Getting a Higher Education in Politics

Bertha Ruvalcaba sat across from the state senator and went down her list.

“We need after-school programs with academics and art and other things,” said the 35-year-old mother of three. “We need laptop computers that kids can take home.”

It was not Ruvalcaba’s first meeting with politicians on their turf. She was not afraid; with her that day were hundreds of other parents from one of the nation’s most successful community organizing campaigns, the Industrial Areas Foundation Network of Texas.

When they all left Austin last February, they took with them a guarantee for a $14-million check--the largest ever for the school-grant program that parents help run.

Foundation organizer Christine Stephens, a nun who began working with the group 22 years ago, said even she has been amazed by the parents’ power. Politicians, she said, laughing, “think they have to listen to us.”

But that is seldom the case across the nation.

In recent years, much political lip service has been given to increasing parent involvement at the school and school-board levels--and there are plenty of examples of where that has happened--but the effort rarely extends to state legislatures.

“The closest we come to parent representation is legislators with school-age children,” said Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino).

Occasionally there are glimmers of recognition that not including parents is a serious oversight, resulting in laws that do not work as intended--a test not aligned to what students are being taught, and the end to automatic promotions but without catch-up classes for those who failed.

Many ask: Has Sacramento forgotten who really is the customer?

Gov. Gray Davis is so concerned about the lack of parental participation in Sacramento that he told The Times he is considering interactive Internet sites with them in mind.

“I would like to see real parents up here testifying on legislation, but the realities that prevent them from participating with their [children’s] teachers keep them from coming up here. They have to go to work, cook meals and raise their kids,” he said. And besides, he added, “Sacramento is like an armed camp, ringed with people that know how to work the system. The average taxpaying citizen has very little chance up here.”

During public hearings for the governor’s nine-week special session on education last year, not a single parent testified--not when their children were consigned to a do-or-die graduation test, not when decisions about what counts most in judging schools were made, not even when parents nearly got cut out of the improvement teams at failing schools.

*

When state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) shoe-horned a larger role for parents into a bill requiring review of troubled schools’ performance, he said: “Of all the folks that have an interest . . . apart from the kids themselves, there are no greater stakeholders than the parents. The parent ought not to be the last to have their opinion considered, but . . . among the first.”

The shift of power from local districts to Sacramento caused by Proposition 13 made it more important--and harder--for parents to get involved in state-level policy discussions that directly affect their children.

In a 1997 Times education survey, parents statewide proved to be independent thinkers, siding with teachers on some issues and not on others.

* Parents were somewhat more likely than other adults to say schools are improving, but only about half as likely as teachers.

* They were more likely than either teachers or the general public to say that classes were too large and to favor publicly funded vouchers for private school.

* They were more likely than the public to bemoan the proliferation of uncredentialed teachers in the classroom.

California has taken baby steps toward involving parents in state decision-making, and some believe that it’s only a matter of time before things change dramatically. The Parent Teacher Student Assn. opened a lobbying office in the capital last year, although its lobbyists are all volunteers. On another front, parents empowered at the school level are starting to find their way to Sacramento when legislation that affects them arises.

Yet when parents make it to the Capitol, their reception is less than warm. They take time off work only to find hearings canceled without warning, public testimony unwanted because a deal has already been cut privately and politicians rushed and even rude.

Parents are busy. When a group of Latino parents from the Bay Area was bused to Sacramento to speak against the confirmation of Orange County lawmaker Marian Bergeson to the state Board of Education last fall, several began their testimony by mentioning how hard it was to leave home at 5 a.m. with sleepy toddlers in tow.

If parents find time to get involved in education, it’s generally closer to home--first in the classrooms, then in school governance and sometimes in school board meetings.

Moreover, parents find that much of the school reform debate leaves them cold. John McDonald, a public relations consultant with years of experience representing Los Angeles education reform groups, counts himself among the confused.

“There’s no connection between Sacramento and reality,” he said. “As a parent, even one who watches this stuff, it’s hard to know what’s going on.”