Wilson, Legislators Near Deal on School Testing

Gov. Pete Wilson dropped a threat to veto the state’s newly approved $68-billion budget Tuesday after legislative leaders moved toward accepting a statewide test of public school students.

Emerging from several hours of talks with Democratic leaders, Wilson said, “The discussions were very useful and persuaded me that we wouldn’t need a full veto.”

But the governor also vowed to use his line-item veto power to blue-pencil parts of the budget to ensure he gets his way. Invoking a line made famous by Ronald Reagan, Wilson said he intends to “trust and verify, so there will be some incentive” on the part of lawmakers to approve the testing plan when they return from their summer recess Aug. 25.

The final piece of the budget deal is relatively small--$35 million. But Wilson has been stymied in his efforts to get a test in place, and he views it as vital to his efforts to show that his education initiatives, particularly the class-size reduction program begun last year, have worked.

Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, the lead Senate Democrat, said he “made a commitment to solve” the remaining issues in Wilson’s testing plan. The major disagreement involves the amount of detail parents and others will be able to obtain about results from the classes of individual teachers.

“We’re 90% in agreement,” Lockyer said as he prepared to end a marathon two-day session in which lawmakers approved the spending plan and more than 30 bills that implement the state budget.

Although Wilson says he won’t veto the entire budget, his announcement that he will use his line-item veto means he essentially will hold part of the education budget hostage until he gets a plan to test students that he deems suitable.

“You can assume that I will withhold enough to secure the attention of the people whose votes we need,” Wilson said.

Specifically, Wilson could veto a $2.5-billion piece of the education budget that primarily goes to urban districts and is dear to Democrats. He also is likely to cut money in the $32-billion education budget set aside for legislators’ pet projects such as museums.

“No testing, no pork,” said Sen. Charles Calderon (D-Whittier).

It’s uncertain when Wilson will act. To restore any vetoed money, the Legislature would need to pass a new bill and Wilson would have to sign it.

Throughout the day, Wilson’s spokesman Sean Walsh had said the governor might veto the entire spending plan if Democrats refused to bend to the governor’s desire for one standardized test to be given to all students in grades 2 through 12.

But Lockyer and Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante shuttled into the governor’s office late in the day and emerged to say they were making progress.

“There are high hopes that this will be resolved, and I actually believe it,” said Assembly GOP Leader Curt Pringle of Garden Grove, who was involved in the negotiations.

Moments after Lockyer appeared in the Senate chambers to proclaim that the wrangling was over for the time being, another senator announced that any members with travel plans should see a clerk at the rear of the Senate chambers. The normally staid chambers erupted as senators rushed to the clerk to grab their plane tickets in preparation for their two-week vacations.

Any vacation plans would be cut short if Wilson were to veto the entire budget. Lockyer and Bustamante probably would call lawmakers back into an emergency session.

A decision to veto the budget would have been extreme. It would have meant that the state would continue to fail to pay nursing and group homes that care for more than 100,000 elderly, developmentally disabled and mentally ill Californians. Many are on the verge of being unable to meet their payrolls.

The governor’s office had been making good on its threats regularly during this summer’s budget debacle, most notably following through on Wilson’s warning that he would remove all extra money from the budget unless Democrats agreed to his $1-billion income tax cut.

When Democrats turned down the tax cut, Wilson decreed that a $1.36-billion legal judgment to the Public Employees Retirement System be repaid in full this year, forcing lawmakers to cut virtually all extra money from the budget.

The Legislature approved the spending plan 42 days past the state constitutional deadline for having the budget in place. The Department of Finance revised the budget number back to $68 billion, after placing the total at $67 billion on Friday.

Lawmakers worked into the early morning Tuesday, then took a break for sleep, and returned in the afternoon to vote on the half-dozen remaining bills needed to implement the spending plan for the 1997-1998 fiscal year that began July 1.

As Wilson and lawmakers negotiated over the final testing plan, Wilson’s aides pointed to the importance the governor places on the exam. He pledged in his first campaign that he would require such a test for public school students, and he is convinced that he has been stymied repeatedly by the powerful public school teachers’ lobby.

In what is seen as part of Wilson’s effort to cement his legacy, the governor believes the test will prove that his education initiatives, specifically the one begun last year to reduce class size in early grades, have helped improve California schools.

But Democrats were hesitant to compromise as they smarted over several major losses in the budget.

The major disagreement is over the amount of information parents will be able to get about a particular teacher. Wilson wants information from the tests about specific classes to be widely available--something teachers unions and Democrats oppose, believing the information could be used against individual teachers.

Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado) said she understands Wilson’s desire to disseminate test data from schools and districts. But, she said, “Who cares about how it is, class by class, unless the governor is trying to get at somebody?”

Wilson also wants a single test given in English, although he would exempt new arrivals for as long as two years. Democrats had wanted tests given in Spanish to Spanish-speaking immigrants, and in other languages, if the tests are available.

Finally, Wilson hopes to vest decisions over the testing program with his appointees on the State Board of Education. Democrats want Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin to have control. Although Eastin is in a nonpartisan post, she is a Democrat who has support from the teachers unions. Lockyer said this issue is virtually settled.

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The Testing Dispute

In the state budget dispute, Gov. Pete Wilson and Democratic legislators are deadlocked over a proposal to require all California public school students to take standardized tests to measure the effectiveness of schools. Below are the major differences in their positions:

LANGUAGE

DEMOCRATS

Test to be given in student’s native language.

WILSON

All testing in English. Non-English speakers would be exempt from

the test requirement for two years (one year exemption for high school students).

ADMINISTRATION

DEMOCRATS

Test would be administered by the state school superintendent

WILSON

Test would be administered by the state Board of Education

REPORTING

DEMOCRATS

Test results would be reported at school, district and state levels.

WILSON

Test results would be reported at the classroom level as well as school, district and state levels.

EXEMPTIONS

DEMOCRATS

Schools with existing test contracts could be exempt from the statewide test.

WILSON

All schools required to take the same test.