Senate OKs Last 2 Bills in Reform Package

The last of Gov. Gray Davis’ school reforms, which include the state’s first graduation test and the nation’s only statewide teacher peer review system, exited the Legislature on Tuesday.

“When I called a special session just 60 days ago, the cynics snickered, people said that Davis wouldn’t stand up to his friends,” said Davis, who counts teachers unions among his top campaign contributors. “Once again, the cynics were wrong. We stood our ground.”

The package also creates a sweeping school accountability plan and expands the state’s focus on elementary school reading.

In gaining the final vote of the state Senate on Tuesday, the last two of the four reform bills were sent to the governor, who plans to sign them beginning next week. The first two bills received the Assembly’s final approval Monday.

The Senate also voted to close the special education session Friday. If the Assembly agrees, that will allow the legislation to take effect by summer.

Some Senate Republicans continued to criticize Davis on Tuesday for softening the bills to placate special interests. They charged that they were shut out of the process.

Democrats who handled the bills for the governor said that had not been the case.

Once signed, the bills begin their most important journey, traveling through the education bureaucracy that will largely determine how--and whether--they will work.

The University of California system must design teacher and administrator training components of the reading bill, and school districts must begin gearing up to negotiate an acceptable peer review system with teachers.

The state Department of Education will have the most authority of all, perhaps testing the already tenuous relationship between the governor and state Supt. of Schools Delaine Eastin.

Davis said he will count on Eastin and his appointees to the State Board of Education to preserve the bills’ intentions.

“Those people are not going to be party to watering down the bills,” he said. “If anything, they’re going to strengthen those bills.”