Barely a month ago, big , bluff William Bennett looked upon his early works as Secretary of Education and declared them good. “I have more affinity with the views of the American people than do most of my academic colleagues,” he announced. “I think I am in the mainstream of American thinking.” If so, then it is a turbulent mainstream, and at times Bennett has seemed in need of a pilot. Since taking office Feb. 6, he has been a forceful exponent of quality and responsibility in education. His style, however, has been politically maladroit, offending educators and laymen alike, while threatening their pocketbooks. The new Secretary has come down hard for the Administration’s plan to cut about $2.3 billion from student loans, grants and other higher-education aid for fiscal 1986. This, he said, might “require for some students divestiture of certain sorts–stereo divestiture, automobile divestiture, three-weeks-at-the-beach divestiture.” He has charged that because of mismanagement by a number of colleges “some people are getting ripped off ” in the education they are getting for their money. He later blasted some colleges for graduating almost “any warm body” and for neglecting traditional humanities-centered curriculums in favor of career packaging. Bennett has also jumped into some hot issues in elementary and secondary education, notably when he advocated vouchers that dissatisfied public school parents could use to send their children to different schools, either public or private. He appointed two assistants, Eileen Marie Gardner of the right- wing Heritage Foundation and Conservative Educator Lawrence Uzzell; both opposed major federal education programs, with Gardner against special aid for the handicapped. When Republican Lowell Weicker of the Senate Appropriations Committee threatened to block the salaries for Gardner and Uzzell, Bennett was forced to accept their resignations. Then, speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, Bennett suggested that families with incomes above $60,000 and several children to put through college should “maybe do your family planning a little better or find other means” besides federal loans. His office quickly explained that he had meant “family financial planning.” All of which is not what people expected when Bennett arrived in the job with his humanist background, top-drawer intellect and impeccable scholarly credentials: B.A. from Williams College, Ph.D. from the University of Texas, a law degree from Harvard and a stint as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. According to Terry Hartle, education specialist for the American Enterprise Institute, when Bennett’s posting was announced, it was “greeted with a sigh of relief by the educational community, who feared a hatchet man might be appointed.” But the community soon learned that relief would not be spelled B-E-N-N-E-T-T.
