Preserving Educational Excellence

Recent developments suggest that voters in Irvine have a simple choice on April 11, when they hold a special election to consider Measure A, a flat $95-per-parcel tax to support the Irvine Unified School District. The question is this: Is it worth roughly the cost each week of a gallon of gas at current prices to maintain one of the best public school systems in the state and nation?

We have supported previous attempts to pass the tax, provided that a proper mechanism remains to audit the spending, and we affirm that support again.

Newsweek magazine last month published a ranking of the nation’s high schools that assessed their commitment to excellence. It was a listing of how high schools challenge students by involving them in advanced-placement courses. At No. 22 was Irvine’s University High School, a relatively young campus keeping company in the top 25 with such traditional giants as Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, N.Y., the new hometown of the Clintons.

But this has been a roller-coaster time for Irvine schools. Three weeks earlier, district trustees were forced to dim the lights on the promise to future generations. In one sweeping cut, they voted to lop $5 million off next year’s district budget and send layoff notices to many teachers.

School excellence is a dynamic and fluid proposition. This year’s accolades display the fruit of previous years’ commitments; but next year’s retrenchment can have adverse consequences down the road. What lies ahead can only be imagined, but it did not take long after the cuts were announced to see the likely impact. University High School’s principal had to notify 17 teachers of possible layoffs.

The foundation for a commitment to excellence at a high school begins early on. Other schools will feel the pinch of lost faculty and dismantled enriched arts, music and science programs, along with increased class sizes and reduced support staff, such as counselors and librarians.

The parcel-tax issue has been around for a while; it’s an attempt to remedy an inequity in the state funding formula that has left Irvine with a level of state support set when it was an agricultural community in the early 1970s.

Today, Irvine sets a standard for public education. Now that the concern of senior citizens has been addressed by granting them an exemption from the proposed parcel tax, there is but one other compelling question: whether the district is doing enough to get the state to properly recognize what Irvine has become, not what it was. The answer seems to be yes, the district is making a good-faith lobbying effort. But having the district mount an effective campaign in Sacramento will not save full-time teaching jobs for next year. The case is clear that something needs to be done for the short term.

By now, the parcel tax has garnered broad support in the community’s leadership. If Irvine wants to keep the standard of public education raised high, it should be encouraged to do so. Voters should give their assent to Measure A, the parcel tax.