WASHINGTON -- The Reagan administration rejects as 'nit-picking' mounting criticism that its report on school violence and discipline is exaggerated and misleading.
Gary Bauer, an Education Department undersecretary, told a congressional panel Tuesday that even if classroom order is improving, as many contend, too many children still are attacked, robbed and terrorized.
Bauer, the report's chief author, disagreed with those who say 'we don't have a problem,' just because the estimated 280,000 pupils assaulted each month represents less than 1 percent of the student population.
'We have a problem, a serious one,' Bauer said during the second day of a two-day hearings at which several educators ripped the report as 'shoddy,' 'misleading' and 'inflammatory.'
Under questioning, Bauer said, 'I am disappointed with the reaction we have received. We expected a consensus in addressing the problem. Instead, we've received nit-picking on whether the problem is getting better or worse.'
Mary Futrell, head of the National Education Association, assured the panel, 'Our public schools are not 'blackboard jungles' as the recent reports from the Reagan administration imply.
'We welcome the Reagan adminstration's new-found interest in the discipline issue,' Mrs. Futrell said, again urging the White House to increase federal funding of education.
The NEA is the nation's largest teacher's union with 1.7 million members.
Reagan, who has said schools do not need more federal dollars but some 'good old-fashioned discipline,' received the report Jan. 9 from the federal task force on school violence and discipline.
Entitled 'Chaos in the Classroom,' the report cited a 1978 study by the National Institute for Education that found that 3 million junior and high school students a month are victims of crime.
It said no amount of additional federal funds will help if teachers 'are too afraid or distracted to teach' or 'if students are too afraid or distracted to learn.'
Michael Caserly, legislation director for the Council of Great City Schools, an organization of the nation's 32 largest urban schools systems, testified Tuesday:
'I would urge members on both sides of the aisle to disassociate themselves from this shoddy piece of work and get back to the important debate on educational quality and equity.'
The hearing was chaired by subcommittee Chairman Carl Perkins, D-Ky., a former schoolteacher who has been at odds with Reagan over the president's attempts to cut federal funding of education.
Nearly a dozen witnesses testified, all but Bauer criticizing the report.
The witnesses -- educators, superintendents, social scientists and a high school senior -- said classroom order actually has improved in recent years.
They said that while discipline remains a problem, it must be put in perspective and not be seen as a violent crisis.
Four Republican members of the subcommittee charged that the hearing was a political attack on Reagan.
