Despite the clear national interest in
character education, many schools are leery of engaging in
supplementary initiatives that, although worthy, might detract
from what they see as their primary focus: increasing academic
achievement.
Moreover, many schools lack the resources to
create new curricular initiatives. Yet the enhancement of
student character is a bipartisan mandate that derives from the
very core of public education. The purpose of public schooling
requires that schools seek to improve both academic and
character education.
If it could be demonstrated that implementing
character education programs is compatible with efforts to
improve school achievement, then perhaps more schools would
accept the challenge of doing both. But until now there has been
little solid evidence of such successful coexistence.