Education Gets a ‘Needs Improvement’ : Schools: Educators, business leaders and parents tell legislators at ‘mini-summit’ they want safer campuses, less regulation, updated curricula and equalized funding.

School safety, local control of schools and job training topped the agenda at a daylong education summit Friday that brought together members of Orange County’s legislative delegation and more than 100 educators, business leaders and parents concerned about the future of California education.

The education “mini-summit” at Marian Bergeson Elementary was convened to provide Orange County legislators with ideas to bring to a statewide education summit later this month.

The consensus: reduce state requirements, make school funding more equitable and change curricula to reflect modern issues such as gangs, crime and a competitive, high-tech marketplace.

Eight of the county’s 11 state legislators and state Secretary of Child Development and Education Maureen DiMarco attended the session Friday.

“We’ve been in battles for so long. I think it’s time to stop the battles,” said DiMarco, who has said she almost certainly will run for state superintendent of public instruction.

“We’ve had one side saying, ‘The schools are terrible, we need more money.’ We’ve had another side saying, ‘The schools are terrible, we’re not giving them more money,’ ” she said. “So people believe the schools are terrible.

“I believe that we can . . . (improve education) because we care deeply about our children.”

The legislators spent most of the day listening as several dozen people testified about the state of local schools and the need for change. Speaker after speaker lauded business and education partnerships and lamented the rise of street gangs and campus violence. Many called for legislation to remove layers of state requirements and increase the power of teachers and parents at individual schools.

In calling for reform, Helen Cameron of the Industrial League of Orange County said: “We can no longer teach Monopoly and send students out into a Nintendo world.”

“As the needs of students change, as the needs of society change, we must change too,” agreed Capistrano Unified Supt. James A. Fleming. “We must do more. We must do better.”

Throughout the day Friday, residents asked lawmakers to introduce specific legislation. Among the concrete proposals were requests to:

* Ease the approval process for charter schools--that is, public schools that are allowed to operate free of all state requirements;

* Reduce the number of requirements governing instruction of special education students;

* Relax credentialing requirements and tenure protection for teachers;

* Create more efficient testing and reporting of test scores;

* Restore funding for reporting of campus crime;

* Offer businesses incentives to give parents time off to volunteer in schools, and

* Equalize per-pupil spending across school districts.

“We do not understand how the state government believes our children are worth less than this child down the street who is in a neighboring school district,” said Melinda Springer, a mother of two who complained that the Capistrano Unified school district receives 20% less in state funding per student than some other Orange County districts.

“Kids are created equal. Education is supposed to be equal. Consequently, funding has to be equal,” she said.

Less specific, but more impassioned, requests came in regard to school safety, class size and local control. Parents pleaded with the legislators to give them more power, and school administrators begged for relief from a 7,000-page code of requirements and regulations.

Nearly every speaker said that the rise in campus crime is a chief concern and emphasized the importance of a safe learning environment. Suggested solutions, however, were few.

Speakers praised student peer mediation and parenting education programs, and also strict dress codes and zero-tolerance policies regarding drugs, gangs and weapons. Most Orange County districts have already adopted such policies, however.

In offering those ideas as models for the rest of the state, educators continued to sound the alarm about the increasing problem of school violence locally.

“I remember a colleague of perhaps 20 years ago who concluded that she would never be able to teach if students feared being at school,” offered Peter Hartman, superintendent of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. “I am grateful to say that she retired for all the usual reasons. If she were 30 again and teaching today, she would have a struggle.”