STATE OF THE STATE : School Plan Sure to Face Tough Test : Education: Wilson’s proposal would put greater responsibility on parents, teachers and students. Call for elimination of tenure draws quick criticism.

Promising to teach California’s schools “new lessons of reform and renewal,” Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday launched a controversial agenda that shifts responsibility for improving education from bureaucrats in the Capitol to parents, teachers and even students.

Wilson said his first piece of education legislation this year would phase out by 1997 the massive, 11-volume state education code that governs the most minuscule details of school operations. “These 7,523 pages stifle innovation and feed bureaucratic bloat,” he said. “It’s time to start over.”

Other proposals would create a “parents bill of rights” that expands school choice, develop statewide tests to score the performance of every student and end the “social promotion” of pupils who fail to meet high standards.

But the proposal that is sure to be the most controversial and politically tricky is the double-barreled attack on teachers unions that brought applause from Wilson’s audience Monday. Wilson said he will seek to repeal tenure for teachers and develop a system of merit pay that rewards teachers for excellence.

Merit pay is “essential for encouraging good teaching,” Wilson said. “And the teacher who isn’t doing his job shouldn’t stay in the classroom. We wouldn’t tolerate a chef who can’t cook, or a pilot who can’t fly. We shouldn’t tolerate a teacher who can’t teach.”

Merit pay systems include an array of approaches that offer salary bonuses to outstanding teachers. Tenure protects teachers from being fired unless administrators can document incompetence or other shortcomings.

The governor’s proposal to scrap tenure “threw a bitter pill” to the powerful California Teachers Assn. and its Democratic allies in the Legislature, said Senate Republican leader Ken Maddy of Fresno.

Both abolition of tenure and institution of merit pay are sure to provoke the wrath and opposition of the state’s teachers unions.

Union officials say merit pay often pits teachers against one another and substitutes for well-deserved across-the-board raises, and that the basis for awarding the bonuses is often subjective.

Wilson’s plan will seek to base at least a portion of a teacher’s salary on student achievement, while making concessions for those whose students start out behind their peers.

Similar proposals in other states have proven to be politically popular initially among parents and business leaders, but have been nightmarishly difficult to implement and, in some cases, have been scrapped.

Helen Bernstein, president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, which represents 32,000 area teachers, said she was disappointed to hear Wilson focus on merit pay and tenure when other serious problems are hampering the state’s public schools.

“These are symbolic issues, these are not the problems,” she said. “The problem is kids are coming to school ill-fed, ill clothed, ill-prepared . . . speaking a huge number of languages, all in one classroom.”

Bernstein said Wilson is out of step with education experts in touting pay bonuses for outstanding teachers. She added that his call to abolish tenure is simply “a way of union busting and avoiding the real issues.”

Researchers say that merit pay has not improved student achievement. Allan Odden, an expert on school finance and teacher compensation at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said merit pay works best in situations where workers have more control in producing results, such as in sales.

Teachers, he said, face too many variables beyond their control, such as whether textbooks are up to date or students are well-nourished.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Amy Pyle and Carl Ingram.