Panel Backs Davis’ Plan on Education

The most controversial piece of Gov. Gray Davis’ $444-million education plan--a proposal for teachers to evaluate their peers--received its first legislative approval Wednesday.

But the bipartisan honeymoon that last week greeted Davis’ proposal for increasing reading instruction was over. The Peer Assistance and Review bill passed the Assembly Education Committee on a partisan 12-2 vote Wednesday, with two Republicans voting no and the rest abstaining.

Committee Co-Chairman Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park) said he could not back the bill because its sanctions on school districts that do not cooperate are too great and its consequences for poor teachers too little--there is no provision for firing them.

“When we get through the process and some teachers haven’t improved, this bill has nothing to move them into a different career,” Campbell said.

Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante said he was not concerned about the change of tone from last week, when the governor’s reading improvement bill received unanimous bipartisan support. “I think before the end of the process we’ll see Republicans starting to support the legislation,” he said.

The peer review bill calls for spending $100 million annually to allow districts to develop and run teacher evaluation programs in which veteran teachers would assess and advise teachers who have received an unsatisfactory review from their principals.

Although the bill allows local districts to negotiate their programs’ parameters with teachers’ unions, it threatens to withhold annual cost-of-living increases from districts that do not participate. That is where much of the opposition arose from legislators and education lobbyists alike.

Forcing districts to comply ignores the fact that the most commonly cited peer review successes--in New York, Ohio and Poway, Calif.--were all voluntary, said California Federation of Teachers President Mary Bergan. “That’s why they were successful,” she said.

Although agreeing to consider other incentives as the bill moves on to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, bill author and Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) said he considers a financial punishment essential to gaining statewide compliance.

“I know there’s a lot of concern [but] there’s a competing concern: How do we motivate school districts to get involved, to grasp . . . this reform?” he said.

As the weeks until the hoped-for March special session deadline fly by, the other three Davis administration bills also are progressing.

In the state Senate on Wednesday, a high school exit exam received the 9-0 approval of the upper house’s Education Committee after it was dramatically amended.

Among the changes made Wednesday, the exam for the Class of 2003 would test only mathematics and language arts.

Tenth-graders would be required to take the test and ninth-graders could opt to take it--a change designed to create an early warning system so schools can address shortcomings.

Legislators also made it clear they want money allocated for remedial help for those poorly performing students, but so far none is included in the bill.

Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford) said legislators should “understand that by voting on the bill, we are making a resource commitment” that is not currently included in Davis’ proposal.

In another change, students who enter high school not speaking English could delay taking the test for two years--which in some cases would mean taking the test after finishing their senior year, if they wanted to receive a diploma.

But some opposition lingered. Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) said the bill contains inadequate acknowledgment that students in poor neighborhoods tend to receive substandard education.

“It is simply not appropriate to give kids an exit exam before we have given them 12 years of a quality education,” said John Affeldt, an attorney representing numerous groups including the Assn. of Mexican American Educators.

Hayden and civil rights advocates who spoke at the hearing pressed for an intensive evaluation of the exam results to ensure that it is not disproportionately failing some socioeconomic and ethnic groups. “There’s plenty of evidence that you do this this way and it results in dropouts, and that results in lawsuits,” Hayden said.

The exam bill goes next to the Senate Appropriations Committee, possibly next week.

A bill on school accountability was held over for a vote until next Wednesday, but it too contained major changes in response to concerns of legislators and education lobbyists.

Most significantly, the bill is moving away from holding principals solely responsible for a failing school. Instead, the bill proposes that a team of experts would determine who was responsible for the problem, potentially including the district superintendent of schools and the school board.

When Davis unveiled his accountability bill, he said principals should be treated as “the CEOs” of schools and evaluated as they would be in the business world.

And to address concerns that more was being spent on rewarding good schools than on helping troubled ones, the amendments shift $25 million into intervention. But the totals remained unbalanced: $67.8 million for intervention at failing schools and $125 million for the Governor’s Performance Awards at top achieving schools.

The governor’s $94-million reading improvement bill, which would provide remedial programs for children and training for teachers, cleared the Senate Higher Education Committee on Tuesday, but not without a significant glitch.

A representative from the University of California said it is unrealistic to assume the system can raise the $4 million a year it would cost to train 400 teachers and 400 principals.

“We agree that the ideas are very good,” said Stephen Arditti, assistant vice president for governmental relations. “But this is an investment for society, not just for the university.”

The reading bill also goes next to the Senate Appropriations Committee.