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Where We Stand On Education Needs Improvement, According To Documentary

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2008

"Where We Stand," a new PBS documentary about challenges facing American education, is both inspiring and depressing.

Airing at 9 tonight on WEDU, Channel 3, it offers snapshots of various public schools in Ohio that represent how things are in the rest of the country.

What we see in urban Cincinnati, suburban Columbus and rural Belpre is that some programs work and others don't; some teachers manage to get students to excel while others battle almost impossible odds in poverty-stricken areas.

The title comes from a Walter Cronkite program that aired 50 years ago, after the launch of Sputnik when it appeared that America had fallen behind the Soviet Union in education. Our country mobilized, and the government made a major investment in science and technology. A decade later, we landed on the moon.

According to the documentary, the European Union and China graduate more scientists than the United States. In 1995, the United States' college graduation rate was first in the world; a decade later, it had fallen to 15th while the cost of a college education soared dramatically. Students in the United States ranked 25th in math and 21st in science out of 30 developed countries.

One segment profiles a Finnish exchange student who knows far more than the American kids in her Ohio class. America appears to be standing behind other industrial nations that have made education a priority.
Education experts weigh in on how to fix problems such as low math and science illiteracy, unequal resources and declining college graduation rates.

But you come away feeling that nothing much is going to change in a country where every issue is reduced to partisan bickering between the left and the right.

Following the program at 10 p.m. is a round-table discussion of the challenges facing schools in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area featuring local educators.

VIDBITS: How does "Saturday Night Live" top last week's season opener with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin? It's going to be tough. Guest host this week is "Pineapple Express" co-star James Franco (also Peter Parker's rival in the "Spider-Man" movies).

•Katie Couric and Meredith Vieira are among those who will be throwing barbs at the New York Friars Club Annual Celebrity Roast in October. The roastee is "Today" co-host Matt Lauer, who is coming to Tampa next week to take the political pulse of the city. Joining Vieira and Couric will be Bob Saget, Richard Belzer, Al Roker, NBC anchor Brian Williams and NBC President Jeff Zucker. This event usually is not taped for airing on television.

•The CW's "Smallville" begins it's eighth season at 8 tonight without Michael Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk as Lex Luthor and Lana Lang (Kreuk is in a few episodes midseason). Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and Lois Lane (Erica Durance) will move on as co-workers at The Daily Planet. A new villain, Doomsday (Sam Witwer), causes trouble, but Green Arrow, Black Canary and Aquaman have got Clark's back.

•The annual Rock Paper Scissors Championship (held in Las Vegas in June) will air on Fox Sports Network as a "Best Damn Sports Show" special on Oct. 6. More than 300 RPS competitors were vying for a $50,000 prize. There's no official uniform, so players dress in some rather imaginative outfits.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

Supernatural, 9 p.m., The CW

Season 4 begins with the resolution of the cliffhanger in May that killed off hunky ghostbuster Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles). His soul was dangling over a bottomless pit bound for hell.

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