Right on Center

Gov. Gray Davis has got his new administration off to a workmanlike start, putting the biggest emphasis on education and sticking to a path of moderation. It’s not spectacular or gripping, but it is the right direction.

In his inaugural address in Sacramento Monday, the Democrat promised to govern from the center and as a pragmatist. That is what California needs. And that was the sort of agenda he laid out for the Legislature in his State of the State address Wednesday evening.

In the address Davis correctly spent most of his time on California’s most immediate and demanding problem, the need to reform the public school system. He outlined $444 million in initiatives to teach children to read, to improve the quality of teaching and to hold schools, administrators and teachers accountable for the quality of the education our children receive. Most elements of his education initiative will be put before lawmakers in a special session starting Jan. 19.

Davis thus sets in motion the major promise of his gubernatorial campaign. It is not the entire answer to the woeful performance of California public schools, but it is a sound beginning. Some elements of his plan--peer review of teacher performance, for example, and a required high school graduation exam--will be controversial. These are not radical ideas but surely will be treated as such by entrenched interests.

Davis has made “the era of higher expectations” the theme of his administration, but those expectations already have been lowered somewhat by a drop-off in state revenues. Last year’s lush $4-billion surplus suddenly is gone, much of it spent by former Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature on questionable election-year tax breaks.

As Davis takes charge, he faces a possible deficit of $2 billion to $3 billion for his first budget. While he said education is his first, second and third priority in office, he was correct in noting that the budget problem demands discretion and financial caution. The $444 million he proposed in school reform is quite modest in comparison with the billions already invested in class-size reduction and other programs. But in reform, the key is to keep moving forward. And his accountability reforms should be low tech and low cost.

Most other proposals Davis outlined were familiar, either already before the Legislature or outlined in his campaign. They include passage of a new assault weapons ban, which would reverse a Wilson veto, and opposition to any further offshore oil drilling. These and other measures deserve quick action in the Legislature.

To his credit, Davis paid attention to several long-range problems. He ordered Cabinet officials to speed up the backlogged construction of new transportation projects and appointed task forces to study the state’s infrastructure requirements and the need for more affordable housing and for reform of health care financing.

It’s good that Davis will attempt to govern from the center, working to achieve consensus on major issues. But that does not reduce the need for strong leadership on his part. Davis seemed unnerved when some of his major education reform proposals received a tepid reception from lawmakers, but better to find out early the size of the job ahead of him.