Business Boost to Education

California Business Roundtable members who are concerned with reforming public education think school systems will be more likely to change if they help plan the changes. Last year the group’s task force on education made general suggestions for change, calling, for example, for vastly expanded preschool programs and more involvement of teachers and parents in education planning. Now, the same business people are backing legislation in Sacramento to get school systems directly involved in planning how the suggested reforms should be carried out. It’s a logical approach and deserves support.

The business leaders have altruistic and practical motives. They want California’s youngsters to have brighter futures. They also want workers for the 21st Century who know how to read, write, calculate--and think in an organized fashion. Many job applicants today lack those skills. Pacific Bell reports that more than half the 6,000 applicants tested for entry-level operator and clerical jobs in one recent 12-month period were not able to pass basic tests.

To try to help California students, the business report recommended tightening standards for teacher preparation and advancement while also giving good teachers more of a role in decision-making at each school. But unless school districts have a stake in making these changes happen, those recommendations could gather dust as so many other reports do, said Joseph F. Alibrandi, head of Whittaker Corp. and chairman of the group’s education task force.

SB 1274, introduced by Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara), who chairs the Senate Education Committee, is the vehicle for this effort. It establishes demonstration programs under which the state would pay selected local districts to design their own reform programs. School districts wouldn’t have to include every element in the task force’s report in their own plans, but they would definitely have to focus on ways to get more parents involved and to improve teacher preparation.

It is not clear yet how much money may be available to start such reform efforts. One proposal calls for $6 million in planning grants during the first year. The legislative leaders think $40 million a year for four years thereafter would be a realistic amount to implement the program. Among their goals are providing more help for beginning teachers, training teachers to work more effectively with potential dropouts and developing ways to lighten teachers’ workloads.

The Legislature will be considering a variety of reform measures this year. This one has special merit because the people who write the reforms will be the ones who later must put them into effect, creating a built-in support system.