State Senate Set to Consider Confirmation of Bergeson

Former Orange County lawmaker Marian Bergeson returns to a familiar spot today--the hot seat--as a state Senate committee considers her nomination to the State Board of Education over the opposition of teacher unions and minority activists.

Appointed to a four-year term on the board by then-Gov. Pete Wilson in September 1998, Bergeson needs Senate approval to keep the job. State board members can serve up to a year without confirmation, which requires a two-thirds vote.

A former teacher and Orange County supervisor, the Newport Beach Republican served in the Assembly and Senate from 1978 to 1994. Best known for her education legislation, she became education secretary in 1996 to Wilson, who said last year she has done more for education in California than anyone in 20 years.

But critics--citing her opposition to bilingual education and votes to limit services for immigrants--say Bergeson is insensitive to the needs of many students.

“She’s anti-immigrant. She’s anti-minority. She’s anti-civil rights. She’s anti-women,” said Elizabeth Guillen, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

But despite such opposition, and the 1993 Assembly rejection of her nomination as superintendent of public instruction, Bergeson is expected to win confirmation for the school board because she has support from Democrats.

She is backed by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) and Gov. Gray Davis, who struck a deal with Wilson during the governor’s final months in office to keep Bergeson on the board, state officials have said.

In exchange for a promise from Democrats to keep Bergeson and UC Regent Joanne Kozberg, Wilson agreed to leave three spots open on a new commission that will decide how to spend cigarette tax revenue on early childhood education. Among Davis appointments to the board is filmmaker Rob Reiner, who will serve as its chairman.

Davis spokeswoman Hilary McLean said the governor fully supports Bergeson’s nomination. After today’s hearing before the Senate rules committee, her nomination goes to full Senate, where a vote is expected next month.

The deal rankles some critics.

“We thought we were voting for a governor who would change things,” said Deborah Escobedo, an attorney for Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy Inc., a San Francisco-based civil rights legal organization. “I can understand if you are going to make a deal, but do you have to make it on the backs of immigrant children?”

Opposition to Bergeson was organized by Sen. Joe Baca (D-Rialto), who said board members should represent all segments of the community.

“We have to have someone who believes in diversity in public education,” Baca said.

He has amassed a 2-inch-thick stack of opposition letters from parents, labor officials, education groups and organizations that represent minority interests. These include the California Federation of Labor, the California Federation on Teachers, the state chapter of the National Organization for Women and United Teachers-Los Angeles.

Bergeson contends that critics are just rehashing complaints from her bruising 1993 confirmation battle.

Instead they should be focusing on how the state board is working today, she said. “The board is working together in a way that constructive reform is being implemented,” Bergeson said.