Jones Urges Smaller School Districts

In what he called a “simple but radical” education plan, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Jones on Wednesday proposed limiting all school districts in California to 30,000 students, setting up special academies to train teachers and streamlining state education functions.

Accomplishing Jones’ goal would require splitting the Los Angeles Unified School District, with its roughly 736,000 students, into at least 24 districts.

Speaking to the Commonwealth Club, Jones blamed problems in education on interference from Sacramento and Washington.

“More power has flowed to the state capitals and more power has flowed to our national capital, and the less effective our education system has become,” said Jones, California’s secretary of state. “What we have here is a state system that perpetuates failure.”

He said the solution was not to spend more money but to give authority to local schools through block grants from Washington and Sacramento--one of many parts of the plan that could be tough to implement.

Jones proposed increasing the power of educators by allowing each school to hire its own teachers, care for its own buildings and select its own educational methods. He also called for a cabinet-level education post in Sacramento and the elimination of the superintendent for public instruction and State Board of Education.

Block grants would be a major change in school financing and require sweeping changes in federal law. Restructuring various education departments and elective posts would require amending the state Constitution.

Jones’ proposal to raise standards for teachers comes at a time when the state faces an estimated shortage of 200,000 instructors in the coming years. His teacher academies could not make up that shortfall alone.

And his plan to limit districts to 30,000 students would require slicing up all major districts in the state through legislation in Sacramento.

Jones said he was not worried about getting the plan passed, citing a history of working with the Democrats who dominate the Legislature and with influential education groups that could be rattled by the reforms.

Noting that his wife is a public school teacher, Jones declared that “it is not politicians who have the answers on education ... it is the people who are in the classroom.”

The secretary of state took a swipe at the educational achievements of Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles and front-runner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

“The one thing that would have made a difference in the LAUSD is the one thing Dick promised to do as a candidate [for mayor] and failed to do as mayor--break up the LAUSD,” he said.

Jones said the school district is simply too large to work. He described it as having 900,000 students, although it actually has about 736,675.

Times staff writer Duke Helfand contributed to this report.