The

educational system in this country is in serious trouble,

but changes are occurring constantly that suggest there

is hope for thousands of children, according to state

Sen. Rick Price.

"Education

as you know it is dead," the two-term legislator

told the Peachtree City Rotary Club at a recent meeting.

"It's on life-support, but it's brain-dead and it's

going to change."

Noting that

with more than 70 percent of local property taxes going

toward education, along with local-option sales tax money

and state lottery funds ($3 billion since 1994), Price

charged that the government school "monopoly"

is not working.

About one

in four children in the United States are now attending

some kind of alternative to public schools, whether it be

private or parochial, Price said, citing a California

survey. Security is the top reason, he added.

Attitudes

are changing everywhere, he said, even among the

judiciary. Vouchers for private education are now legal

in three states, having been upheld by the U.S. Supreme

Court.

"The

federal courts are supporting change in education,"

said Price.

Changes are

happening close to home, as Price alluded to when

mentioning an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article that

said that one-half of third-graders in city schools will

not pass this year. He added that Atlanta has considered

privatizing about 20 elementary schools.

"There

are many good teachers in our educational system,"

said Price. "But they've given up. They've worn

down.

Price

blamed a culture shift that began in the 1960s for much

of what is wrong with education today, while the

bureaucracy is "losing its grip" on the

educational system.

But he

mentioned some positive signs, such as when two men put

up $100 million apiece to supply 40,000 needy students

with vouchers for school choice. About 1.25 million

applications were received for those slots, mostly from

poor families in the inner cities.

"They

care," Price said of these parents. "But the

system doesn't let them help their children."

Of all of

the educational reform movements of the past few years,

Price says that Texas governor and presidential candidate

George W. Bush has done the best job, adding that Bush

has huge support in Texas among black and Hispanic

voters.

Price is

Georgia 3rd District chairman of the Bush 200 campaign.

The state

senator also touted a program being bandied about in

Georgia for helping students and their parents. Called

Early Hope, it would give parents the option to get out

of a public school with scholarship money if that school

does not perform above the 40th percentile on the Iowa

Basic Skills Test.

Unfortunately,

Price said, the program has not yet passed. Opponents of

it are trying to change its name, he said, fearing the

connotation with the hugely successful HOPE scholarship

program would be too great to overcome. Still, Price

believes that Gov. Roy Barnes will support it.

Despite a

system that famed civil rights advocate and former

Atlanta mayor Andrew Young has called "the apartheid

of the `90s," Price sees a lot that is positive in

education reform.

"I

think the future's exciting," he said. "I'm

glad to be a part of it."