban schools as a model to celebrate cultural diversity; and
• Appointing administrators who have experience in the urban setting.

 Open Letter to the Next President of the United States

 October 27, 2000

  The leaders of the nation's Great City Schools congratulate you on your campaign and thank you for emphasizing how fundamental public education is to the national welfare and to the quality of life in our cities and towns.

  The Council of the Great City Schools, a bi-partisan coalition of the nation's largest urban public school systems, sends this letter pledging to work closely with your administration to ensure that all of our children receive a quality education.

  Urban schools, of course, are at the heart of every national debate about the status and future of public education. There is no conversation about class sizes, parental choice, school repairs, or pay-for-performance that is not also about urban education. Every educational challenge is more pronounced in the inner city; every solution harder to implement; and every success sweeter.

  We have been working relentlessly to improve public education in our cities. We have raised standards and increased the passing rate in core subjects, volunteered for national reading and math tests, piloted new accountability systems for administrators and teachers, increased the number of urban students taking rigorous courses, improved management and operations, pioneered zero-tolerance programs, collaborated with mayors and business, widened our leadership into nontraditional fields, targeted more of our resources onto the classroom, and wired our schools.  

  Our work is making a difference. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data show that our central city schools have significantly improved their math performance since 1992. Results on new state assessments, moreover, indicate that urban schools are improving faster than statewide averages. Local testing shows even greater gains.  

  We would be the last to say, however, that our progress has been sufficient. We need to continue to improve student performance, close achievement gaps, compete more successfully in the international community, recruit thousands of qualified teachers, fix our buildings, improve accountability, and stabilize our leadership.

  We also need a great deal from the next President of the United States to help us meet these and other challenges. We cannot meet them by ourselves. We are asking the presidential candidates to commit now to working with us to reform and accelerate the progress in our urban schools. We also support higher appropriations for targeted programs than we have seen over the last several years in order to sustain that progress. Here is where we need your help.

  First, we need a constructive and encouraging political climate. The divisive and destructive rhetoric about public education, particularly public schools in the cities, needs to cease immediately. Outside pressure is important for spurring us on. We deserve to be called on the carpet when we fail and acknowledged when we progress. The gratuitous denigration of urban education, however, is neither motivating nor productive. It also sends destructive messages to the public about issues of race and class.  We believe that the next President can help set a tone by which reform is constructively encouraged.

  Second, we need a more cohesive and articulated national urban policy with public education at its core. Big city schools and big city mayors have worked hard over the last several years to forge stronger relations and more coherent strategies for revitalizing urban communities. Federal policy lags far behind, however, in its ability to tie school reform and urban renewal together and to use one to strengthen the other. We believe the next President should help build this new cohesive national urban policy.

  Third, we need the federal government to do its part in helping us raise student achievement and close achievement gaps that are identifiable by race, language, and income. This means focusing federal research and programs on successful strategies for reducing the gaps and translating current research findings on the effectiveness of early childhood education, smaller classes, qualified teachers, regular assessments, and the like into policies and programs. We need the leadership of the next President to ensure that federal programs and research are focused on these critical areas. 

  Fourth, we need your help with attracting, recruiting, and retaining fully qualified teachers and leaders to urban schools. Simply mandating that we hire only qualified teachers does not solve our problem. Urban schools often cannot compete with wealthier school systems in pay or working conditions. We need federal assistance to attract, recruit, and retain high quality teachers and leaders to the nation's urban schools.

  Fifth, we need a serious effort by the federal government to eliminate the substantial disparities in school funding. These resource disparities undercut the ability of our schools to teach all children to the same high standard. It is common for inner city schools to have $1,000 to $2,000 less per child than the average suburban school, despite the substantially greater needs in the city. We ask that the next President devise a strategy for how the federal government can alleviate these disparities and ensure adequate resources for all children.

  Sixth, our facilities are crumbling and in serious need of repair and renovation. The average school building across the country is 40 years old; the average urban school building is 65 years old. Cities have been doing their share over the last several years by passing most every construction bond put before the voters. The state contribution, however, has been negligible and the federal effort has been nonexistent. We need the next President to support meaningful school repair and renovation aid. 

  Seventh, we need a more targeted and dedicated strategy by the federal government to reform and improve urban public schools. Federal efforts to improve urban schools in the past have been too diffuse, too punitive, and too reliant on state discretion to assist major city schools. Many states have neither the will nor the expertise to help us. We ask that the next President define a more targeted federal strategy for urban education.

  Eighth, we urge you to celebrate the diversity that is central to the mission of urban education, and is at the heart of the values of this proud democracy. We presage America of the 21st century with some 37% of the nation's African American students, 32% of its Hispanic students, 23% of its Asian Americans, and 36% of the nation's English language learners. We urge you to use us as a model of tolerance and inclusion and as a way of continuing the nation's dialogue on race and language.

  Finally, we ask that you give serious consideration to appointments in your administration, particularly those to the Department of Education, that have experience in the urban setting and that reflect the racial and language diversity of our communities. The pool of leaders, managers, administrators, and instructional talent within urban education is outstanding. We also urge you to meet regularly with urban school leaders once you assume office to ensure that our respective efforts are pulling in the same direction.

  Urban public schools often foreshadow much that is grand and troubling about our country. Their importance is unquestioned but their needs are often misunderstood or ignored. They travel in orbits that defy the gravitational pull of their states. And they educate a unique slice of America's future.

  We ask you, as the next President of the United States, to work with us to make urban public education the best in the world.  Thank you, and best wishes as the 43rd President of the United States of America.

 Clifford Janey, Chair of the Board Council of the Great City Schools And Rochester School Superintendent

 Manuel Nunez, Chair-Elect Council of the Great City Schools And Fresno School Board

 Rod Paige, Secretary/Treasurer Council of the Great City Schools And Houston School Superintendent

 Becky Montgomery, Immediate Past Chair Council of the Great City Schools And St. Paul School Board

 Michael Casserly, Executive Director Council of the Great City Schools