Davis’ Vision of Teaching Is a Shortsighted One

Say so long to the lovable schoolmarm. Wave bye to the career teacher who inspires two generations of one family. No more wise, grandfatherly type who always gets invited to homecoming by grateful former students--the kindly chap who instills pride and then proudly follows his pupils’ careers.

They’re not in Gov. Gray Davis’ vision of the new school for the 21st century.

The governor sees children being taught by short-timers--young college grads who feel a sense of societal obligation, briefly fulfill the duty and then move on to their real profession. A teaching career, he believes, is becoming a relic--going the way of doctor house calls.

Here’s how Davis put it Tuesday as he talked to the Sacramento Press Club about attracting new teachers:

“I’m trying to change the conversation on this topic because there’s no way we can offer the kind of compensation that, say, a 23-year-old . . . can command from the Silicon Valley. . . . I’m trying to tap into idealism . . . make teaching a selfless act of patriotism, something young people . . . will do at least for a limited period of time.

“So why do I say that? Because the world is changing so rapidly it is unrealistic of us to think that people will enter the teaching profession and stay there 40 years. That was the model we grew up with and we tend to want to see it repeated, but that is not what’s happening in the real world. If we can get someone to devote four years of their life we will have accomplished something very significant.”

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That is why Davis is proposing roughly $135 million in new teacher incentives--bonuses and scholarships--mainly for working in low-performing schools.

“But no matter how much money we dangle in front of people,” he said, “we still have to depend on their viewing teaching . . . as part of their duty.”

He stressed, “There’s no way the taxpayers will give us enough money to allow teaching to become compensated in a way that is comparable to equivalent jobs in the private sector.”

California teachers average $45,000 annually in jobs that generally require five years of college. The pay ranges from $28,000 for beginners to $60,000 for longtime teachers with master’s degrees.

Based on a new poll, Davis may well be right in his assessment of the taxpayers’ reluctance to dig deeper.

A survey by the Public Policy Institute of California finds voters almost evenly split over Proposition 26, a measure on the March 7 ballot to reduce the vote requirement for local school bonds from two-thirds to a simple majority. Prop. 26 is faring the worst in L.A. County--39% for, 49% against--where two controversial school construction projects have turned into embarrassing fiascoes.

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Davis may be on to something. But let’s hope not, and that he’s wrong about the future of teaching.

Teaching, like most occupations, requires years of experience to really excel. It’s not knowledge of a subject that’s most important; it’s the ability to impart that knowledge to students. This skill isn’t acquired overnight--or even fully in four years.

The governor acknowledged this in explaining why he’s asking that retirees be allowed to return to teaching without losing pension pay: “They are tried and true. They know precisely what to do in the classroom.”

Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction, says Davis’ Press Club remark was “very ill-considered. And I hope he will come to regret it--like when he said the Legislature is not an equal branch of government.” (Last summer, Davis opined that the Legislature’s job is “to implement my vision.”)

“It shows a lack of experience in schools and a lack of understanding of what great teachers do,” Eastin continues. “There’s a lot of sound bite stuff.”

There’s a sound of defeatism.

If the former Army captain really does believe, as he said in his State of the State Address, that “the war on mediocrity in our public schools [is] our generation’s call to arms,” then he should commit more money. If the public is leery of spending more, then it’s a governor’s duty to lead. Blessed with a budget surplus of $3 billion, Davis offered only $257 million more for schools than legally required.

Sure, offer incentives for new teachers. But also provide incentives for good ones to make it a career.

California’s children need to be taught by proud, experienced professionals--not short-timers just passing through, thinking of themselves as Peace Corps volunteers working with Third World waifs.