Pat Wingert

In 1988, President Bush promised to be the "education president." Unfortunately for him, he now has to run on his record. Bill Clinton can legitimately boast of pushing hard for school reform in Arkansas, giving a badly needed boost to one of the lowest-ranked systems in the country.

His name is Gregory K., he is 12 years old and all he wants is "a place to be." Gregory has few memories of his childhood, not enough of them happy. His mental photo album holds a depressing collage of fights between his parents, sheriffs with eviction notices and too many foster homes.

We all know the indictment: American education has fallen behind the rest of the industrialized world. And we all know the reasons: everything from the collapse of the family to the prevalence of television to the abject failure of national leadership has been blamed.

At first glance, it might seem like good news about the nation's public schools: American youngsters today are just as good at math, science and reading as students were in 1970.

How bad are eighth graders' math skills? So bad that half are scoring just above the proficiency level expected of fifth-grade students. Even the best students did miserably; at the top-scoring schools, the average was well below grade level.

Four children would be a handful for anyone, but Lonnie and Amy Crawford of Los Angeles have the extra burden of three sons with asthma. Lonnie, 10, Richard, 5, and Mikhail, 4, have all spent time in the local emergency room; fortunately, their sister, Maya, 6, has no respiratory trouble at all.