$140 Million for Colleges Promised by Deukmejian

Acceding to the demands of some critics, Gov. George Deukmejian on Saturday pledged to increase state spending for financially strapped community colleges by more than $140 million. But he lashed out at what he sees as a leadership vacuum in elementary and high schools and promised to undertake a thorough review of public school failures.

The leadership reference was a slap at state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, with whom the Republican governor has been feuding over school financing.

Last week, Deukmejian agreed to add $202.8 million to next year’s public schools budget to pay for what he called unanticipated expenses. But in his weekly radio broadcast on Saturday, the Republican governor was far from contrite toward his critics.

He charged that “something is wrong” in classrooms and that the public school system “needs a strong dose of statewide leadership and direction which they are not now getting.”

Management Criticized

Citing a recent auditor general’s report that criticized management problems in some school districts, Deukmejian said: “Thorough scrutiny of California’s public school program is timely and necessary to ensure that any additional new dollars provided by the taxpayers are spent wisely and not wasted.”

The governor’s offer of more aid to community colleges will be welcome news for a system that has gotten less attention than other segments of higher education under the Deukmejian Administration.

The governor in recent years has been resistant to major increases in the community college budget, insisting that he first needs to see reforms and clearer standards in the way the two-year colleges are run. He also successfully pushed for the first ever $50-per-semester fee for students at a time when Democrats in the Legislature were fighting to keep the state’s traditional tuition-free policy for local colleges.

Particularly irksome to community college officials was Deukmejian’s decision to give a much larger percentage increase in funding to the UC system and the California state colleges.

In his radio speech, Deukmejian moved to correct what some college officials have criticized as a basic inequity by boosting community college spending 7.6% over what was alloted in the 1986-87 budget. That represents a $141-million increase over the prior year, or a total of $1.85 billion in community college spending. He originally had proposed a 3.6% increase.

Finance Department officials will be able to carry out the increase without cutting spending in other areas because of recent projections showing state revenues to be $2.75 billion higher than the governor’s original estimates.

Deukmejian based his decision to provide more money for community colleges on what he said was the cooperation of college officials in devising a long list of reforms. Those recommendations, by a state higher education review panel, were unveiled more than a year ago, however, and Deukmejian has yet to embrace them or come out with his own recommendations.

Nonetheless, in his speech, the governor listed a number of the panel’s suggestions as “useful.” They include mandatory student counseling, clearly defined academic standards, a greater emphasis on developing opportunities for students to transfer to four-year institutions and stronger vocational and English language training. Officials have placed a $70-million price tag on implementing the full package of reforms.

Bills Proposed

Meanwhile, a joint legislative committee that reviewed the panel’s recommendations has proposed its own package of bills aimed at revitalizing the community colleges.

Neither those bills nor the governor’s statements, however, indicate any support for changing funding formulas to provide additional aid to districts with substantial enrollment growth. Officials of the Los Angeles Community College District, which has experienced a 10% enrollment surge this year, say that reform is essential.

The governor gave no details of his plan to carry out a full review of the problems of the K-12 schools. Presumably, the study would be conducted by a panel similar to the one that recommended the community college reforms. Deukmejian’s press secretary, Kevin Brett, said the specifics “will be announced at a later date.”

Brett also said he is “not aware” of any effort by the governor to discuss the plan with Honig prior to Saturday’s announcement.