State Takeover of Compton Schools Vetoed

Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a bill Wednesday night that would have allowed an unprecedented state takeover of the Compton Unified School District, whose students’ scores on standardized tests are among the lowest in the state.

Wilson had until midnight Wednesday to act on the bill or let it become law without his signature.

In his veto message to the state Assembly, Wilson said the school district “should not take joy in my decision or regard it as a rebuff” of Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount), who sponsored the bill.

“To the contrary, they should regard the district as on probation,” the governor said.

He said his veto “is prompted by concerns arising from the bitter internecine strife so evident among adults in the community on this subject.”

Wilson warned that if “there is not dramatic improvement in the performance of the schools, I will entertain Mr. Murray’s more drastic remedy.”

The legislation would have authorized a state-appointed trustee to take over the school district--the first such action for any reason other than financial insolvency.

Wilson signed a Senate bill on Wednesday that identifies and assists problem schools and could put them under state control “only as a last resort.” The problem-plagued Compton schools could be among the first to benefit from that legislation, Wilson said.

Murray, whose district includes parts of Compton, insisted that outside intervention is needed to reverse Compton’s high dropout rate and its low test scores, which generally have been the weakest in the state.

Murray supplied the governor’s office with test scores demonstrating that 99% of the state’s school districts had higher scores than Compton. In reading, writing and mathematics at nearly all grade levels, Compton’s scores were the lowest in the state, Murray noted.

District officials countered that statewide standardized testing stopped at the end of the 1989-90 school year, and that more recent testing is showing small--but real and hard-earned--gains.

The poor test scores are largely a result of demographics, administrators said. Most students come from impoverished families. More than a third speak limited English.

The district of about 28,000 students also has a high transiency rate. About 5,000 students either moved into or out of district schools last year alone, officials said.

Parent Mark Deese helped lead the successful fight against the Murray bill, citing the importance of local control. But he also sounded a warning against complacency.

“We have to come to grips with reality,” Deese said. “There is a lot of truth in the accusations Assemblyman Murray has made.”

Although he opposed Murray’s bill, Deese said, “I am not satisfied with the education my son is going to receive.”