GOP Seeks to Add Education to Arsenal

After years of ceding a Democratic advantage on education issues, state and national Republican leaders came to South-Central Los Angeles on Thursday to stake a claim in the battle to improve public schools.

The leaders acknowledge that Republicans have made mistakes in trying to communicate that their budget-cutting and government-shrinking agenda did not signal a low priority for quality education. But lately, they say, things have changed.

Gov. Pete Wilson boasted of wide public approval for his recent effort to shrink the size of overcrowded elementary school classes. And Republican Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said he will campaign for governor this year on a set of popular education plans that reflect GOP ideals.

“Sure, it was a Democratic advantage,” Lungren said at the Foshay Learning Center, an urban campus that has become a model for academic achievement with at-risk youths.

“It was never a positive issue--a net positive issue for us,” he said. “But that has changed. Rather than worry about education being on the agenda, we are embracing the idea.”

Lungren and Wilson made their comments at a public school that has become a popular campaign stop.

This was Wilson’s second visit to the center, and he highlighted the school during his State of the State speech in January. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has been there and, next week, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Al Checchi is scheduled to visit.

The school has been transformed in the last 10 years from a gang hangout with high truancy to a showcase for high academic achievement. And the Republicans viewed it as a good showcase for their goals for improvement.

Education now ranks at the top of voter concerns, largely because California test scores are among the nation’s lowest, the state’s schools are in disrepair, ill-equipped, overcrowded and fraught with crime.

Democrats, especially in California, are quick to blame such problems on Republicans, who have held the governor’s office since 1982.

“Republicans have had 16 years to help fix our schools, and I don’t think anyone would stand up and say we are proud of where our schools are right now,” said Kam Kuwata, a strategist for Rep. Jane Harman’s (D-Torrance) gubernatorial campaign.

This year, however, even Democrats admit that the debate over education has taken a strikingly bipartisan tone. Democrats still argue that the GOP is a fair-economy friend to schools while they have a record of commitment.

But on the major reform proposals under debate, the four leading candidates for governor--Republican and Democrat--have demonstrated several basic agreements.

That consensus includes support for more charter schools, teacher performance reviews, statewide academic tests, back-to-basics curriculum changes, flunking students who don’t meet new and tougher standards, an overhaul of bilingual teaching, new school construction money, smaller classrooms and better equipment.

“The reforms the public is clamoring for are Republican reforms,” Lungren said.

This year, Principal Howard Lappin said, 75 of the school’s 79 high school seniors are college-bound and three more are headed for the military. The dropout rate has shrunk from 22% to 1% over the past decade and daily attendance is now about 94%.

Lappin credits much of the turnaround to innovative community relationships. Today, Foshay pupils are tutored by students from nearby USC, Arco employees and a computer manufacturer that has privately funded an electronic technicians class.

“This is very, very, very impressive,” Lungren told students, parents and teachers.

Wilson and Lungren were joined at the event by Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, vice chairman of the National Republican Governors Assn., and Arne Carlson, the GOP governor from Minnesota.

Two more Republican governors joined the group Thursday night for a Lungren fund-raiser intended to underscore the high stakes for the party in keeping control of the California governor’s office.

Their new hope is that they can offer an appealing message for improving schools.

“Frankly, . . . people have come to the conclusion that it is Republicans who are pushing for the kind of change, the kind of reform that strikes a very resonant chord with parents no matter how they are registered,” Wilson said.