Eastin’s School Reform Plan Scaled Back

A sweeping proposal by state schools chief Delaine Eastin to improve education by freeing local districts from state regulations has run into serious hurdles and is evolving into a far less ambitious strategy that is unlikely to produce the wholesale changes needed to reform California schools.

Facing financing obstacles, opposition from the powerful teachers union and legal questions that cast doubt on her power to waive state regulations, Eastin has been forced to back off on some of the more innovative aspects of her “Challenge” plan.

When she announced the plan in September, Eastin promised to use her executive powers to break up the regulatory and political logjam that was hindering statewide school reform. Under her plan, school districts that agreed to meet higher academic standards could operate with virtual autonomy.

But the plan has drawn objections from the California Teachers Assn. and other statewide education groups. Their opposition--and the fact that local districts have given a cool reception to key tenets of the plan--has cast doubt on whether the strategy will be an effective way to improve the state’s public schools.

Eastin said she is still committed to the Challenge program--which calls on districts to require students to meet higher standards, take more courses and pass rigorous examinations to graduate--and she remains optimistic that it will, at the very least, create islands of innovation.

The grumbling about the plan, she said, “is one of the signs that you are making a change. I wouldn’t be comfortable if everyone was going along singing, ‘The Good Ship Lollipop.’ ”

But she conceded that the idea of becoming Challenge districts has not proved as popular as she expected, so she is no longer insisting that entire districts take part.

And she has yet to resolve questions over how the state will finance the program--which promised districts upgraded technology and improved security--and how much latitude she has to waive education regulations.

In an internal memo obtained by The Times, CTA President Lois Tinson criticized the Challenge proposal, saying it has “produced nothing but problems and uncertainties” in the three months since it was unveiled.

“We do not know whom the superintendent consulted--if anyone, outside her own staff--before announcing the ‘Challenge schools’ idea,” Tinson wrote. “It’s apparent she has no ‘buy-in’ from any large or significant group.”

CTA officials said Thursday that they have patched up some of their differences with Eastin. But Eastin was clearly miffed about the memo, which she called a “screed” that was “not very smart.”

“We’re working with her, to see if we can make it work,” said CTA spokeswoman Tommye Hutto. “Delaine has recognized there were problems, especially that she should have consulted CTA, and has taken steps to remedy that.”

But, she said, “one of the problems that still remains is there isn’t much money for it.”

The support of CTA is essential because Eastin will need legislative approval for many aspects of the Challenge plan. She plans to introduce bills to raise graduation requirements, lower class size and create a system of incentives and penalties for school districts depending on whether they make progress.

She acknowledged that getting such legislation passed will be difficult. “To really get the Legislature to pass anything statewide for schools is not promising,” she said.

Thirteen school districts, including Los Angeles, Pasadena, Fontana, Capistrano and San Diego, were intrigued enough by Eastin’s vision to consider signing contracts with the state. Those contracts, which are to be signed in January and take effect in September, would spell out what the districts as well as Eastin will do to improve student performance and reduce dropout rates.

Although many of the plan’s original elements have been scaled back or dropped altogether, some district representatives remain enthusiastic about the strategy.

“There’s a lot of energy, there’s a commitment, but there are a lot of unanswered questions about exactly how it’s going to be fleshed out,” said George van Alstine, a member of the Pasadena Board of Education.

Tom B. Seixas, president of the Visalia teachers union, said his district is already trying to put some of Eastin’s reform ideas--such as setting districtwide achievement standards and improving parent participation--into place. But he said the district does not need the broad autonomy that Eastin had offered as an incentive in order to achieve those goals.

“A lot of the . . . education code does not have to be waived,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be an alternative school district.”

Eastin’s original plan called for districts to seek status as “alternative” districts, a designation that would allow her to lift most state regulations--including the rigorous attendance accounting system that provides the basis for school district funding. It was initially thought that an exemption from those accounting rules would have provided a financial boon to some districts.

But Eastin’s staff later acknowledged that there would be no financial gain. Teachers would still be required to take attendance. And school systems could not become alternative districts unless every single student and teacher signed on.

Under state law, enrollment at an alternative school must be voluntary. So becoming Challenge districts would mean that schools would lose their authority to compel students to enroll.

Frank Hill, the deputy superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, said such an arrangement was a “major problem.”

Even so, he said, the district is still considering signing a Challenge contract with Eastin, who has promised to help them obtain waivers for rules it finds burdensome. That would only make her an ally in seeking what they can already obtain from the state Board of Education.

Eastin has also abandoned another controversial, and costly, aspect of her original vision: the requirement that school districts devise a learning plan for each student.

The Challenge program will be explained next week in Los Angeles at a meeting between Eastin and representatives of the approximately 200 schools that operate under the district’s LEARN reform plan requested by Helen Bernstein, president of the United Teachers-Los Angeles union “because it all seems to be changing.”

Eastin maintains that rather than a statewide strategy to reform every school, the Challenge initiative was intended as a means of creating “models and prototypes for what we could do with a little bit more freedom.”

And even though the notion of forming alternative districts is proving unworkable, her original goal is attainable, she says.