Bills Would Hand Control Over Schools to Governor, Fund Early Education

State lawmakers unveiled legislation Tuesday to make full-day kindergarten compulsory, set up a system of voluntary state-funded preschools and shift authority over public school operations from the elected superintendent of public instruction to the governor’s office.

The bills represent the first in a package of proposed laws that are being drafted to implement the new California Master Plan on Education.

Completed in August by a joint Senate-Assembly committee, the plan proposes to revamp public education from top to bottom, cleaning up fractured lines of authority, better linking high schools and colleges, and changing some funding formulas.

“We are doing more than just tinkering around the edges of the education system,” state Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), chairwoman of the committee, said at a news conference Tuesday. “We are addressing the whole system of education in a way that puts children first.”

The two bills introduced Monday, however, do not appropriate money for key goals such as state-supported preschools for all. And some, like the proposed change in the state superintendent’s powers, face strong opposition from teachers unions and other groups.

Alpert conceded that the projected $21.1-billion shortage in the state budget in the next 18 months means the plan probably will get no funds this year and possibly none until the fiscal crisis is resolved. The governor is studying the possibility of “recapturing” as much as $1.9 billion in education spending -- the amount by which the budget exceeds the required support to public education under voter-approved Proposition 98, a state initiative that mandates a certain level of education funding.

“If you never have the vision, if you never put the idea out there, then you never begin to take the steps that make it happen and 20 years down the road, we would all be in this room ... saying the same thing all over again,” Alpert said.

As future budgets permit, preschool programs would be set up first for students heading into the lowest-performing schools, Alpert said. She said the plan is for the state to supplement efforts, such as that in L.A. County, to use Proposition 10 money from tobacco taxes for preschool expansions.

Alpert also conceded that she had no idea what Gov. Gray Davis thinks of the proposal to place public schools’ management directly under his office.

Alpert said that although high-level Davis staff members, including Education Secretary Kerry Mazzoni, knew of the commission’s work during the past 3 1/2 years, Davis’ office had not “shown any particular interest” in changing the superintendent’s duties.

A spokeswoman for Davis said the governor often does not weigh in on bills, preferring to “watch and see what comes from the Legislature.”

The proposal would dramatically shift school governance by removing about 1,350 workers from the supervision of the superintendent and placing them instead under a Cabinet-level position. The state Board of Education, which sets statewide education policy, would become an advisory board and its staff would be absorbed by the Cabinet department, said Stephen Blake, chief consultant for the joint committee.

The superintendent of instruction would remain an elective officer overseeing about 250 people who currently manage academic accountability, Blake said.

Pete Mehas, Fresno County superintendent of schools, said the changes would fix a “fundamentally broken” system that creates mixed messages in the field with directives currently coming from the board, the state superintendent and the governor.

“We don’t know who to listen to,” Mehas said.

Delaine Eastin, the current superintendent, said she opposes the change because the school system needs one officer focused on all its operations.

Other powerful groups, including the Assn. of California School Administrators and the California Teachers Assn., also oppose the change, saying it would waste money.

The master plan also would create a California Education Commission to take over planning, coordination and data gathering for all levels from pre-kindergarten through college.

The missions of the University of California and California State University systems remain largely untouched, but the community college system would be recast somewhat, giving its board more independence. Community colleges also would be allowed to provide some third- and fourth-year classes in cooperation with universities.

Alpert said seven more bills would be introduced soon. Among them is a proposed state constitutional amendment allowing districts to supplement state funds with property tax increases. Other bills will incorporate such proposals as eliminating multitrack year-round schedules, setting new standards for school facilities and designing a new funding model with block grants for disadvantaged schools.

Another future bill is expected to propose the elimination of emergency teaching permits by placing all non-credentialed teachers in pre-intern programs and eventually phasing out such programs.

The master plan also recommends a permanent joint committee to pursue initiatives on including unifying separate elementary and secondary districts and reviewing the collective bargaining process.