California Man to Run School Group

For the first time in 20 years, a Californian took the helm of the National School Boards Assn. on Monday as one of public education’s most influential interest groups met here to debate such volatile issues as charter schools and national achievement standards.

The new president, William B. Ingram of Riverside County, called on school trustees to seize the initiative at a time when would-be education reformers abound in state capitals and Washington.

“Many of the proposed quick fixes are designed to alter public education so drastically that the question of how to save our children from the quicksand of ignorance and illiteracy is lost in the process,” Ingram told the convention. “It is very clear to me that the children are not America’s top priority but rather, just pawns in a political game of chess.”

Seeking to put their stamp on key issues, delegates approved new positions including a call for strict public control and accountability of charter schools; support for a proposed national investment in rebuilding school campuses; and support of voluntary national student achievement standards--an idea championed by President Clinton.

The association represents 15,500 school districts nationwide, including 95,000 school board members. About 6,000 members came to the Anaheim Convention Center for the association’s 57th annual meeting, a four-day conference that ends today.

Ingram, 61, a trustee of the Perris Union High School District, is the first Californian to head the group since George W. Smith of San Diego in 1977.

Juanita Haugen, president of the California School Boards Assn., described Ingram as “moderate to liberal.” She said: “He’s certainly an advocate for children. If there’s an injustice being done to any one child, Bill will fight for that child.”

The convention’s most intensely debated topic was charter schools, a term generally describing schools that are given some autonomy over how to spend their public funds.

Many public school trustees view the charter school movement as a threat to districts with increasingly tight budgets. Many also consider it allied with those who want school vouchers. Frank E. Burnham, a Virginia delegate, said charter school proposals are often “a subterfuge to put public money into private education.”

On Monday, New York officials pushed the convention to oppose the expansion of charter schools. But delegates from California, which already has more than 100 such schools, led a successful counter-movement calling only for charter schools to be placed under exclusive control of local districts.