A Second Term for Eastin

Californians are deeply dissatisfied with public education, and for good reason. The failings are broad and deep, as documented by The Times’ special series, “Public Education: California’s Perilous Slide,” which concludes today. Raising student test scores, improving reading comprehension and increasing accountability from top to bottom are among the urgent challenges that face the next state superintendent of public instruction, who will be elected June 2. Delaine Eastin, though she faces some questions and criticisms as the incumbent, is the best qualified in this race.

The job of state schools chief is hard enough, and Eastin, a Democrat, and Gov. Wilson, a Republican, have rarely agreed on how to accomplish certain goals. Wilson’s appointees to the State Board of Education have fought her at every turn. Yet both sides agree on the importance of fixing public education.

Eastin’s work is not through. Waiting to be accomplished in a second term:

* A new statewide remedial reading initiative for grades four through 12 so more California students can learn to read accurately and fluently.

* An action plan to deliver on her good ideas, such as reinstituting summer school. Eastin is a former assemblywoman. She ought to be able to work the Legislature to put ideas into action.

During her four-year term, Eastin has used her office as a bully pulpit to push her agenda: improved reading instruction, higher academic standards, smaller class sizes in the primary grades and a longer school year. These reforms, for which many, including the governor and Legislature also deserve credit, originated in the school chief’s office.

Her opponent, Gloria Matta Tuchman, is best known for her co-sponsorship of Proposition 227, which would in effect eliminate bilingual education. It’s true that the current bilingual system has failed. But Proposition 227 would impose a single method of teaching English, and this inflexibility is a key reason that Eastin properly opposes the measure.

Tuchman is an enthusiastic and experienced first-grade teacher but she is less informed outside that specialty. She is correct in her assessment that public education requires major reform but she lacks the experience required to be effective in a job that calls for a lot of political arm-twisting. The superintendent’s job doesn’t have the power to rule by fiat, which is why political skills are so important.

Eastin recognizes that unless Sacramento increases the state’s investment in public education, most of California’s students can forget about up-to-date textbooks, library books and computers, much less art instruction, music classes and summer school.

Eastin appreciates the hard work that teachers do and speaks knowledgeably about the challenges educators face. But she does not have the endorsement of the California Teachers Assn., a sign of her increasing and welcome independence. She understands that unless teachers and administrators are held accountable for results, parents, tired of waiting for long-overdue change, will lose all faith in public schools. That’s what’s at stake in this election. Eastin has had a good start. Californians are now depending on her to deliver.