School Computer Training Felled by Deukmejian Cuts

This year Fran Slowiczek was able to show teachers countywide how to use computers to teach the basic elements of ecology to students, showing them the dependency between living things.

“We had a computer program called ‘Graze,’ in which students were asked how many cows they wanted in a three-square-mile-area pasture,” she said. “We then added songbirds, hawks and 210,000 grasshoppers and 200 mice per acre and had the students pick scenarios to see what happened with 600 cows--no grass left--or say, 10 cows--no way to make money.”

That program and several other specialized activities statewide will be eliminated as a result of school budget cuts signed into law by Gov. George Deukmejian.

Teachers throughout San Diego County will lose programs that help them learn how to use computers in math, science and English, that provide them small grants for coming up with innovative teaching ideas, and that offer updated information in specific academic fields.

Latest Technology

No longer will experts in various fields fan out to the county’s 43 school districts to show teachers how computers can be used to improve instruction and help bring students the latest technology, Jim Esterbrooks, spokesman for the county Office of Education, said.

That program, called Teacher Education/Computer Centers, is being eliminated statewide after Deukmejian vetoed continued funding.

In addition, the governor vetoed funding for curriculum aid centers that provide teachers the latest information in subjects ranging from fine arts to mathematics to physical education.

The greatest effects will be in smaller districts without adequate resources to provide such training on their own, Esterbrooks said. While San Diego Unified and other larger districts such as Grossmont and Sweetwater can compensate, he said, those in Ramona or Julian or along the North County coast will be unable to do so.

“These programs helped to enhance the education of students from grades kindergarten through 12,” said Slowiczek, one of the former center specialists. “They prepared them for a real life world that will be dominated by computers and technology, that will have a tremendous effect on their lives.

“Teachers are frustrated not only at the lack of sufficient numbers of computers but more at the lack of information on how not just to use but to integrate them into all their curricula.”

Slowiczek and her two colleagues at the county Office of Education taught hundreds of teachers each year, Esterbrooks said.

“These programs had a constant flow of teachers coming in for training,” Esterbrooks said.

Said Slowiczek: “I think that computer instruction will now fall apart and that education in the state of California will take a giant step backward,” she said. “We are talking all the time about excellence in education yet we now take that away from teachers and students as far as integrating technology into the classroom.”