The Schools Can’t Wait

Beware your friends. Some Sacramento Democrats may be tempted to nit-pick or stall Gov. Gray Davis’ education reforms, now under consideration in a special legislative session, so they can put forward their own ideas, which were bottled up during the long Republican domination of Sacramento. They need to compromise among themselves and incorporate the best ideas from Republican leaders or risk blowing this rare opportunity to fix public education.

An important test comes Tuesday. The Senate Education Committee is expected to vote on bills that call for a high school graduation exam and a statewide school evaluation system. Among the key votes to watch are freshman Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) and longtime education champions John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) and Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles). These senators have their own ideas on improving schools and should bring them into the debate. But in the end they should be team players committed to change without delay.

Davis rightly aims to get his promising legislative package passed by March 30, which would allow teachers to be trained this summer, and to have the new laws in effect by the September start of the traditional school year. Legislators of both parties agree on the urgency, but when it comes to holding teachers and students accountable, the votes begin to dwindle.

Because teachers are the most important factor in a student’s education, the governor proposes weeding out ineffective teachers though a peer review program, the first in the nation on a statewide level. With such systems tried and proven in some cities, the Davis proposal should be implemented.

The peer review bill, AB 1, introduced by Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), is perhaps the most controversial of Davis’ four bills. If it becomes law, it will end the current California mentor teacher program, in which mentors primarily guide new teachers, and will create a state mentor peer review and assistance program to help veteran teachers whose students are doing poorly. The mentors could recommend dismissal if the teachers being helped did not improve.

Contrary to the perception in some school districts, the intent of the bill is not to eliminate mentors for beginning teachers; new-teacher mentoring would be funded out of another program. But the Villaraigosa bill does need change. It should be amended to give school districts greater flexibility to assign mentors to new teachers, helping them to improve their skills or encouraging them to get out early before they damage more children. Such a change might require additional funding if many veteran teachers either request or are assigned a mentor. So far, the powerful California Teachers Assn., a Davis ally, has stayed neutral on this and other measures. Its support is needed.

Davis’ school accountability measures are expected to face objections from Democrats and their education allies who question the fairness of holding all students equally accountable when all schools are not equal. But for how long should opponents demand delay? Scholastic achievement is in part a function of what’s expected of students and their schools.

SB1, sponsored by Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), would rank all schools on a new academic performance index and offer intensive help to 200 schools that scored below the median. Schools that improved would get direct monetary rewards. Those that ultimately failed to boost performance could even face reconstitution--a complete faculty reorganization.

SB 2, from Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), would require high school students to pass exit exams to graduate beginning in June 2003. Some education advocates say that’s too soon. No, it isn’t. California needs to raise expectations of students now and provide plentiful help to those who fall behind.

There’s wide support for a bill to help novice teachers learn to teach reading. The measure, AB2, by Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni (D-San Rafael), would provide $12 million to train up to 6,000 novice and uncredentialed teachers at summer institutes on UC and CSU campuses. It would appropriate $75 million more to help slow readers catch up in the early grades and to fund a system of monetary rewards to the schools to encourage reading by elementary and middle school students.

The governor has made this bill more acceptable to Assembly Republicans by adding an explicit requirement for phonics instruction, but even this one isn’t a slam dunk. Because it would fund the University of California to run summer reading institutes for teachers, passage requires a two-thirds vote, a hurdle that will require strong bipartisan support.

Davis, the first Democratic governor in 16 years, shouldn’t be tripped up on his highest priority by fellow Democrats and their allies. The political process should allow room for improvements without putting these measures, and the future of California students, on hold.